# One site, three languages, zero duplicate-content problems

> This site answers in English, Hungarian and German — with localized URLs, symmetric hreflang and content that was written, not machine-translated. The build notes.

Multilingual SEO fails in a small number of predictable ways: all locales on the same URLs fighting each other, machine-translated slugs nobody searches, hreflang tags that point one way and not back, and thin translated pages that rank for nothing in any language. This site is built to avoid all four — here is the actual structure.

## Localized slugs, not just localized text

A Hungarian searching for a contact page types 'kapcsolat', not 'contact' — so /hu/kapcsolat exists and /hu/contact redirects. Slugs live in a route map per locale, because search terms are local even when the code is shared.

## Hreflang is symmetric or it is broken

Every page declares every locale's URL including its own, plus x-default — and the declarations are generated from the same route map the router uses, so the markup cannot drift from the routing. Hand-maintained hreflang goes stale on the second site update.

## Three written versions, not one translated

Each locale's copy is authored for its audience — formal Hungarian, Sie-form German — because translated-by-feel pages read like it and rank like it. The dictionaries are the same shape so the code does not care; the text inside them does.

## What to take away

- Localize the URL, not just the words — people search in their language.
- Generate hreflang from the route map or it drifts.
- x-default catches everyone else.
- Write each locale; do not translate-by-feel.

## Tags

i18n, hreflang, SEO, Localization

## We build this for clients

https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/services/web-performance

## More from the lab

- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/lab/ai-search-visibility-checklist.md — The AI-search visibility checklist we run on this site
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/lab/structured-data-aeo.md — Structured data an answer engine can use
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/lab/migration-without-loss.md — Move the site, keep the rankings
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/lab/eaa-accessibility-deadline.md — The EU accessibility deadline passed — what still applies

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Source: https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/lab/hreflang-trilingual-site
DField Solutions — Dunakeszi, Hungary — dezso@dfieldsolutions.com
Booking: see https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/contact