Hreflang implementation via sitemap - don’t need canonical tags?

[MMcCalden]

Hi,

Quick easy question here I hope!

An international site has hreflang and canonical tags in page head sections and also hreflang in the sitemap so I can see one version needs removing. The head section versions are relative URLs and need updating so think we will keep the sitemap hreflangs instead.

If the sitemap implementation is going to be used (sitemap auto-updates when changes are made to pages so seems easier to do this way) am I right in thinking No canonical tags are needed at all (and can safely  be removed from head section too?).  Pretty sure links included in sitemap are assumed to be canonicals, or any issues with this approach?  Will be using x-default for the default language version of homepage too.

[victor.celer]

No, you shouldn't remove the canonicals. They are useful to avoid impacting the SEO due to duplicate contents (multiple URLs resolving to the same content).

[MMcCalden]

Is that the case even if they’re relative URLs that have been set up as the canonical links? This is why I was going to remove them as the hreflangs are  all in the sitemap. Is it just the hreflangs that have to go in a single location and canonical tags could be left in head?

thanks!

[victor.celer]

A search engine can discover the pages not only through the sitemap. External links can have different formats and the webmaster doesn't control them. That's why the canonicals are always recommended.