Connect PROGENCY's Arabic and English versions
PROGENCY currently uses unprefixed URLs for Arabic and an /en prefix for English. The current article route example is:
| Version | Page URL | Self-canonical |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | https://progency.net/blog/arabic-english-hreflang | The same Arabic URL |
| English | https://progency.net/en/blog/arabic-english-hreflang | The same English URL |
| x-default | The matching Arabic route | Uses the site's current default path |
These routes reflect the site's present locale routing and canonical helper, not a universal setup. Each version should canonicalize to itself; the English URL should not canonicalize to Arabic. A hreflang set should identify all equivalents, including each page itself. See Google's localized-versions documentation for supported annotation methods and reciprocal references.
Attribute example on both pages
This table specifies one canonical tag per page and the same reciprocal alternate set on both versions:
| Page | rel | hreflang | href |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | canonical | Not used | https://progency.net/blog/arabic-english-hreflang |
| English | canonical | Not used | https://progency.net/en/blog/arabic-english-hreflang |
| Both versions | alternate | ar | https://progency.net/blog/arabic-english-hreflang |
| Both versions | alternate | en | https://progency.net/en/blog/arabic-english-hreflang |
| Both versions | alternate | x-default | https://progency.net/blog/arabic-english-hreflang |
Save the response with curl --fail --silent https://progency.net/blog/arabic-english-hreflang, then repeat for /en/blog/arabic-english-hreflang. Inspect the rel, hreflang and href attributes in the HTML and open each target to verify a 200 response and the right content. Tags alone do not prove Google's indexing or acceptance.
Pre-publication checks
- Open both URLs and verify each is a real translation whose language switch reaches its counterpart, not the home page.
- Confirm each version references Arabic, English and itself with the correct language codes.
- Inspect each canonical: it should be an absolute public URL for that same version.
- Check the sitemap, internal links, response status and redirect chains.
- Verify the template's x-default target matches the intended default. On the current site it follows the Arabic route.
Do not annotate a page that is unavailable or not genuinely equivalent. Do not use canonical tags to collapse translated content onto one URL. After a routing or template change, test a sample of pages and articles and keep the tested URL list.
This review needs read access to the site and URL map, not customer records. Our SEO service can include a bilingual URL and template review before a migration.
