Why Shopify Markets Makes Hreflang Control More Important
Shopify has introduced a new setting that allows merchants to turn off the platform’s automatically generated hreflang tags directly from the Shopify admin.
For most stores, automatic hreflang tags should remain enabled. Shopify’s default implementation is designed to connect the different regional and language versions configured through Shopify Markets, helping search engines understand which version of a page should appear for users in each location.
However, the ability to disable these tags is an important development for more complex international Shopify stores. It gives developers and SEO teams the flexibility to create their own hreflang implementation without Shopify simultaneously outputting a second, potentially conflicting set of tags. Previously, merchants requiring this level of control generally needed assistance from Shopify Support.
What do hreflang tags actually do?
Hreflang tags help search engines understand the relationship between different regional or language versions of a webpage.
Consider a Shopify store operating across Australia and the United States using separate market URLs:
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example.com.au -
example.com
The two websites may have similar products, branding and page structures, but they serve different audiences. Pricing, spelling, shipping information, promotions, product availability and customer expectations may also vary between the two markets.
Hreflang tags provide Google with a signal that these URLs are corresponding regional versions of the same page. An Australian product URL can be associated with the Australian market, while the equivalent US URL can be associated with users in the United States.
This makes it more likely that Google will display the appropriate regional URL rather than choosing one version for users across every market. Google specifically recommends hreflang annotations for websites operating similar English-language experiences across countries such as Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
It is important, however, not to treat hreflang as a directive that forces Google to index or rank every market URL. Hreflang is a signal. Google still evaluates factors such as canonical tags, internal linking, content similarity, site authority and the overall usefulness of each page.
Why would a Shopify store turn off automatic hreflang tags?
Shopify’s automatic implementation is suitable for the majority of Shopify Markets configurations. It generates hreflang tags based on the languages, domains, subdomains and subfolders assigned to each active market.
The new setting becomes useful when the required international structure sits outside Shopify’s standard implementation.
One common example is a business operating separate Shopify stores for different countries. A company might have an Australian Shopify store on one domain and a separate US Shopify store on another. Because these stores exist as separate Shopify instances, Shopify Markets cannot necessarily coordinate the relationship between every corresponding product, collection and content page.
A custom implementation can connect those equivalent pages across the separate stores.
There are also situations where an app or an existing theme customization is already generating hreflang tags. Allowing Shopify to output its automatic tags at the same time can create duplicate or contradictory annotations. The ability to disable Shopify’s output means the store can maintain one controlled source of hreflang information. Shopify itself identifies separate stores and duplicate tag output as reasons a merchant may need to manage hreflang manually.
This does not mean merchants should simply turn off the setting and expect an SEO improvement. Removing Shopify’s automatic tags without replacing them with a complete and technically correct implementation can damage an international SEO setup.
The value is in having the option to replace the default behaviour when a more deliberate implementation is required.
The opportunity for same-language Shopify markets
This setting is particularly relevant to brands operating in multiple countries that share the same primary language.
An Australian and US version of a Shopify store might initially contain almost identical content. The product names, descriptions, collection copy and navigation may all be the same, with only currency, availability or shipping information changing between markets.
Shopify can create separate market URLs and connect them through hreflang. However, if the actual page content remains virtually identical, Google may still have limited reason to rank both URLs independently for a broad range of searches.
Google uses canonicalisation to select a representative URL when it encounters pages containing substantially similar content. Correct self-referencing canonical tags and hreflang annotations help clarify the intended structure, but they do not automatically create meaningful search visibility for every regional version.
This is where international Shopify SEO needs to move beyond technical tags.
The long-term goal should be to create useful differences between the market experiences, giving each regional version a clearer reason to exist in search results.
Hreflang should be combined with market-specific content
Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app can be used for more than translating a store into another language. It can also adapt content for different markets that use the same language.
For example, a merchant could create different Australian and US versions of:
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Product descriptions
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Collection descriptions
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Promotional messaging
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Theme content
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Shipping information
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Sizing terminology
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Seasonal campaigns
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Regional spelling and vocabulary
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Legal or compliance information
Shopify specifically supports market-specific content through Translate & Adapt, including adaptations to product descriptions and promotional content without changing the equivalent content shown in other markets.
This does not mean rewriting every product description simply for the sake of making it different. Artificial changes that add no value to the customer are unlikely to create a meaningful SEO advantage.
The content should reflect genuine differences in how people shop, search and make purchasing decisions in each market.
An Australian collection page might use locally relevant terminology, delivery information and seasonal context. The US version might address different sizing conventions, shipping expectations or search language. A product may also be positioned differently depending on the competitors, customer priorities and level of product awareness within each country.
Over time, these differences can help Google understand that each market URL is not simply a duplicated storefront displaying another currency. It is a regional experience created for a distinct audience.
How much content needs to be different?
This is the difficult question, and there is no universal answer.
Google does not publish a percentage of content that must change before two regional pages are treated differently. There is no reliable rule stating that a merchant must rewrite 20 percent of every product description or customize a particular number of collections.
The right level of adaptation depends on the store, the competitiveness of the market, the similarity of the existing pages and the search opportunity available in each country.
For a large catalogue, rewriting every product immediately may not be commercially realistic. A more practical approach would be to begin with the pages that have the greatest organic search potential. These might include major collection pages, bestselling products, evergreen landing pages and products where search terminology differs significantly between countries.
The results can then be monitored through Google Search Console. Merchants can assess whether the regional URLs are being indexed, which queries they are appearing for, whether Google is selecting the intended canonical URLs and how performance differs between markets.
From there, the localization strategy can be expanded based on evidence rather than assumptions.
Like many areas of SEO, this is a process of implementation, measurement and refinement. Google intentionally does not disclose every weighting or threshold used within its search systems. If the exact criteria were publicly defined, they would be much easier to manipulate.
A useful change, but not an automatic SEO win
Shopify’s new hreflang setting is a small backend change with significant value for merchants running advanced international setups.
It removes a technical restriction and gives Shopify developers greater control over how market URLs are connected. This is especially useful for brands operating separate regional stores, using custom market architectures or already generating hreflang tags through a theme or app.
However, turning off automatic hreflang tags is not an SEO strategy by itself.
Hreflang helps Google understand which regional page should be shown to which audience. It does not guarantee that every version will be indexed, and it does not create unique ranking value where none exists.
The stronger strategy is to combine a technically correct hreflang implementation with separate market URLs, self-referencing canonical tags and genuinely useful market-specific content. Shopify Markets and Translate & Adapt now provide much of the underlying infrastructure required to do this within the Shopify ecosystem.
For international ecommerce brands, the opportunity is not simply to display the same website in another currency. It is to build regional storefronts that search engines and customers can recognise as meaningfully relevant to their market.