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Google Clarifies That Hreflang Alternate URLs Aren't Indexed Like Regular Pages

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TLDR

Gary Illyes clarified that hreflang alternate URLs are stored as variants rather than indexed pages in the traditional sense.

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Optimixed's original report on this story.

SEOFOMO News reports that Google's Gary Illyes distinguished between how hreflang URLs are treated versus standard indexing: hreflang alternates are retained by Google as alternate URLs to the main page rather than indexed independently. This means the hreflang URL itself isn't what gets indexed—it functions as a reference to an alternative version of the primary page URL.

Topics:SEO News & Algorithm Updates
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