SEO: hreflang, slugs and sitemaps

hreflang

Every page carries hreflang links to its own translations, plus an x-default. That is how Google knows example.com/nl/diensten/ is the Dutch version of example.com/services/ rather than a separate thin page.

It is on by default and there is rarely a reason to turn it off.

Translated slugs

The URL segment is translated too, so the Dutch page is /nl/diensten/ rather than /nl/services/. It reads better and it ranks better.

Slugs can be translated automatically or left for you to fill in. Automatic is the sane default; a slug you set by hand is never overwritten.

Sitemaps

Each language gets its own sitemap, and the entries carry their hreflang alternates. If you use Yoast or Rank Math, WPGlotty adds to the sitemap they already generate rather than publishing a second, competing one.

Titles, descriptions and structured data

SEO metadata is on the rendered page, so it is translated with everything else: including the fields Yoast and Rank Math output, Open Graph tags, and JSON-LD.

Structured data is translated selectively: the text a person would read is, the identifiers and URLs are not.