Check hreflang before a multilingual release

Use the procedure on a representative sample, keep the evidence, and record the next action.

Validate one language group end to end

• List equivalent live pages by language and region; exclude translations that do not serve the same content or user need.
• Use valid language-region codes. Include each page in its own alternate set and add a self-reference.
• Check reciprocity, HTTP status, redirects, canonical targets, and whether each language URL is crawlable and indexable.
• After deployment, recheck reciprocal hreflang in source and rendered HTML; monitor URL indexing and page/country traffic in available reports.

Primary sources

• Google Search Central · Localized versions
• Search Console · International Targeting report deprecation