Translated addresses at the edge
On this page
This page covers the search side of edge delivery. That path is built but not deployed: OPEN.
What a translated address gets#
- The right
langand text direction. - One canonical link that points to the page itself.
- A full set of hreflang links to every language version, plus a default. See hreflang.
- Links on the page, such as
/about, rewritten to the same language (/fr/about) when they point at pages. Files, forms and excluded areas are not rewritten.
Query strings are translated, but get no canonical and no hreflang, because the edge cannot know which parameters matter.
Source pages and reciprocity#
hreflang only counts when it is reciprocal. Translated pages list all languages. Your source pages get their links from the sitemap hint. You can instead turn on a setting that adds them to source pages as they stream through. It is off by default so that source pages stay exactly as your site sends them.
The sitemap hint#
The edge serves /rl-sitemap.xml. It is built from your own /sitemap.xml (or a sitemap index on the same host, at most 20 children). It leaves out pages that your robots rules block and areas that are excluded. Every page and every translated copy lists all language versions, plus a default.
It is a hint. It assumes every page can be translated. Add Sitemap: https://your-site.example/rl-sitemap.xml to your robots.txt and submit it in Search Console.
Robots rules#
- A path that your
robots.txtblocks for all crawlers gets no translated copy. It is served untouched. - Language folders need their own rules. A command in the repository prints the mirrored rules for each language folder. Paste them into your
robots.txt.
Pages marked noindex#
A page that your site marks noindex, by header or meta tag, is still translated, and the same robots signals are kept. But it gets no canonical and no hreflang, so nothing invites indexing. You can instead serve such pages untouched. Keep them out of your sitemap.
Pages with little translated text#
Below a minimum share of translated text, a page is served untouched as your original. It is marked, not cached, and its canonical points to the source page, so it is not indexed as a translation. See Thin pages.
What this does not promise#
Rankings, and a search-engine check of real output. Neither has been done: OPEN. Google's guide on localized versions was read on 2026-10-28. Re-check it every six months.