feat(seo): language + canonical signals (per-locale <html lang>, x-default, fallback noindex)#110
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Restructure app/ into (en) and (zh) route groups, each with its own root
layout that owns <html lang>. Server-rendered HTML now correctly carries
lang="en" for /* and lang="zh" for /zh/*. Resolves the audit's P0 item
where Chinese pages were indexed as English because all routes inherited
<html lang="en"> from the single root layout.
Changes:
- app/(en)/layout.tsx and app/(zh)/layout.tsx as parallel root layouts.
Both own <html>, <body>, theme script, ThemeProvider, LanguageProvider
(with initialLanguage), header/footer.
- Old app/layout.tsx and app/zh/layout.tsx removed. Their metadata moved
into the new root layouts.
- All EN routes moved into app/(en)/. All ZH routes moved into
app/(zh)/zh/. sitemap.ts, robots.ts, globals.css stay at app/ root.
- LanguageProvider now receives initialLanguage from the layout so the
SSR pass renders the correct language without waiting for the client
effect to re-sync from URL.
Metadata fixes on every detail and index page:
- alternates.canonical set on every page with stable content.
- alternates.languages now includes x-default everywhere.
- Detail pages where essay/periodic/series lang doesn't match the URL
locale (the cross-language fallback / meta-refresh case) return
robots: { index: false, follow: true } so they don't dilute the index.
- ZH about page description: replace "杨飞同" with "Feitong Yang".
Tests:
- layout.test.ts now covers both root layouts and also asserts
metadataBase, x-default, and template/default structure.
- home-page.test.tsx import path updated for the move.
164 tests pass. Build OK under output: 'export'. Dev server smoke-tested:
EN routes serve <html lang="en">, ZH routes serve <html lang="zh"> in
the initial server HTML.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Summary
PR 3 of the SEO plan (
plan/docs/seo/order-of-operations.md). Lands the route-group restructure that was deferred from PR #109, plus the smaller per-page metadata fixes. Together these close the remaining P0/P1 items on language + canonical signals.The big change: route groups
Restructured
app/into two parallel root layouts via Next 14 route groups:The previous single root layout always rendered
<html lang="en">, so Chinese routes were being indexed as English — the audit's P0 #4. Now every ZH route ships<html lang="zh">in the server-rendered HTML, before any client JS runs.LanguageProvidertakesinitialLanguagefrom the layout so the React state is already correct on the SSR pass.Per-page metadata fixes
On every essay/periodic/series detail page (EN + ZH × 3 = 6 files) and every index page (EN + ZH × essays/periodics/series/about = 8 files):
alternates.canonicalexplicitly set everywhere.alternates.languages['x-default']added on every page. Points at the EN URL by convention.noindex, follow. When/essays/foo-zh/is hit (zh content at an en URL) — whether the page meta-refreshes to a translation or shows the "Content in Chinese" fallback — the metadata declaresrobots: { index: false }. Stops Google from indexing dozens of near-duplicate "wrong language" landing pages. Symmetric on the zh side.(zh)/zh/about/page.tsxdescription with "Feitong Yang" (consistent with the prior PR's branding decision).Tests
__tests__/layout.test.tsnow covers both root layouts viadescribe.each. Asserts default + template title structure, metadataBase, x-default hreflang.__tests__/home-page.test.tsximport path updated for the move.Verified in built output
/→<html lang="en">/zh/→<html lang="zh" data-language="zh">/essays/decision-game/→<html lang="en">with canonical + en/zh/x-default hreflang/zh/essays/decision-game-zh/→<html lang="zh">with canonical + en/zh/x-default/essays/decision-game-zh/(wrong-language URL with redirect) →<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">/essays/10k-code-zh/(wrong-language URL, no translation) →<meta name="robots" content="noindex, follow">/zh/essays/decision-game/(en content at zh URL) → noindex<title>, canonical, hreflang triple, article OG tagsDev server smoke-tested too: real SSR HTML carries the right
langper locale.Out of scope for this PR (per the plan)
next/ogor default brand card) — P1 item.www.feitong.phd.Notes
redirect()from'next/navigation'emits a meta-refresh shim underoutput: 'export'. The newnoindexensures crawlers don't index those intermediates regardless.Test plan
/essays/decision-game/(positive case — should validate) and/essays/10k-code-zh/(should show noindex correctly).en+zh+x-defaultand thatzh-only-at-en-urlpages are noindex.https://www.feitong.phd/zh/shows<html lang="zh">(the whole point of this PR).🤖 Generated with Claude Code