Switching default WPML language

  • Resolved dav74

    (@dav74)


    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hello there,

    Im after some advice. Maybe you can help.

    After about 4-5 months of our site being live, I have decided I think I made a mistake with the primary language being English, and would like to switch it to German (we are based in Germany). We use WPML to manage our languages. I know this would normally be a very bad idea as all our links are now in the SERPS, but I wonder if it is possible and if so mybe best I do now whilst the website is still quite young.

    As your plugin already uses canonical links for every page, what would happen if we just switched languages without adding any 301 redirects? So basically mysite.eu would become mysite.eu/en/ and mysite.eu/de/ would become mysite.eu (and that for several hundred other pages/product pages.

    Would we survive by doing no 301 redirects? I’m not sure how healthy it is to fill-up the .htacess with potentially 1000-1200 redirects, hence my question to you on this.

    Any advise at all would be appreciated.

    Thanks again

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Author Sybre Waaijer

    (@cybr)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hello!

    When you switch languages, TSF will simply update its canonical URLs as provided by WPML; there’s nothing more to that.

    WPML is the main actor here. If they automatically 302/301 redirect the pages to their new destination, then there’s no extra work required from your part. If they don’t, then I advise you to reach out to them.

    Unless your site is young, the redirects are a must for these transactions. And I strongly advise against leading all those URLs back to the homepage or leave them be as 404-hits. Instead, all old links should land on the intended and expected pages.

    You might be able to get away with wildcard redirecting potential 404-hits to /en/, and /de/ to / (the latter would guarantee to work). But you’ll have to keep this in place indefinitely (unless you have no backlinks, then only for 6 months or so).

    Since .htaccess is parsed on every single request, I think it’d be most welcomed if WPML can figure this out autonomously and on a per-request basis.

    All in all, reach out to WPML–they probably have some experience with this.

    I hope this helps!

    Thread Starter dav74

    (@dav74)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Many thanks @cybr for your detailed reply. Yes 301 redirecting all the URLs is the only option. Sadly my hosting doesn’t offer the Wildcard option and WPML have no redirect system in place either!

    It might be a case of adding the 1000 odd URLs to the .htaccess. I think thats the only option…

    Thansk again 🙂

    Thread Starter dav74

    (@dav74)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hi @cybr

    I have a question I’m scratching my head on right now, regarding these redirects and “redirect chains” which I’m trying to avoid. If we are redirecting a URL which is already redirected in the .htaccess, what is the best way to do this?

    If you look below, I try and explain this. In the second set of redirects (Example of future redirect) you can see I have to actually add a second redirect if we are to do this primary language switch on our website.

    Is the best way just to replace the previous redirect URL (mysite.eu/nice-cars/) with the new redirect URL (mysite.eu/en/nice-cars/), whilst keeping the original URL (mysite.eu/cars/) the same? If I do this, how does google treat the “mysite.eu/nice-cars/” redirect URL, which will not appear in my .htaccess anymore as it has been replaced? This URL has already been indexed by Google, so maybe I need to keep the redirect on that URL in place.

    I basically am not sure how to handle these redirect chains in the .htaccess. Any ideas on that greatly appreciated.

    Example of existing redirect in .htaccess
    mysite.eu/cars/
    (301 redirect)
    mysite.eu/nice-cars/

    Example of future redirect
    mysite.eu/cars/
    (301 redirect)
    mysite.eu/nice-cars/
    (301 redirect)
    mysite.eu/en/nice-cars/

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dav74.
    Thread Starter dav74

    (@dav74)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hi @cybr

    Or would this be the correct way to do this:

    mysite.eu/nice-cars/ > mysite.eu/en/nice-cars/
    mysite.eu/cars/ > mysite.eu/en/nice-cars/

    So basically I create 2 new redirects, from both the old URL’s to the new URL. It creates more redirects in the .htacess, but ensures that all old URL’s link to the new URL (hopefully without creating a chain)…

    ??

    Plugin Author Sybre Waaijer

    (@cybr)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hi again!

    The best way would be to do a wildcard:
    ‘domain/de/path/ -> domain/path/
    `

    And for the non-de links to go back… well, I think it’s best to hire a developer or inform with your hosting party with this. They seem to have a firm grip on their .htaccess situation, of which I know nothing about.

    Nevertheless, I still think WPML can automatically determine the language from the path given and prepend the language-path when necessary. So, nothing of this massive endeavor should be required–but, if their plugin doesn’t do this for you, I think it’s best to consult with them (you paid them for their plugin, not me!). Their support should have a few tricks up their sleeves to make this migration painless.

    Thread Starter dav74

    (@dav74)

    5 years, 11 months ago

    Hi (@cybr),

    Yes fully understand your point. Ive not paid you for that question 🙂 They don’t do SEO which is possibly why I quizzed you!

    Actually WPML have no 301 redirect system in place. Yes they automatically update all the URLs, but they dont provide 301 redirection.

    Have a great weekend

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

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