SEO with localePrefix: 'never'

[andrewLapshov]

Hello! I have some SEO questions.
If I set localePrefix to 'never':

1. Which link should I specify in the url field of the sitemap (e.g., https://test.com/example)?
2. Which links should I include in the alternates section of the sitemap (e.g., https://test.com/example as well or not use alternates)?
3. Which link should I set as the canonical URL in the page metadata (e.g., https://test.com/example as well)?

[Adebesin-Cell]

From the next-intl docs about localePrefix: 'never':

If you’d like to provide a locale to next-intl, e.g. based on user settings, you can consider setting up next-intl without i18n routing. This way, you don’t need to use the routing integration in the first place.

However, you can also configure the middleware to never show a locale prefix in the URL…

In this case, requests for all locales will be rewritten to have the locale only prefixed internally…

Alternate links are disabled in this mode since URLs might not be unique per locale. Due to this, consider including these yourself, or set up a sitemap that links localized pages via alternates.

What that means for your SEO questions:

1. Sitemap <url> – Since all locales share one URL, just list the prefix-less version once:

   https://test.com/example
   

2. Alternates (hreflang) – next-intl disables them automatically in this mode because URLs aren’t unique per locale.

   • If you want them, you can add them manually, but they will all point to the same URL.

   • Example (optional):

     <link rel="alternate" href="https://test.com/example" hreflang="en" />
     <link rel="alternate" href="https://test.com/example" hreflang="fr" />
     <link rel="alternate" href="https://test.com/example" hreflang="x-default" />

3. Canonical URL – Set it to the same prefix-less URL:

   <link rel="canonical" href="https://test.com/example" />

Summary: With localePrefix: 'never', you have one canonical URL for all languages. Sitemap and canonical should point to that, and alternates are off by default unless you add them yourself.

[andrewLapshov]

Thank you for answer!

[issaballaa336-sys]

If you set localePrefix: 'never', that means your URLs will not include locale codes (like /en/ or /fr/).

Sitemap URL field → Just use the clean URL without any locale, e.g. https://test.com/example.

Alternates in sitemap → Since you’re not prefixing locales, you don’t need alternates for each language. You can either skip the alternates section entirely, or only include if you still serve translated versions under the same URL.

Canonical URL → Use the same clean URL, e.g. https://roofing contractors canberra/
Basically, when localePrefix is set to "never", you treat one URL as the source of truth across all languages.