Build output has canonical link linking to the same URL as another alternate link, leading to SEO issues

[WaldemarEnns]

Environment

❯ npx nuxi info
Working directory: /home/projects/github-q5ddsy                                17:08:17
Nuxt project info:                                                             17:08:17

------------------------------
- Operating System: Linux
- Node Version:     v18.20.3
- Nuxt Version:     3.13.1
- CLI Version:      3.13.1
- Nitro Version:    2.9.7
- Package Manager:  [email protected]
- Builder:          -
- User Config:      compatibilityDate, devtools, modules, pages, routeRules, i18n
- Runtime Modules:  @nuxtjs/[email protected]
- Build Modules:    -
------------------------------

                                                                               17:08:17
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👉 Read documentation: https://nuxt.com

Reproduction

Reproduction here:

https://stackblitz.com/edit/github-q5ddsy-62oh2a?file=.output%2Fpublic%2Findex.html

Summary: Using nuxt-i18n with a default language and a translated language

Describe the bug

Please check the output index.html at

• either live in your browser
• build the project with npx nuxt build --preset github_pages

Take a look at the auto-generated <link> elements, especially the rel="alternate" & red="canonical":

<link id="i18n-alt-en" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/en" hreflang="en">
<link id="i18n-alt-en-US" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com/en" hreflang="en-US">
<link id="i18n-alt-de" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com" hreflang="de">
<link id="i18n-alt-de-DE" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com" hreflang="de-DE">
<link id="i18n-xd" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com" hreflang="x-default">
<link id="i18n-can" rel="canonical" href="https://example.com">

Notice, that the same URL https://example.com is being referred to, from:

<link id="i18n-xd" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com" hreflang="x-default">
<link id="i18n-can" rel="canonical" href="https://example.com">
<link id="i18n-alt-de" rel="alternate" href="https://example.com" hreflang="de">

That leads in SEO indexing/crawling, to an issue:

• Bing Webmaster tools are complaining about the canonical link, referring to a link that is already marked as an alternative translation
• Google Search Console is complaining about the same issue

URL that I requested indexing for: https://waldemarenns.de/

Bing Webmaster Tools:

URL cannot be indexed by Bing
The URL is not indexable as the page is an alternate version of the similar page which you have specified as canonical version using a <link rel="canonical"> tag. Bing does not index the alternate version.
Canonical URL :https://waldemarenns.de/en

Screenshot:

Google Page Speed Insights:

Document does not have a valid rel=canonicalPoints to another `hreflang` location (https://waldemarenns.de/)

Screenshot:

Take a look: https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-waldemarenns-de/30jj8518lg?form_factor=desktop

ℹ️ Feel free to inspect my site that is mentioned.

Additional context

Refers to #2925

Logs

No response

[memic84]

We have the same issue. Just check the head of https://orakel.com/ and you'll see duplicate alternate link for the i18n Link.

[memic84]

@WaldemarEnns Why the confused emoji? Aren't you getting the same alternate links (href) on all the locales?

[BobbieGoede]

Sorry for the late response, was a bit swamped with other things, I'll be investigating this issue in the coming days.

[WaldemarEnns]

@memic84 I just wanted to express that I am struggling with the same issue 😀 Yes, I get the same results.

@BobbieGoede thanks!

[BobbieGoede]

@memic84 In your case I can see (based on the compiled code) that you're not using the latest release, so I can't exclude it already having been fixed.

Your issue differs from the that of @WaldemarEnns, and I can't reproduce your issue with their provided reproduction, could you open a new issue with a minimal reproduction preferably using the latest version? 🙏

[memic84]

@BobbieGoede Thank you for the quick check, and indeed i see that i have missed some releases from the last 2 weeks. If this still occurs, i'll open a new issue.

@WaldemarEnns Ah, didn't get the emoji :) seems after all a different issue.

[BobbieGoede]

@memic84 Also, make sure you have a baseUrl configured https://i18n.nuxtjs.org/docs/guide/seo#requirements, it seems to be unset currently.

[BobbieGoede]

@WaldemarEnns I'm getting the impression the issue is caused by the Bing/Google crawlers being redirected to .de/en while trying to view .de/ 🤔

[WaldemarEnns]

@WaldemarEnns I'm getting the impression the issue is caused by the Bing/Google crawlers being redirected to .de/en while trying to view .de/ 🤔

Are you sure? IMO the canonical and alternate link should both not exist at the same time and point to the same URL e.g. https://waldemarenns.de - or am I wrong?

[BobbieGoede]

The rules for meta tags are quite complex and the documentation is fragmented (I get lost every time I need to refresh my memory).

From what I understand the canonical link should point to the preferred (duplicate/original) URL for the current page, while alternate link should point to all alternates of the current page including the current page itself (see google video for reference at timestamp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ce9jv91beQ&t=588s).

Relevant docs:

• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions
• https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/canonicalization

[BobbieGoede]

Closing this, since so far I have only found documentation that point to canonical urls always needing to be self referencing and alternate links should specify all alternate variants of the current url including itself.

I am open to reconsidering this if other sources are provided that document against this, and otherwise I could figure out a workaround to filter unwanted entries.