Repairing 2,300 broken hreflang clusters: int'l indexation +24pts

Repairing 2,300 broken hreflang clusters: int'l indexation +24pts

7-locale store. Return-tag audit across 16,100 alternate declarations.

Valid bidirectional ▓▓▓▓▓░░░░░ 48%
Missing return tag ▓▓▓▓░░░░░░ 39%
Pointing to 404/redirect ▓░░░░░░░░░ 13%

Google ignores the whole cluster when return tags break. We regenerated tags from a single source of truth.

Delta over 7 weeks:
— Valid bidirectional: 48% → 97%
— Correct-locale pages indexed: 61% → 85% (↑24pts)
— Wrong-locale impressions (es page shown to en): ↓ 71%

So what: hreflang is all-or-nothing per cluster. 13% broken targets were poisoning the other 87%. The fix was data hygiene, and the win showed up as fewer mismatched serves, not just more indexing.