X-Default (Hreflang)

What Is X-Default?

Without x-default, you risk international users landing on an inappropriate language version of your website — leading to higher bounce rates and lost conversions. Especially for global websites with more than ten language versions, a clearly defined fallback is essential. Before every relaunch, check in Search Console whether Google correctly interprets your hreflang structure including x-default.

X-default is a special value in the hreflang attribute that defines the default version of a webpage for all users who can’t find a matching language version. If a website offers content in German, English, and French, the x-default hreflang tells Google: “If a user doesn’t have any of these three languages, show them this universal version.” The x-default is especially important for international websites to avoid unintended misdirections.

Technically, x-default works as a fallback mechanism: Google checks the user’s language for each search query and redirects to the appropriate language version. If the language isn’t available, Google uses the x-default version. The attribute is used in hreflang tags: <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="[https](/en/glossary/https/)://example.com/" />. An international website should always set x-default to prevent wrong language versions from appearing in the wrong SERPs.

In practice, x-default is essential for international SEO: a global website with 10+ language versions must have clear fallback rules. The x-default should point to the English or the company’s home language version. In Search Console, you can check whether Google has correctly interpreted the hreflang structure. Especially when relaunching international websites, the x-default structure should be double-checked before launch — otherwise you risk rankings appearing in unexpected SERPs.