I have several multi-lingual websites on own engines - all contents and all articles are translated (by editors) into several languages. So, it was pretty easy to figure out how <head> meta tags should look via Google Webmaster answer, but still have few question and can't figure out the best way for it.
I'll specify how I did it and will ask where have doubts - maybe someone already has this knowledge.
Let's think for the case when we have one main language and few additional.
Also, there are short links which may look like https://domain/s/id for main language, or https://domain/ua/s/id for others.
Basically, main language is avoided in URL, and I take this as canonical and x-default, (but still get errors in GWM console that I don't have back links on some pages):
<link rel="canonical" href="https://domain/section/item-id/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://domain/section/item-id/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://domain/section/item-id/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="uk" href="https://domain/ua/section/item-id/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ru" href="https://domain/ru/section/item-id/">
And for RSS:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" type="application/rss+xml" title="" href="https://domain/rss/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="uk" type="application/rss+xml" title="" href="https://domain/ua/rss/">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="ru" type="application/rss+xml" title="" href="https://domain/ru/rss/">
Here I'm really unsure about some stuff and would highly appreciate a pro advice. So, get meta like this, for not main language:
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://domain/section/item-id/</guid>
<link>https://domain/ua/section/item-id/</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 29 Oct 2015 11:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
So, is it correct that all translations get the same URL as GUID when I have all those meta tags?
Can/should canonical URL be the short link?
Short links are shared into social networks, so it might increase counts. But engine redirects from short link to the full URL on visit.
This one goes a bit weird for me now, if you know what to do with those parts, would really appreciate:
canonical one). I've tried both short and full links in the feed and get zero anyway.pubDate is totally ignored, articles have the same date when Feedly fetched them first time via RSS.Thank you, would really appreciate the answers.
Seems like I got answers recently, mainly by Feedly team in Google Groups.
hreflang: all is fine, errors I get are for cases when full link has been changed, but old one is somewhere in Internet (and on my side when ID is correct, no redirect headers sent, for now).
Figured out the best way for GUID when article have multiple languages: should include language, as far as translated article has it's own url in this case and aggregators may be confused by same GUID for different links.
<guid isPermaLink="true">https://domain/ua/s/id/</guid>
<link>https://domain/ua/section/item-id/</link>
I will use a short link for GUID, mainly because it is the one is shared over most of social media. Also because full link actually may change (part of it generates from title).
As it was answered, all kinds of impressions are updated from time to time, and for new feeds may not even do so.
The pubDate is mostly ignored, because most of feeds somehow mess it up with a format. So, the date shown mainly will be the first fetch date, and then you can hover and see the published date. Lame, I'd say, but we have what we have.
P.S. Also plan to move further with Facebook Instant Articles, but it's another story :)