Homepages that lose all hreflang after a platform switch, by new platform
| New platform | Lost all hreflang | Sites with hreflang before |
|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | 61.4% | 44 |
| Nuxt | 51.1% | 47 |
| Next.js | 39.3% | 366 |
| WordPress | 37.4% | 99 |
| Webflow | 31.1% | 45 |
| Shopify | 18.2% | 402 |
| All switchers | 31.6% | 1,113 |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Sept 2026. Rendered homepage hreflang, one month before vs one month after the switch. The WooCommerce, Nuxt and Webflow groups are small, so treat them as indicative; the all-switchers row includes platforms not listed separately.
Summary
Hreflang tags tell search engines which language or country version of a page to show to which searcher. On an international site they are what keeps the French page in French results and the UK page in UK results. They are also easy to leave behind in a migration, because they are often generated by a plugin, an app or a template setting.
We checked homepages before and after a platform switch. Of 1,113 top 1M homepages with rendered hreflang the month before the switch, 31.6% had none the month after. Small setups with only a tag or two vanish most often.
What we measured
We used HTTP Archive's monthly crawls of the top 1M sites from September 2024 to September 2026 to find platform switches. A site counts as a switcher when it ran on one platform for 3 or more months and then on a different platform for 3 or more months.
For each switcher we counted the hreflang tags in the rendered homepage, after JavaScript runs, one month before the switch and one month after. A homepage counts as losing hreflang when it had at least one tag before and none after. Switches between WordPress and WooCommerce were excluded, as they usually reflect a change in detection rather than a real move.
This is a homepage study, so it does not cover hreflang on inner pages or in XML sitemaps. Some destination groups are small, with 44 and 47 sites, so treat those results as indicative.
Almost a third of switchers lost all hreflang
Of the 1,113 top 1M homepages that had rendered hreflang the month before a platform switch, 31.6% had none at all the month after. For those sites, search engines lost the signal that links each language or country version of the homepage to the others.
Partial loss was rare. Only 3.1% of the 1,113 homepages kept fewer than half their tags. Hreflang tends to survive a migration whole or disappear completely, which fits a setup that is switched on or off by one plugin or setting. Many sites went the other way: 27.5% ended up with more tags than before. Among homepages with any hreflang, the median went from 4 tags before the switch to 6 after.
Popularity barely matters. 28.8% of 139 Top 100K homepages lost hreflang, against 32.0% of 974 ranked lower.
31.6%
Share of top 1M homepages with rendered hreflang the month before a platform switch that had none the month after.
Small hreflang setups vanish most often
Homepages with only a tag or two were by far the most likely to lose them all. 49.5% of 313 homepages with 1 or 2 hreflang tags had none after the switch. That falls to 33.1% of 378 homepages with 3 to 5 tags, then 16.0% of 293 with 6 to 15 and 19.4% of 129 with 16 or more.
A site with two language versions likely treats hreflang as a minor detail, and it can drop off the launch checklist. Sites with many markets are more likely to plan international SEO into the rebuild, though even there about one in five lost every tag.
Destination and origin both matter
Moves to WooCommerce (61.4% of 44) and Nuxt (51.1% of 47) dropped hreflang most often, though both groups are small. Moves to Next.js lost it 39.3% of the time across 366 sites and moves to WordPress 37.4% across 99. Moves to Shopify dropped it least, at 18.2% of 402.
The platform a site leaves shows a similar spread. 43.0% of 114 sites leaving Drupal and 39.1% of 215 leaving WordPress lost hreflang, against 16.0% of 75 leaving Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Drupal and WordPress sites often get hreflang from a translation module or plugin, and that setup likely does not carry over to a new platform on its own.
What this means for your site
If your site serves more than one language or country, add hreflang to the migration plan as its own line item, even if you only have two versions.
- Before the switch, crawl the old site and export every hreflang pair, including any in the XML sitemap.
- Decide how the new platform will output hreflang, and check that every page lists itself and all its alternates.
- Test the rendered staging site, since tags added by JavaScript only count if they appear after rendering.
- After launch, recrawl the homepage and the main language versions, and check that each alternate URL returns a 200 rather than a redirect.
Sources
- HTTP Archive monthly crawls of the top 1M sites, September 2024 to September 2026
- Google Search Central, localized versions of your pages: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions
Embed this research
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<iframe id="psm-migration-hreflang-loss" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/migration-hreflang-loss" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="Migration Hreflang Loss: 31.6% Drop It After Launch - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="migration-hreflang-loss"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-migration-hreflang-loss");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/migration-hreflang-loss">Migration Hreflang Loss: 31.6% Drop It After Launch - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How often do sites lose hreflang in a migration?
Of 1,113 top 1M homepages with rendered hreflang the month before a platform switch, 31.6% had none the month after. Only 3.1% kept some tags but lost more than half of them.
Which sites are most likely to lose hreflang?
Sites with small setups. 49.5% of homepages with 1 or 2 hreflang tags lost them all, against 16.0% of those with 6 to 15 tags and 19.4% of those with 16 or more.
Which platform migrations keep hreflang best?
Moves to Shopify dropped hreflang least, at 18.2% of 402 homepages. Moves to Next.js lost it 39.3% of the time and moves to WordPress 37.4%.
Hreflang is straightforward to rebuild when every language pair is exported before the switch and checked on the rendered new site. Need help with this? See our SEO migration services.