Caveats when changing the default language to a different one

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Topic summary

A Shopify store was initially set with French as the default language. After completing the site, English content was placed at the root domain (.com) and French was moved to /fr-fr, while the store’s default language remains French.

Problem: In France, search results still surface the English version, suggesting the language/domain setup isn’t aligning with user locale expectations.

Key questions:

  • Would changing the store’s default language to English resolve search appearance issues in France?
  • What caveats come with switching the default language (e.g., impact on translations, URLs, or theme behavior)?
  • Could existing customizations be lost or altered by changing the default language?

Constraints: The store has numerous customizations, increasing risk sensitivity.

Status: Seeking practical advice and a list of issues others encountered; no resolution or confirmed best practice yet.

Summarized with AI on January 6. AI used: gpt-5.
1

Hi,

I have made a big mistake when creating my first Shopify store kumlai.com when I set the default language to French as it is my native language, with originally the French language on the .com

When I realized my mistake, the website was already finished and translated in English for various other markets.

So after researching a lot, I still have French as the default language, but in a .com/fr-fr folder and English on the .com and I thought that would solve my issue. But it doesn’t.

For example, when searching for the website in France, it pops up in English.

Do any of you have insight on this subject, and would you advise me to change the default language to English? Could it solve it? If yes, there are a number of caveats to this, did anyone do it and has their list of issues they encountered? I made a number of customization and am worried they will all be erased.

1 Like
5

Hi @gangoftheunicorn,

This isn’t caused by the default language setting itself. Google determines which language to show mainly through hreflang tags, canonical URLs, and indexing signals, not Shopify’s default language.

Changing the default language now is not recommended and usually does not fix this issue. It can also introduce theme or translation conflicts.

In most cases, the solution is to:

Verify that hreflang tags are correctly implemented between / (EN) and /fr-fr (FR)

Ensure French pages are fully localized and indexed in Google Search Console

Confirm canonicals and internal links point to the correct language versions

If you’d like a more precise diagnosis, you can share your store URL and grant collaborator access so the hreflang, canonicals, and indexing setup can be reviewed in detail.

Hope this helps.