Href Lang & Canonical Tags

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I have 2 issues appearing on my site audit, for a number of pages. I don't think I actually have an issue but just want to make sure.

Using this page as an example - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/0-5-l-capacity-round-safety-can-149p210

The errors I get are:

1. Conflicting hreflang and rel=canonical  Canonical page points to a different language URL - when using href & canonicals, it states I need a self referential canonical .

The page above is a SKU page, so we include a canonical back to the original model page so we don't get lots of duplicate content issues.

Our canonical will point to - http://www.key.co.uk/en/key/justrite-round-safety-cans

2. No self referencing hreflang.

Are these big issues? I'd think the bigger issue would be if I add self referencing canonicals and end up with lots of duplicate content.

Any advice would be much appreciated

[davebuts]

Hi Becky,

The solution to your problem is to remove the hreflang tags from the canonicalized product pages.

Doing this will leave only your canonical URLs specifying hreflang - with these pages also having the self-referring canonical tag in place.

Leaving the canonical tag in place on the duplicate product pages will continue to solve your duplicate content issues - no need to specify hreflang there.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

David

[BeckyKey]

Ah, that makes complete sense thank you!