International SEO for markets

Markets includes built-in features that help your store follow international SEO best practices. When you configure markets with domains, languages, and localized content, the technical requirements that search engines expect from international stores are handled automatically, including hreflang tags, canonical URLs, sitemaps, and crawler access.

URL structure for international markets

The URL structure that you choose for your international markets affects how search engines perceive and rank your store in different regions. You can use subfolders, subdomains, or top-level domains for each market. To configure the domains for each of your markets, refer to managing international domains.

URL structure options for international markets, with example URLs, domain authority impact, setup effort, and best-fit scenarios.

Option	Example	Domain authority	Setup complexity	Best for
Subfolders	yourstore.com/fr/	Shared with primary domain	Lowest	Most stores
Subdomains	fr.yourstore.com	Independent	Medium	Clear market separation
Top-level domains	yourstore.fr	Independent, strongest local signal	Highest	Strong local presence in specific countries

Subfolders

Subfolders, such as yourstore.com/fr/, share domain authority with your primary domain. All the SEO value that your primary domain has accumulated also benefits your international subfolders.

Subfolders are recommended for most stores because:

• They're the easiest to set up and manage.
• No additional domain registration is required.
• Hreflang tags connect all subfolder versions automatically.

Subdomains

Subdomains, such as fr.yourstore.com, are treated as separate sites by some search engines. They build their own domain authority over time, which means that they start with less SEO value than subfolders.

Subdomains are useful when you need clear separation between markets. The benefits include:

• Clear separation between markets.
• Independent domain authority for each market.

Subdomains require DNS configuration for each subdomain.

Top-level domains

Top-level domains, such as yourstore.fr, provide the strongest local SEO signal for a specific country. Search engines treat country-code top-level domains as a strong indicator that the site is relevant to customers in that country.

Top-level domains are best for stores with a strong presence in specific countries and the resources to manage multiple domains. The benefits include:

• Strongest local SEO signal in the destination country.
• Independent domain authority for each country.
• Clear brand presence in each market.

Top-level domains require separate domain registration and management for each country.

Translated and localized content

Search engines reward unique, localized content. Translating your store content word-for-word is a good start, but adapting content for each market can improve your rankings further.

You can use the Translate & Adapt app to translate and adapt content for each market:

• Translated content: Translate your store into multiple languages. Translated pages are served at market-specific URLs, such as subfolders, subdomains, or top-level domains, giving search engines distinct content to index for each language.
• Adapted content: Create market-specific content that goes beyond translation. For example, you can adapt product descriptions, promotional text, or legal information for specific regions without changing the content in other markets.

Automatic hreflang tags

Hreflang tags tell search engines which version of a page to display to customers based on their language and region. Without hreflang tags, search engines might display the wrong language version of your store to customers, or flag your translated pages as duplicate content.

Hreflang tags are generated automatically based on your market and language configuration. When you assign a domain, subfolder, or subdomain to a market with a specific language, the appropriate hreflang tags are added to every page on your store.

For example, if you have:

• yourstore.com: English, United States
• yourstore.com/fr/: French, France
• yourstore.com/de/: German, Germany

Hreflang tags that reference all three versions are added to every page on your store, so search engines know which version to serve to which audience.

Automatic hreflang tag structure

Each hreflang tag includes a language code and an optional region code:

• en-us: English for the United States
• fr-fr: French for France
• de: German for all regions

An x-default hreflang tag also points to the page's URL for the market that contains your backup region, such as yourstore.com/products/shirt or yourstore.com/en-us/products/shirt, in that market's default language. This tells search engines which URL to display when no other hreflang tag matches the customer's language or region. Each language that's published in that market also has a language-only tag, such as en or fr, that points to that market's URL in that language.

Hreflang tag generation considerations

Review the following considerations for hreflang tag generation:

• Hreflang tags are generated only for markets that have a distinct domain, subdomain, or subfolder. If all your markets use the same URL with no language or region distinction, then there aren't any alternate versions to reference.
• Hreflang tags update automatically when you add, remove, or change market domain and language settings.
• On product pages, region-specific hreflang tags are generated only for the markets that include the product. To learn how the x-default tag works for these products, refer to products that are available in only some markets.

Turn off automatic hreflang tags

Note

Turning off automatic hreflang tags can negatively affect your store's SEO. Turn off this setting only if you have an alternative hreflang tag implementation in place.

Automatic hreflang tags are turned on by default for all stores. If you want to manage tags yourself, such as using a theme or an app that adds hreflang tags, then you can turn off automatic hreflang tags to avoid duplicates.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.

2. In the Social sharing image and SEO section, turn off Automatic hreflang tags.

3. Click Save.

If you turn off automatic hreflang tags, then you need to add your own hreflang tags to your theme.

Turn on automatic hreflang tags

You can reactivate automatic hreflang tags at any time. Before you do so, remove all custom tags from your store's theme and ensure that no new tags will be added through a custom theme or app.

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Preferences.

2. In the Social sharing image and SEO section, turn on Automatic hreflang tags.

3. Click Save.

Automatic canonical URLs

Canonical URLs tell search engines which version of a page is the primary version when multiple URLs serve similar content. This prevents duplicate content issues that can dilute your search rankings.

Canonical URLs are set automatically on all pages. When you have multiple market-specific versions of the same page, for example yourstore.com/products/shirt and yourstore.com/fr/products/shirt, each version has a self-referencing canonical URL and hreflang tags that connect all versions together.

This signals to search engines that these are related but distinct pages for different audiences, not duplicate content.

International sitemap generation

Sitemaps help search engines discover and index all the pages on your store. For international stores, sitemaps need to include all language and region-specific versions of each page.

Sitemaps are generated automatically and include all market-specific URLs. When you add a new market with a subfolder, subdomain, or separate domain, the sitemap is updated to include all pages for that market.

Each URL in the sitemap includes hreflang annotations so that search engines can understand the relationship between different language and region versions of the same page. To submit your sitemap to search engines, refer to finding and submitting your sitemap.

Products that are available in only some markets

You can use catalogs to make a product available in only some of your markets. For example, you might sell a product only in your international market and not in your domestic market. When each of these markets has its own domain, subdomain, or subfolder, each market's SEO features treat a product that the market doesn't include as unavailable:

• Product page: In a market that doesn't include the product, the product URL returns your store's 404 page to customers and to search engine crawlers.
• Sitemap: Each market's sitemap lists only the products that are available in that market.
• Canonical URL: The product page in each market has a self-referencing canonical URL. It doesn't point to the version of the page in another market.
• Hreflang tags: Region-specific hreflang tags aren't generated for markets that don't include the product. The x-default tag and the language-only tags, such as en or fr, point to the market that contains your backup region, or to your primary domain if that market doesn't have its own domain or subfolder. If the market for that URL doesn't include the product, then these tags point to a URL that returns your store's 404 page.

To have a product indexed only in the markets that sell it, include the product only in those markets' catalogs, and give each of those markets its own domain, subdomain, or subfolder. Search engines index only one version of a URL that several markets share. That's the version for the market that contains your backup region. If none of the markets on that URL contains your backup region, then Shopify picks one of them, and you can't choose which. A product that's available only in one of the other markets on that URL isn't indexed. Learn more about markets that use shared domains.

The seo.hidden metafield hides a product from search engines in all your markets, so you can't use it to hide a product in only some markets. To keep selling a product in a market but exclude that market's version of the page from search engines, you can add a conditional noindex metatag to your theme.

If your theme or an app adds its own hreflang tags, then make sure that those tags reference only the markets that include each product. To avoid duplicate tags, use either your own tags or the automatic hreflang tags, not both. Learn how to turn off automatic hreflang tags.

Search engine crawler access

Search engine crawlers need to access all versions of your store to index them properly. Redirecting crawlers based on location would cause them to index only one version of your store.

Automatic redirection applies to customers, but search engine crawlers are excluded. When a crawler visits your store, it receives the content for the URL that it requested, without being redirected to a different market version. This means that all versions of your store are indexed correctly.

When you've activated automatic redirection, your customers still receive it. Only known search engine crawlers are excluded.

To customize how crawlers access your store, you can edit your robots.txt.liquid file.