Hreflang across regional domains: a safe-move checklist
Cross-country setups fail quietly. Tags that look right in the template can still be ignored when a redirect, a canonical or a missing return link contradicts them.
ArchiLinks research team ·
Rule of thumb
Hreflang is a hint. Canonicals and redirects are stronger signals.
When they disagree, Google follows the stronger one. Audit in this order: status codes, canonical, then hreflang. Tags that point to a redirected or canonicalized URL are the commonest reason a variant gets ignored.
- Every hreflang URL returns 200 and is self-canonical.
- Return links exist: if A names B, B names A.
- x-default points to a page that works for everyone else.
Staggered launches
Teams often ask whether hreflang can go live on one site before the other. It can.
Google will simply ignore the tags until both sides confirm each other. No harm done. The order only postpones the benefit. Keep the first site's tags valid and do not publish partial sets that name URLs which do not exist yet. When you check sites backlinks across both domains, you also see which regional host the outside world already prefers, and that is useful evidence when you decide which URL becomes x-default.
Common contradictions
| Setup | What Google may do | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Canonical on /fr/ points to /en/ | Drops the French page from the cluster | Self-canonical on each language |
| hreflang URL redirects | Ignores that tag | Update tag to the final URL |
| noindex plus x-default | Treats the set as conflicting | Remove noindex from alternates |
| Root 301 to /uk/ removed later | Link equity may sit on a URL that no longer answers | Redirect or serve content at the root, then re-check links |
| Fake locale URLs with canonical and noindex | Mixed signals | Pick one: canonical to the real page, or noindex, not both |
Two cases from the field
Case one, written as an example and not as a client story: a retailer runs example.de and example.co.uk, with a 301 from the UK root to /uk/ added in January 2025. The team removes it in 2026 and asks how to keep link equity.
Pull toppages for both hosts first. If most outside links point at the root, the root must now serve a real page, with hreflang and a self-canonical, or redirect to the best regional match. Do the test with a script, keep the old rule in version control, and review the result after the next monthly refresh of our index.
Case two is smaller. A Blogger or Squarespace site moves to a custom domain. Redirect each old path one by one, because the first part of the URL changes while the slug often stays the same. Check the redirect map recipe for the test loop, and keep the old property verified in Search Console so you can watch coverage on both.
Running the check
Crawl both domains
Export hreflang, canonical and status code per URL. Any hreflang URL that is not a 200 is an error.
Compare linking domains
Run compare (up to 20 domains, 1 credit) on the regional hosts to see how their link bases differ.
Find shared linkers
Use intersect to see which sites link to several regional hosts. Those are candidates for pointing at the right regional URL.
Re-test after any redirect change
Changing a root redirect shifts which URL holds the links. Re-pull toppages and look again.
If a redirect from the root to a regional folder is removed, outside links aimed at the root now hit new content. Make sure that page is the one you want to rank, and keep an eye on the directory in the next monthly refresh. The redirect map recipe has the test loop.