301 redirects, crawl errors, hreflang and robots.txt on Wix

Four technical issues account for the majority of SEO problems found on Wix sites during audits: broken redirects, crawl errors, missing hreflang for multilingual sites, and misconfigured robots.txt. Each of these can silently undermine your rankings by wasting crawl budget, losing link equity, serving wrong language versions, or blocking Google from important pages. This lesson provides a comprehensive guide to diagnosing and fixing all four issues on the Wix platform, with specific step-by-step processes for each.

301 Redirects: Preserving Link Equity

When you change a page URL, rename a page, or delete a page that had incoming links, you must set up a 301 (permanent) redirect. Without a redirect, all backlinks pointing to the old URL hit a 404 error and their ranking power is lost completely.

• A 301 redirect passes approximately 90-99% of the original page's link equity to the new URL.
• Without a redirect, backlink value from external sites is lost entirely.
• Internal links to the old URL will also break, creating poor user experience.
• Google keeps the old URL in its index until it discovers the 404 or redirect.
• Redirects should be permanent: use 301, not 302 (temporary).

Setting Up 301 Redirects in Wix

Complete redirect setup process

• Go to your Wix Dashboard > Marketing & SEO > SEO > URL Redirect Manager.
• Click "New Redirect" or "Add Single Redirect".
• In "Old URL", enter the old page path without your domain (e.g., /old-services-page).
• In "New URL", enter the new destination path (e.g., /services).
• Select "301 (Permanent)" as the redirect type.
• Click "Save".
• Test by visiting the full old URL in a browser. It should immediately redirect to the new URL.
• Check the redirect using an HTTP status checker tool to confirm a 301 status code.

Bulk Redirects for Site Migrations

If you are migrating from another platform to Wix or restructuring many URLs, you need bulk redirects.

Bulk redirect process

• Export all your current URLs from Google Search Console (Performance > Pages).
• Create a spreadsheet mapping each old URL to its new Wix URL.
• In Wix URL Redirect Manager, you can add redirects one by one or use bulk upload if available.
• For large migrations (100+ URLs), prioritise redirects by traffic and backlink value.
• Focus first on pages with the most organic traffic and external backlinks.
• After setting up all redirects, crawl the old URL list with Screaming Frog to verify every redirect works.
• Monitor Google Search Console for any remaining 404 errors in the first month after migration.

Redirect Chains and Loops

A redirect chain occurs when URL A redirects to URL B, which redirects to URL C. Each hop in the chain loses a small amount of link equity and wastes crawl budget.

• Maximum recommended chain length: 1 hop (A directly to the final destination).
• Every additional hop in the chain reduces link equity transfer.
• Redirect loops (A to B to A) prevent the page from loading entirely.
• Google may stop following chains after 5 hops.
• Fix chains by updating each redirect to point directly to the final destination.

Finding and fixing redirect chains

• Crawl your site with Screaming Frog.
• Check the Redirect Chains report under Response Codes > Redirect Chains.
• For each chain, identify the final destination URL.
• Update the Wix redirect to go directly from the original URL to the final destination.
• Re-crawl to verify the chain is resolved.

Finding and Fixing Crawl Errors

Crawl errors prevent Google from accessing and indexing your pages. Google Search Console is the primary tool for finding them.

Complete crawl error audit

• Go to Google Search Console > Indexing > Pages.
• Check the "Why pages aren't indexed" section for error categories.
• Click each error type to see affected URLs.
• For "Not found (404)": set up 301 redirects to relevant existing pages.
• For "Server error (5xx)": check if the page loads in a browser. Contact Wix support if server errors persist.
• For "Crawled - currently not indexed": improve content quality, add internal links, or check if the page has thin content.
• For "Discovered - currently not indexed": submit the URL for indexing via the URL Inspection tool.
• For "Blocked by robots.txt": check your robots.txt for unintended Disallow rules.
• After fixing issues, click "Validate Fix" next to each error category.
• Monitor weekly until all errors are resolved.

Understanding robots.txt on Wix

robots.txt tells search engine crawlers which parts of your site they should and should not crawl. Wix generates robots.txt automatically.

Checking and managing robots.txt

• View your robots.txt at: yourdomain.com/robots.txt.
• Wix automatically includes a sitemap reference and standard directives.
• In Wix, go to Marketing & SEO > SEO > robots.txt Editor to customize.
• Do NOT add Disallow rules for pages you want indexed.
• Common mistake: accidentally blocking /blog/ or /services/ with Disallow.
• If you see "Blocked by robots.txt" errors in GSC, check for overly broad Disallow rules.
• The robots.txt should always include: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

Hreflang for Multilingual Wix Sites

If your Wix site serves content in multiple languages or targets different countries, hreflang tags tell Google which language/country version to show to each user.

How Wix Handles Hreflang

• Wix Multilingual app adds hreflang tags automatically when you translate pages.
• Each page gets hreflang annotations pointing to all language versions.
• Wix creates separate URLs for each language (e.g., /en/page, /fr/page).
• The default language page gets hreflang="x-default" as the fallback.

Verifying Hreflang Implementation

Checking hreflang tags

• View the source code of a translated page and search for "hreflang".
• Each page should have link tags for every language version including itself.
• Check that hreflang values use correct language codes: "en" for English, "fr" for French, "de" for German, "es" for Spanish.
• For country-specific targeting, use language-country format: "en-gb" for UK English, "en-us" for US English.
• Verify bidirectional linking: if page A references page B, page B must reference page A.
• In Google Search Console, check Experience > International Targeting for any hreflang errors.
• Use a hreflang validation tool to check all pages at once.

Common Hreflang Mistakes

• Missing self-referencing hreflang (each page must reference itself).
• One-way references: page A points to page B but page B does not point back to page A.
• Wrong language codes: using "uk" instead of "en-gb" for UK English.
• Missing x-default for the fallback/default language version.
• Hreflang pointing to non-existent or redirected URLs.
• Not updating hreflang when adding or removing language versions.

Sitemap Management

Wix generates a sitemap automatically at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Review it regularly to ensure it includes all important pages and excludes pages you do not want indexed.

• Verify your sitemap is accessible at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
• Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console > Sitemaps.
• Check that all important pages are included in the sitemap.
• Pages set to "Hide from search engines" in Wix should not appear in the sitemap.
• After adding new pages or major changes, check the sitemap has updated.
• Wix sitemaps update automatically, but there can be a delay of up to 48 hours.

Complete Technical SEO Audit Checklist

Monthly technical SEO audit for Wix

• Check GSC Indexing > Pages for new crawl errors and fix them.
• Check GSC Enhancements for any new structured data errors.
• Verify all 301 redirects are still working (test a sample of 10).
• Check robots.txt for unintended changes.
• Verify sitemap is accessible and up to date.
• For multilingual sites, verify hreflang tags on a sample of pages.
• Run a quick Screaming Frog crawl to check for new 404s, redirect chains, or other issues.
• Check Core Web Vitals in GSC > Experience > Core Web Vitals for any new failing URLs.
• Review Mobile Usability in GSC for any new issues.
• Document all findings and fixes in your SEO audit log.