Currently I have a website with multiple domains, each domain for a specific language. However, I also have sub folders with each language. For example:
www.en_example.com/en
www.en_example.com/fr
www.fr_example.com/en
www.fr_example.com/fr
And of course the www.en_example.com/fr domain is the same content as www.fr_example.com/fr
The meta tags in the english site
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='en' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='en-ca' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.fr_example.ca/fr' hreflang='fr' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.fr_example.ca/fr' hreflang='fr-ca' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='x-default' />
<link rel='canonical' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' />
The meta tags in the french site
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='en' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='en-ca' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.fr_example.ca/fr' hreflang='fr' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.fr_example.ca/fr' hreflang='fr-ca' />
<link rel='alternate' href='https://www.en_example.ca/en' hreflang='x-default' />
<link rel='canonical' href='https://www.fr_example.ca/fr' />
When I test the URLs in the SEO tool, the domain language URL with the same locale to the domain, it works. But when I change the locale it fails. Example:
Testing FR:
https://www.fr_example.ca/fr -> It works
https://www.fr_example.ca/en -> Returns error: "Missing return link" & "Non-self-referencing canonical URL in HTML"
Testing EN:
https://www.en_example.ca/en-> It works
https://www.en_example.ca/fr -> Returns error: "Missing return link" & "Non-self-referencing canonical URL in HTML"
I tried adding the URLs to the language but it complains that there are duplicate tags with the same language.
Any ideas/suggestions? Am I missing some tags or am I doing it wrong?
Thanks!