: My site fails to do content negotiation with Googlebot using the Accept-Language header HTTP offers Content Negotiation (by reacting on the Accept-Language request header) to deliver translated representations

@Bryan171

In the Google's documentation you rely Google mentions to recommend to use separate URLs for each language version, considering sensitivity and error vulnerability of local adaptive setup.

Further, in this documentation, Google mentions


You can help Google determine the language correctly by using a single
language for content and navigation on each page
...
Keep the content for each language on separate URLs


If you stay with it come hell, you should rely on both of Accept Language AND geolocation to point visitors and Googlebot to correct language version. Because your troubles begin not with Accept-Language, but with its absence.

Googlebot comes not often with defined locale parameter, and you can't constrain it. If so, visitors of your site like Googlebot, without Accept-Language, get, as now, only english content served, not dependently of their location.

You should enrich your setup with the second check routine, for the visitor's location, somehow like this:

- visitor comes
- check 1: Accept-Language yes/no? If yes - serve matching content, if no:
- check 2: geolocate visitors IP-address.
If Germany/Austria/Swiss- serve german, if another country - server english.


But even with this setup you will be never sure and can never actively influence that Google indexes content in all languages. The most possible variant would be, that Google gets english content to 100%, and german... my bet for best case - 30%.

Your site has a handful of pages - make just unique URLs for each language and you haven't this headache.

PS: On answering your question found a cool tool for checking exactly the question's subject: technicalseo.com/seo-tools/locale-adaptive/.

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