How can I publish my translations?

Once you set up your website and translated the pages you need, and edited them, it's time to publish. There are many options for this depending on your exact requirements.

Staging domains

MP Express provides URLs that you can use to preview your pages without affecting your website. These are always available from the moment you create your project until you delete it. You can get these links via the Copy link button on the preview. These links are available for anyone that you share it with, so feel free to send it to as many people as you like. However, these links are not indexed by search engine bots, so they won't show up in search results. As such, they are only suitable for previewing and quality assurance, not for live marketing.

If you wish to make your site available publicly, and indexed by search engines, publish it via one of the three options below. Note that you may need to involve the developer(s) of your website. You can access these options from the Dashboard, under Settings and Publishing. Select your target language(s) and click Publish selected languages.

Query

This is the default publishing mode, and it is recommended for most use cases as it is the easiest to configure. In this case, the translations will be available on the same domain as the original site. The language is changed by adding a query parameter. However, the exact details are not particularly important because MP Express provides a language selector that handles it appropriately. You can read more about the language selector and its customisation options here.

To set it up on your website, you'll need to edit your template in your content management system (CMS). The exact process depends on your system. Please refer to their documentation or reach out to us. We may be able to help you out.

Subdirectory

Subdirectory publishing is when the translated languages are in a subdirectory, like /fr/ for French. This works great for websites where search engine optimisation is crucial. However, the drawback is that this method is the most complex to set up. It requires a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as CloudFront or CloudFlare. Whichever favour of CF you choose, the wizard will guide you through the process of setting it up. If the last couple of sentences sound alien, please reach out to your website administrator and send them this link.

Domain

Publishing on a separate domain means putting translations on domains such as fr.example.com for French, www.example.co.uk for the United Kingdom, or www.ejemplo.com for Spanish. This works great for websites where search engine optimisation is crucial.

Whichever style of domain you select, first you'll need to add a code snippet to your website, then DNS records need to be added. We have an article aimed at website administrators about the details here.

Which one should I choose?

Query publishing is recommended for most websites for its simplicity. However, on websites where SEO is crucial, the other two options are beneficial. Choosing between the two boils down to the way your website is positioned.

Subdomains are often seen by search engines as separate entities from the main domain. This could be beneficial if your website targets multiple large and distinctly different regions or languages, allowing you to tailor your SEO strategy more specifically to each audience. However, because search engines may treat subdomains as separate sites, any authority and link equity your main site has won't automatically transfer to the subdomain.

Subfolders, on the other hand, are generally considered part of the main domain. This means they can benefit directly from the main domain's established SEO authority and link equity. Subfolders are typically recommended for businesses focusing on a few key markets or languages, as they can leverage the main site's existing SEO strength to boost rankings more effectively.

While your selection is important, note that it's possible to change it later, should you need to. In this case, you must undo the setup process then go through the steps of the other option.