For a genuinely translated page pair, normally keep a canonical URL for each language and connect them with hreflang. Canonicals identify a preferred version of duplicate or very similar content. Hreflang identifies language or regional alternatives; the two signals do different jobs. 12
A simple Estonian–English pair
Suppose the Estonian article is /blogi/naited/ and its English translation is /en/blog/examples/. Language annotations should reference these actual equivalents. Each page should include itself and the other version using complete URLs. 1
Do not automatically point the English translation’s canonical to the Estonian original. That creates a conflicting signal when you want the translated article to appear separately.
Check the destination, not just the tags
Open both URLs directly. Does each return the intended language rather than a homepage or redirect? Does its canonical identify that version? Does the language switch lead to the equivalent article?
When a translation does not exist, do not invent a hreflang pair with a generic language homepage. A homepage fallback can be a navigation decision, but it is not a translation of the missing article.
Google makes the final canonical selection; the tag is a signal rather than a command. 2 For an important pair, check Search Console’s selected canonical as well as the page HTML.
Related reading
Check a page’s indexing status
