Setting up hreflang correctly on a Wix multilingual site

Hreflang is the HTML attribute that tells Google which language and country each page is intended for, and which alternative versions exist in other languages. When implemented correctly, it prevents duplicate content issues between language versions and ensures Google serves the right version to users in each market. Wix Multilingual generates hreflang tags automatically, but you still need to understand what is being generated and how to verify it is working.

How Hreflang Works

Hreflang attributes are placed in the head section of each page. Each language version must reference all other versions, including itself, using the hreflang link element. A complete set for an English, French and German site would have three hreflang references on every page. The x-default tag indicates the fallback version for users who do not match any specific language variant.

Verifying Hreflang on Your Wix Multilingual Site

Steps to verify hreflang implementation

• Publish at least two language versions of your Wix site via the Wix Editor language selector.
• Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider and enter your site URL to begin a full crawl.
• In Screaming Frog, go to Reports > Hreflang to see all hreflang relationships across every page variant.
• Check that every language version references all other versions, including itself, in the hreflang set.
• Open Google Search Console and navigate to Settings > International Targeting (under Legacy tools and reports).
• Click the Language tab in International Targeting and review the hreflang error report for any flagged issues.
• For each error listed, identify whether it is a missing return tag, invalid language code, or non-indexable URL being referenced.
• Fix errors by correcting the underlying issue in Wix Multilingual settings or by ensuring all pages are published and indexable.
• Re-crawl after fixes and confirm no hreflang errors remain before investing in translation work.

Common Hreflang Errors on Wix Multilingual Sites

• Missing return tags: if the French page links to the English page but the English page does not link back, hreflang is broken
• Non-indexable pages referenced in hreflang: noindex pages should not appear in hreflang
• Incorrect language codes: use ISO 639-1 language codes (en, fr, de) and optional ISO 3166-1 country codes (en-gb, en-us)
• Missing x-default tag: always include x-default pointing to your primary language version
• Hreflang pointing to redirect chains: each URL in hreflang must be a canonical, non-redirecting URL

How to Verify Your Wix Hreflang Tags Are Working Correctly

After enabling Wix Multilingual, verifying that hreflang is implemented correctly across all language variants protects your international SEO investment.

How to verify hreflang implementation on your Wix multilingual site

• Publish at least two language versions of your site via the Wix Editor language selector so live pages exist for testing.
• Open a published translated page in your browser, right-click, and select View Page Source to inspect the head section.
• Look for link elements with rel="alternate" and hreflang attributes — confirm all language variants including x-default are listed.
• Open Screaming Frog SEO Spider and crawl your site URL, then navigate to Reports > Hreflang to see the full hreflang relationship map.
• Check that every language variant references all other variants including itself in the hreflang set — missing self-referential tags are a common error.
• Open Google Search Console at search.google.com/search-console and navigate to Settings > Legacy tools and reports > International Targeting.
• Click the Language tab to view Wix-generated hreflang errors detected by Google — note each error type and the affected URLs.
• For "no return tag" errors, check that the referenced language page also contains a reciprocal hreflang link back to the original page.
• For "unknown language tag" errors, verify your ISO 639-1 language codes are valid (en, fr, de) and your country codes are valid ISO 3166-1 (en-gb, en-us).
• Fix any errors by correcting the source issue in Wix Dashboard > Settings > Language & Region > Languages settings and republishing.
• After publishing corrections, re-crawl with Screaming Frog and recheck International Targeting in Search Console to confirm errors are resolved.
• Run a final URL Inspection on a sample translated page in Search Console to confirm Google reads the corrected hreflang annotations successfully.