Hreflang and canonical: the correct setup (and the #1 mistake that breaks indexing)
Hreflang tells Google which language/region version to show. Canonical tells Google which URL is the primary for indexing. If you mix them wrong (especially cross-language canonicals), Google ignores hreflang and collapses your cluster. Here is the minimal correct setup, common failure modes, and how to validate in Search Console.
MD
Mikhail Drozdov