Run a multilingual SEO review

Use this checklist before enabling discovery for a new language or after changing prefixes, slugs, exclusions, or SEO plugins.

Language and routing

• The base and additional locales are correct.
• Prefix behavior matches the language settings.
• Localized post and term slugs are unique.
• Direct requests return the intended object without a loop or 404.
• Pagination, archives, search, and hierarchical terms retain the locale.
• The <html lang> and dir attributes are correct.

Content and metadata

• Visible title, excerpt, body, and structured fields are reviewed.
• Taxonomy, menu, and WooCommerce text matches the locale.
• SEO title and meta description are translated where supported.
• Missing fields follow the intended fallback or exclusion policy.
• Machine-translated text has received human review.

Canonical and alternates

• Every indexable language route is self-canonical.
• Canonical URLs use the correct prefix, hierarchy, slug, pagination, and slash form.
• Hreflang links are reciprocal and return 200.
• Regional and short language codes are unambiguous.
• x-default points to the base locale.
• Excluded locales are absent from the alternate cluster.

Robots and sitemap

• The active SEO plugin applies the intended robots policy.
• Incomplete fallback routes are completed, excluded, or noindexed.
• /robots.txt and the sitemap index remain unprefixed.
• Sitemap main locations use the expected base URL.
• Rank Math alternates are present when Rank Math is active.
• Yoast post sitemap URLs are normalized and other providers are reviewed separately.

Operational checks

• Only one SEO plugin or theme component emits canonical metadata.
• Page, object, SEO, rewrite, and CDN caches have been refreshed.
• Browser-language detection does not prevent direct crawler access.
• Internal links and language selectors expose crawlable localized URLs.
• Open Graph locale and alternates are correct when Rank Math provides them.

Record one verified page, product, term, archive, and paginated route per locale. Re-run the affected sections whenever URL or language configuration changes.