Shopify's New hreflang Switch and What It Means for International SEO
On July 10, Shopify added a setting to turn its automatic hreflang tags on or off. For most stores selling in more than one language or region, the right answer is to leave them on. But if you manage hreflang another way, or you're seeing duplicate tags, the new switch is useful. Below, we cover how Shopify builds the tags, how to decide, and how to check that they work.
Published Aug 19, 2026. Author: Ecomm Guys. 5 min read.
Key Points
- Shopify builds hreflang tags from your Markets domains, subfolders, and languages. It also adds an x-default tag that points to your primary domain.
- Tags are only created for markets with their own domain, subdomain, or subfolder. Markets that share one URL get no alternates.
- The automatic setting is on by default. Turn it off only if a theme, app, or custom setup already outputs hreflang.
- Google requires every version to list itself and every other version, with return links in both directions.
- Google decides a page's language from its visible content, so hreflang isn't a fix for partly translated pages.
What Changed
Hreflang tags tell search engines which language or regional version of a page to show to which searchers. Shopify generates them automatically from the language and domain settings in Markets. Since July 10, you can turn that off. The setting is in Online Store > Preferences, in the Social sharing and SEO section, and it stays on by default.
Shopify says the switch is for merchants who prefer to manage hreflang themselves and want to avoid duplicate tags. Its developer docs add a warning: adding your own tags on top of the automatic ones can produce duplicate or conflicting annotations that hurt rankings.
Shopify adds the tags through the content_for_header object in your theme's head, so they appear on every page. A market for one country gets a language and region code such as en-us or fr-ca, while a broader market gets a language-only code such as fr. Shopify also adds an x-default tag pointing to your primary domain for searchers who match none of the others.
The tags only appear for markets with a distinct domain, subdomain, or subfolder. If every market shares the same URL, there are no alternate versions to point to. Each version also gets a self-referencing canonical URL, and your sitemap includes every market's URLs with hreflang annotations. Known search engine crawlers are excluded from automatic redirection, so they can reach every version.
Pick the Right URL Structure First
Hreflang only works as well as the URLs behind it. Shopify's Help Center recommends subfolders, such as yourstore.com/fr/, for most stores, because they share the primary domain's authority and are easiest to manage. Subdomains give clearer separation but build authority on their own, and country domains give the strongest local signal but need separate registration and management.
Google's guidance points the same way: use different URLs for each language version rather than cookies or browser settings, and avoid redirecting people based on what you guess their language is. Googlebot usually crawls from the US and doesn't send a language preference, so content that changes by location can be missed.
Leave It On Unless You Have a Reason
For most stores, leave it on. Shopify keeps the tags in step with your configuration as you add or change markets, domains, or languages. That avoids the most common hreflang problem we see: tags that point to pages that no longer exist, or that don't point back.
Turning it off makes sense in a few cases, and only if you replace it with something that works:
- You run separate Shopify stores on different domains and need hreflang to link across them, which Shopify's docs name as a case Markets can't coordinate.
- Part of your site sits outside Shopify, such as a headless front end or a blog on another platform.
- An app or theme already outputs hreflang tags and you're seeing duplicates.
- You need tags that differ from your Markets setup for a specific reason, such as a fallback page.
Shopify's developer docs ask for tags built dynamically from the Liquid localization object. Product and collection handles can differ by language when you translate URL slugs, so a hardcoded handle will break. Each localized URL should also reference itself as its canonical. If you later switch the automatic setting back on, remove every custom tag first so you don't end up with two sets.
Google sets clear rules. Each version must list itself and every other version. URLs must be fully qualified, including https. If two pages don't point to each other, Google ignores the tags. Google also suggests an x-default tag for a fallback page and notes that it doesn't use hreflang or the HTML lang attribute to detect a page's language. It reads the visible content, so translate the main content as well as the menus.
To check, open a product page in each market and view the page source. Then confirm that the tags are inside the head, that they list every version including the current page, and that they match on the other versions. Do this for your homepage, a collection, and a product, then again after any change to Markets, domains, or languages. If you remove a market that used subfolders, its URLs return 404 errors, so import redirects for them.
Spot-Check Three Pages
Confirm the automatic setting is on unless you have a reason to manage hreflang yourself. Spot-check tags on three page types in each market, and if you see duplicates, find the app or theme code that adds them before you turn Shopify's version off.
Need help with international SEO on Shopify? Book a call with our team.
Sources
- Turn automatic hreflang tags on or off from your admin settings Shopify Changelog, July 2026
- International SEO for markets Shopify Help Center
- International domains Shopify Help Center
- Managing your store's languages Shopify Help Center
- Use hreflang tags in your theme Shopify Dev Docs
- Tell Google about localized versions of your page Google Search Central
- Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites Google Search Central