Hreflang for Webflow and Squarespace

Website builders have made multilingual sites more accessible, but their hreflang support ranges from solid to non-existent. Here's the current state of hreflang on the major platforms and what you can actually do about it.

Webflow

Webflow has the best hreflang story of the major no-code builders.

Built-in Localization (Recommended)

Webflow Localization, introduced in 2023, is a native feature for creating multilingual Webflow sites. When you add locales to your Webflow project:

• Webflow automatically generates <link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> tags for each locale
• Self-referencing tags are included
• The x-default tag is generated pointing to your primary locale
• URL structure uses subdirectories (e.g., /fr/, /de/) by default

This is the cleanest path. If you're on a Webflow plan that supports Localization, use it -- the hreflang output is correct and you don't need to manage it manually.

Custom Code Injection (Workaround)

If you can't use Webflow Localization, you can inject hreflang tags manually via Webflow's custom code feature:

1. Go to Project Settings > Custom Code
2. Add your hreflang tags in the Head Code section

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://yoursite.com/en/page/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://yoursite.com/fr/page/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://yoursite.com/en/page/" />

The problem with this approach on Webflow is that custom head code at the project level applies to every page -- but your hreflang URLs need to be page-specific. You'll need to add per-page custom code in each page's settings for accurate hreflang, which is manual and doesn't scale to large sites.

Squarespace

Squarespace's multilingual support is limited, and hreflang is not generated automatically in most configurations.

What Squarespace Offers

Squarespace doesn't have a native localization feature comparable to Webflow's. For multilingual sites, most users either:

• Maintain separate Squarespace sites for each language (separate domains or subdomains)
• Use a single site with a language selector page linking to different page collections

Neither approach generates hreflang tags automatically.

Custom Code Injection on Squarespace

Squarespace allows custom code injection in two places:

Site-wide (all pages): Settings > Advanced > Code Injection > Header

Per page: Page Settings > Advanced > Header code injection (available on Business and Commerce plans)

For hreflang, you need per-page injection since each page has different alternate URLs. Use the per-page option and manually add the correct hreflang tags for each page you want to target.

<!-- Add to each page's header code injection -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/about/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.fr/about/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/about/" />

Wix

Wix Multilingual is the most automated of the three platforms for hreflang.

When you enable Wix Multilingual and add languages to your site, Wix automatically:

• Creates language-specific URL versions (e.g., example.com/fr/about)
• Generates hreflang tags for all language variants
• Handles self-referencing tags and x-default

The quality of Wix's hreflang output has improved significantly. If you're using Wix Multilingual correctly (not just duplicating pages manually), the hreflang implementation should be correct without manual intervention.

The limitation is flexibility -- you're working within Wix's URL structure and locale mapping, and you can't customize the hreflang output directly.

Platform Comparison

The Honest Assessment

If international SEO is a serious priority, none of these platforms give you the same level of control as a custom-built site or a platform like WordPress with a dedicated hreflang plugin. The auto-generated hreflang on Webflow Localization and Wix Multilingual is reliable for most use cases, but you can't audit or customize the output easily.

For smaller multilingual sites where manual management is feasible, the custom code injection approach works -- it's just tedious. Generate your hreflang tags correctly first, then paste them into the right place on each page.

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