Hreflang implementation on Wix for multi-region targeting

Module 34: Multi-Language & RTL Website SEO on Wix | Lesson 399 of 687 | 52 min read

Hreflang is the HTML attribute that tells Google which language and regional variant a page targets. It is the single most important technical element of multi-language SEO, and mistakes in hreflang implementation are the number one cause of multi-language SEO failures. This lesson provides a deep technical walkthrough of hreflang, how Wix generates it, how to audit it, and how to fix common errors.

How Hreflang Works at a Technical Level

Hreflang is a link element placed in the HTML head of each page or in the HTTP headers. It tells Google that a specific page has alternate versions in other languages or for other regions. Every page in a language group must reference every other page in that group, including itself. This creates a bidirectional relationship that Google uses to serve the correct version to users based on their language and location.

Global network connections showing Wix multi-region hreflang targeting across languages — Correct hreflang implementation creates bidirectional relationships between language versions so Google serves the right page to each user.

A typical hreflang annotation looks like this: <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yoursite.com/page" /> paired with <link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://yoursite.com/fr/page" />. Both of these tags must appear on both the English and the French version of the page. If the French page references the English page but the English page does not reference the French page back, Google may ignore the hreflang entirely.

Hreflang Language and Region Codes

Language-only codes: en (English), fr (French), de (German), ar (Arabic), he (Hebrew), fa (Farsi/Persian), zh (Chinese)
Language plus region codes: en-GB (English for UK), en-US (English for US), fr-FR (French for France), fr-CA (French for Canada), ar-SA (Arabic for Saudi Arabia), ar-EG (Arabic for Egypt)
x-default: a special value that tells Google which page to show when no language variant matches the user, typically your primary language version or a language selector page
ISO 639-1 language codes: always use two-letter codes, not three-letter ISO 639-2 codes
ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 country codes: always use two-letter uppercase country codes after the language code

Common Hreflang Mistakes: Using incorrect codes like en-UK instead of en-GB (the correct ISO code for the United Kingdom is GB, not UK) is one of the most common hreflang errors. Similarly, using iw for Hebrew instead of he (the updated ISO 639-1 code) or using per for Farsi instead of fa will cause hreflang failures. Always verify your codes against the ISO standards.

How Wix Generates Hreflang Tags

When you use Wix Multilingual, hreflang tags are automatically generated for every translated page. Wix places them in the HTML head of each page and includes all language versions plus the x-default tag. This automation eliminates the most error-prone manual step of multi-language SEO. However, you must verify that the tags are correct, especially after adding new languages, deleting pages, or restructuring your site.

Auditing hreflang tags on your Wix site

Open your Wix site in a browser and navigate to a page that has been translated into multiple languages
Right-click and select View Page Source or use Ctrl+U to view the HTML source
Search the source code for hreflang to find all hreflang annotations
Verify that every language version of the page is listed in the hreflang tags
Confirm each hreflang tag has the correct language and region code
Check that the page includes a self-referencing hreflang tag pointing to itself
Verify the x-default tag points to your primary language version
Repeat this process for at least five different pages across your site to ensure consistency
Use the Hreflang Tag Testing Tool to batch validate all hreflang tags across your site

Hreflang for Same-Language, Different-Region Content

One of the most nuanced hreflang scenarios is when you have the same language but different regional content. For example, you might have English content tailored to the UK market and English content tailored to the US market. The products, pricing, spelling conventions, and cultural references differ, but the language is the same. In this case you need en-GB and en-US hreflang tags, plus an x-default for users who do not match either region.

en-GB and en-US: use when you have genuinely different content for each market, different pricing, spelling (colour vs color), legal requirements
en with no region: use when your English content is generic and not tailored to any specific English-speaking country
x-default pointing to en: appropriate when English is your fallback for any user whose language is not available
x-default pointing to a language selector page: appropriate when you want users to explicitly choose their language

Managing Hreflang at Scale on Wix

As your site grows to support many languages and hundreds of pages, hreflang management becomes a significant technical challenge. Each page in a five-language site needs five hreflang tags. Each page in a ten-language site needs ten. A site with 100 pages and 10 languages has 1,000 hreflang relationships to maintain. Wix handles this automatically, but you need a systematic approach to verify that everything remains correct over time.

Scaling hreflang verification

Run Screaming Frog on your site and use the Hreflang report to identify missing or incorrect tags across all pages
Set up a monthly hreflang audit using the Aleyda Solis Hreflang Tag Testing Tool
Check Google Search Console for hreflang errors in the International Targeting report
Create a spreadsheet mapping every page URL to its hreflang equivalents for manual verification
When adding new pages, verify hreflang tags are generated before moving on to the next page
When deleting pages, check that hreflang references to the deleted page are removed from all other language versions

Hreflang and Canonical Tags Working Together

Hreflang and canonical tags serve different purposes but must work in harmony. The canonical tag tells Google which version of a page is the master version for duplicate content purposes. Hreflang tells Google which version to serve for each language. A common mistake is setting all language versions to canonicalise to the primary language version. This effectively tells Google to ignore the translated versions. Each language version should have a self-referencing canonical tag pointing to itself.

Canonical Tag Rule: Every language version of a page should have a canonical tag pointing to its own URL, not to the primary language version. Wix Multilingual handles this correctly by default. If you are using any third-party tools or custom code that modifies canonical tags, verify they are not overriding the correct per-language canonicals.

Troubleshooting Hreflang Errors in Google Search Console

No return tags: the target page does not link back to the source page, check that both pages have bidirectional hreflang tags
Unknown language code: you have used an invalid ISO code, verify against ISO 639-1 for languages and ISO 3166-1 for countries
Hreflang and canonical conflict: a page canonical tag points to a different URL than the hreflang self-reference
Missing x-default: Google cannot determine which page to show as the default version
Hreflang pointing to non-indexable page: the target URL is blocked by robots.txt, returns a 404, or has a noindex tag
Inconsistent hreflang across pages: some pages have correct tags while others on the same site do not

This lesson on Hreflang implementation on Wix for multi-region targeting is part of Module 34: Multi-Language & RTL Website SEO on Wix in The Most Comprehensive Complete Wix SEO Course in the World (2026 Edition). Created by Michael Andrews, the UK's No.1 Wix SEO Expert with 14 years of hands-on experience, 750+ completed Wix SEO projects and 425+ verified five-star reviews.