fix(seo): canonical URLs on marketing pages + drop same-URL hreflang

src/app/(map)/map/layout.tsx

@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+import type { Metadata } from "next";
+
+// The map is a client component and syncs state (week/year) into the URL query
+// string, so set an explicit canonical here to consolidate those variants onto
+// the clean /map URL.
+export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/map" },
+};
+
 export default function MapLayout({
   children,
 }: Readonly<{

src/app/(marketing)/best-time/page.tsx

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ export async function generateMetadata(): Promise<Metadata> {
   return {
     title: t("metaTitle"),
     description: t("metaDescription"),
+    alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/best-time" },
   };
 }
 

src/app/(marketing)/features/categories/page.tsx

@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import { getTranslations } from "next-intl/server";
 import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/categories" },
   title: "11 Destination Categories — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "Ski, beach, city, island, safari, desert, tropical, lake, nature, cultural, and mountain — each category has tuned peak and off-peak capacity.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/crowdedness/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor, crowdCssGradient } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/crowdedness" },
   title: "Crowdedness, Not Traffic — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "PackedPlaces measures congestion relative to capacity, not raw visitor numbers. A packed ski village scores higher than a busy metropolis.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/events/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/events" },
   title: "50+ Major Events — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Oktoberfest, Carnival, Grand Slams, and more — major events that drive millions of visitors are tracked and shown on the map.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/holiday-boost/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/holiday-boost" },
   title: "Holiday Boost Effect — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "A 1.5x multiplier during school breaks captures the surge in travel demand when families hit the road.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/holiday-providers/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/holiday-providers" },
   title: "Multi-Provider Holidays — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "Three cascading providers — manual, OpenHolidaysAPI, and date-holidays — ensure global school holiday coverage for 127 regions.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/seasonality/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/seasonality" },
   title: "Weather-Aware Seasonality — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "Each destination has month-by-month peak season data reflecting real-world weather conditions — monsoons, dry seasons, extreme heat, and polar winters.",

src/app/(marketing)/features/timeline/page.tsx

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ import { FeaturePageShell } from "@/components/features/FeaturePageShell";
 import { crowdColor } from "@/lib/crowd-palette";
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com/features/timeline" },
   title: "Week-by-Week Timeline — PackedPlaces.com",
   description:
     "Scrub or animate through every week of the year to see crowdedness shift in real time across 700+ destinations.",

src/app/(marketing)/page.tsx

@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ const webAppJsonLd = {
 
 export const metadata: Metadata = {
   title: "PackedPlaces.com — See How Crowded Travel Destinations Really Get",
+  alternates: { canonical: "https://packedplaces.com" },
 };
 
 /* Dot-grid world map — small circles placed at land positions (equirectangular, viewBox 0 0 100 50) */

src/app/sitemap.ts

@@ -1,23 +1,17 @@
 import type { MetadataRoute } from "next";
-import { locales } from "@/i18n/config";
 import { allDestinationSlugs, hreflangSlugMap } from "@/lib/destinations";
 
 const BASE_URL = "https://packedplaces.com";
 
-function langAlternates(path: string) {
-  const url = path ? `${BASE_URL}/${path}` : BASE_URL;
-  return {
-    languages: Object.fromEntries([
-      ...locales.map((l) => [l, url]),
-      ["x-default", url],
-    ]),
-  };
-}
-
-/** hreflang cluster for a destination slug (German exonym slugs get their own de URL). */
+/**
+ * hreflang cluster for a destination slug. Only destinations with a German
+ * exonym slug have genuinely distinct per-language URLs; those get a de/en
+ * cluster. Everything else is served from a single URL in every language, so
+ * emitting same-URL alternates would signal nothing — return undefined instead.
+ */
 function destinationAlternates(slug: string) {
   const map = hreflangSlugMap(slug);
-  if (!map) return langAlternates(`destination/${slug}`);
+  if (!map) return undefined;
   return {
     languages: Object.fromEntries(
       Object.entries(map).map(([lang, s]) => [lang, `${BASE_URL}/destination/${s}`]),
@@ -39,12 +33,13 @@ const PATHS = [
 ];
 
 export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
+  // Static pages are served from a single URL in every language (locale is
+  // negotiated, not path-prefixed), so they carry no hreflang alternates.
   const staticEntries = PATHS.map(({ path, changeFrequency, priority }) => ({
     url: path ? `${BASE_URL}/${path}` : BASE_URL,
     lastModified: new Date(),
     changeFrequency,
     priority,
-    alternates: langAlternates(path),
   }));
 
   const destinationEntries = allDestinationSlugs().map((slug) => {