Fixing a “Duplicate Content” Nightmare: A Technical Hreflang Strategy
Client: A mid-sized Shopify Plus store in the “Fashion & Apparel” niche, expanding from the US to the UK and Canada.
Challenges We Faced
The client tried to go global, but their technical setup was a disaster, costing them sales:
Wrong Page Ranking
Their US site (/en-us/) was outranking their UK site (/en-gb/) in Google UK search results.
Duplicate Content
Google Search Console reported thousands of duplicate content issues between their US, UK, and Canada sites.
No Hreflang Tags
A Comprehensive International SEO Audit found a complete lack of hreflang tags to tell Google which site was for which country.
Poor International Traffic
Their international sites had almost no organic traffic, as Google was defaulting to the US version.
Low Conversion
UK users landing on the US site saw $ (dollars) and bounced.
Is Your Store Ranking in the Wrong Country?
“Are you losing sales because Google is confused? Our technical SEO for multi-country eCommerce websites will fix your hreflang errors and get the right site ranking.”
Our Approach – How We Solved These Challenges
Comprehensive International SEO Audit
We used Screaming Frog to crawl all site versions and map all equivalent URLs (e.g., the US “dresses” page to the UK “dresses” page).
Technical SEO (Hreflang)
This was the core. Our global e commerce seo services team implemented a dynamic hreflang tag strategy in their theme.liquid file, signaling the correct page for each language/country combination.
Google Search Console Setup
We submitted new XML sitemaps containing all the hreflang annotations to Google.
We used GSC’s “International Targeting” report to monitor for errors.
On-Page SEO (Localization) & UI/UX Analysis
We fixed the on-page UI/UX issues, ensuring the UK site showed £ (pounds) and the US site showed $ (dollars) by default.
Results
| Metric | Before | After | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSC Hreflang Tag Errors | 15,000+ “No Return Tag” Errors | 0 Errors | -100% |
| Organic Traffic (from google.co.uk) | 1,500/mo (to wrong US site) | 12,000/mo (to correct UK site) | +700% |
| Organic Revenue (from UK) | ~$2,000/mo | ~$2,000/mo | +1150% |
Free International SEO Audit
“Not sure if your hreflang tags are working? Claim a Free International SEO Audit and let our e-commerce category optimization company find your errors!”
Advice for Marketers & Brand Owners
- Hreflang & Site Structure is the foundation. If you have multiple country/language sites, hreflang tags are not optional.
- You must signal the correct page for the correct user. This prevents Google from getting confused and fixes “wrong page ranking” issues.
- Use Google Search Console’s “International Targeting” report to find and fix hreflang errors as soon as they appear.
Extra Factors That Made It Work
- A flawless hreflang implementation was the key to solving the duplicate content and “wrong page” ranking issues.
- Fixing the UI/UX (currency) was also critical for improving the conversion rate once the right traffic started to land.
- Using Geo-Specific Rank Trackers to monitor rankings in both google.com and google.co.uk.
