How Should I Structure URLs for a Multilingual Website?

Best Practices for Multi-Language Website URLs

The question of URL translation involves three distinct aspects:

Interface Translation: This pertains to translating the user interface elements such as menus and buttons.

Content Translation: This involves translating the content displayed on the website, including text, images, and videos.

URL Routing: This refers to the strategies employed to handle URLs in a multilingual context.

URL Translation

When considering URL translation, there are two primary options to choose from:

1. Query-Based URLs: In this approach, the language and content information are both included within a single query parameter. For example: http://site.tld/?lang=en&query=blog/latest.
2. Language-Prefixed URLs: This approach uses a language prefix in the URL itself to indicate the desired language. For example: http://site.tld/en/blog/latest.

Recommended Approach

The more sensible option is to use the second approach with Language-Prefixed URLs. Here's why:

• Accurate Language Identification: The language prefix provides a clear and unambiguous indication of the preferred language.
• Simpler Translation: Query-based URLs require parsing the entire query string to determine the language, which can be more complex.
• SEO Benefits: Search engines generally prefer URLs that are structured and easy to understand, which is the case with language-prefixed URLs.

Fallback Language

To handle cases where no language is specified in the URL, there are several fallback options:

• User Preference: Use a cookie or localStorage to store the user's preferred language and use that as a fallback.
• Accept-Language Header: Check the user's browser's Accept-Language header to determine the preferred language and use it as a fallback.
• Default Language: Specify a default language to be used in the absence of any other language indicator.

Combined Approach

While it's generally recommended to use language-prefixed URLs, you can also combine this approach with the query-based approach. For example, you could reserve the main domain (http://site.tld/) for the default language and use language-prefixed URLs for subdomains or folders.

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