Language code in URLs: to be or not to be?

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)

  • Who are URLs for? How often do you enter URLs manually in the address bar?

    Do you think users care about short/pretty URLs when sharing? No. I see youtube links with a bunch of parameters pasted all around. Nobody really cares.

    So i’d say your priority should be making google happy. ??

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    What about SEO advantages of URLs with language parameter and without it?

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    Now I’m using URLs with language parameter for non-default languages and default language – without it.
    When I will change default language I will need to do 301 redirect for all old- and new-default language posts and pages.
    It seems that structure without parameter for all language is better.
    But from other side Google advice is “Keep the content for each language on separate URLs”.
    Question is open….

    Plugin Author Chouby

    (@chouby)

    Keep the content for each language on separate URLs

    Yes it’s what Polylang does, whatever the settings you use. It does not mean that you *must* add the language code to urls. Sometimes it is necessary (for archives for instance), sometimes it is not (for posts or pages).

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    Chouby, I’m glad to see You, as always :!)
    This means that without lang parameter all requirements of Google will also be carried out?
    I just want to change the default language of site with time. Redirection is a good thing, but sometimes, when it used, site can lose position in search engines.
    That is why I choose URL structure so closely.

    Plugin Author Chouby

    (@chouby)

    I am not a Google expert. But I would be very surprised that Google cares about the language information in url more than the content of the page in which the language is defined at the second line just below the DOCTYPE and above the <head> section.

    However you are right to choose the permalink structure carefully as it will be painful to change it in the future.

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    Is it means that language parameter in URL is necessary?

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    I wanted to change my permalinks to structure without language parameter, but now I don’t know what to do…

    Plugin Author Chouby

    (@chouby)

    Is it means that language parameter in URL is necessary?

    No. Both options are available in Polylang: You have the choice to add (or not) the language parameter in the urls for posts, pages, categories and post tags. As each of them has already a unique url, it is not necessary to add the language parameter.

    However, you will notice that the language parameter is always added to the urls for archives. It is necessary to differentiate (for example) English monthly archives and German monthly archives.

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    I understand that.
    But I am interested in the position of search engines. What structure is better for them? As I understand from Your post above, Google prefer lang parameter on URL or I misunderstood?

    Plugin Author Chouby

    (@chouby)

    I believe that search engines don’t care and most probably do not interpret the language code in url. Why /de/ in an url should be automatically interpreted as a German page? It could be whatever else. But again, I am not a search engines expert…

    Thread Starter Baz11

    (@baz11)

    Hmm… This is an interesting question not only for me.
    Maybe it is sense to ask someone of search engines representatives?

    Hi there, I do not mean to hijack this thread here but I noticed that I cannot switch off language codes in URLs even though I selected the option “The language is set from content. Posts, pages, categories and tags urls are not modified.”.

    This is currently a problem because a theme I’d like to use does not show its front page because Polylang always appends a language code.

    Plugin Author Chouby

    (@chouby)

    Do you mean that the language code appears on single post urls?

    It is meant when I try to access the front page on my WordPress installation. So when I type:

    https://www.my-wordpress-install.com/

    it automatically redirects to

    https://www.my-wordpress-install.com/en

    The Polylang setting is basically being ignored on my installation.

    Anyway, I switched to a different theme that doesn’t have the problem I mentioned earlier.

Viewing 15 replies - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)
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