Multiple Domains, different language, same url for a page

Question

I am creating a multi-language website with 3 domains and 1 subdomain. I am using Wordpress and I want to use separate WP installations instead of a multisite.

Domains would be:

• example.de in german
• en.example.de (a subdomain for the english/international version)
• example.rs in serbian and
• example.ro in romanian

So each domain is used for a different country. Some pages would be the same with different language, some would be contry specific content.

Now my problem is this: I need to have little flags to change the languages (and domains if needed). So if You are on about us page in serbian (example.rs/about-us) and click on the german flag, you would be taken to example.de/about-us/. I don't want to and can't manually link the pages between domains, and I was hoping to avoid WMPL because it's not free and there are some paypal technical issues in my country.

I found this answer to a similar question Changing WordPress link in header and I wanted to use the script from the answer to rewrite the url. Since the link is in the header, I need something dynamic so I can have the same header for each page. So if I am on example.rs/about-us to rewrite the link to be example.de/about-us for the german flag button etc.

My concern is SEO and user confusion. I know google will know it's for different location because it's a different top level domain and language, so duplicate content will not be a problem. But all the url's would be in english (same for all domains e.g. about us, potfolio, contact), and the page language will not be. So the german page would have an url written in english. Is that a big problem? Also, is there an alternative solution for the problem so I can link the pages with a url relevant to the language (coding or plugin)?

Answer 1

Your concern about user confusion is founded . I got confused by only reading your question. I do not want to immagine the confusion for the administrator of this site. :-)

I would re-think the basics , or the blueprint of the install .

You could very easily achieve the same result in a more user-friendly , and Admin-friendly way by using the excellent qtranslate plugin.

This will allow you to have domains like :

• de.example.com
• en.example.com
• ro.example.com

or, if you want :

• www.example.com/de
• www.example.com/en
• www.example.com/ro

It will also allow you easily have different content , titles, and , with an excellent hooks and filters system - and a bit of custom coding - even different URLS and language based SEO. All in the same install.

Even the little flags that you wanted comes out of the box .

Qtranslate also has quite an active community and forum for hacks.

If you will use it , You can then do something like

$ccTLD = end(explode('.', $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']));
   if ($ccTLD == 'com')
define('WPLANG', 'en_US');
   else
define('WPLANG', 'ru_RU'); //or other language

( See more details here - BTW - IMHO the hack is not needed , filters can be used )

But like I said before , you will not really need it if you plan the installation correctly.

You also have choice to use the domain mapping plugin to map the domains correctly to the corresponding section ( or better yet - do that manually in cPanel / Plask )

IMHO - multiple installs is a sad choice for such a site ( unless it will also use different plugins, different theme, different everything...)

Give qtranslate a chance - I am almost sure that after you will learn and try it - you will rethink the framework for your installation.

Answer 2

If you want to make a link to the 'same' page on another domain, try this:

<a href="<?php echo 'http://example.rs' . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']  ?> "  >

So, if when you are on page example.ro/about-us this code will generate link to example.rs/about-us