Multilingual SEO
SEO in LingoPress isn’t something separate that you have to configure: it comes built in and works on its own. Everything described on this page turns on without you having to touch a thing. The result is that Google and the other search engines understand your site well in each language, and find you more easily.
Directory-based URLs
Each language has its own section within your site’s web addresses (URLs): /es/mi-entrada/ for Spanish and /en/my-post/ for English. It’s exactly the structure that search engines recommend when you have several languages on a single domain: each language stays as a clear, stable section that Google can crawl and understand.
- By default, every language carries its prefix, including your site’s main language. This is on purpose: it keeps the addresses consistent, and there’s never any doubt about which language each one belongs to. (If you’d rather your main language didn’t carry a prefix, you can change that with the
hide_defaultoption.) - Your site’s root address (
/) automatically takes visitors to the home page of the main language. - Every time you add or remove a language, the web addresses reorganize themselves. You don’t have to do anything.
Automatic hreflang
On every page, LingoPress automatically adds some small tags (called hreflang) that tell Google which other versions of that page exist in other languages. On the home page, it also marks which one is the default version. In practical terms: it tells Google which version to show each person based on their language, so they find you easily, and all of this without needing to install any additional SEO plugins.
Canonical 301
WordPress is able to show the same post even when the address has the wrong language prefix, or none at all. The problem is that, left uncorrected, Google would see several different addresses with the same content and treat it as duplicate content, which hurts your ranking.
LingoPress solves it on its own: if someone arrives through an “incorrect” address, it automatically sends them to the correct, single address. For example, /mi-entrada/ and /en/mi-entrada/ lead to /es/mi-entrada/. That way there’s a single valid address for each piece of content in each language, and Google doesn’t get confused.
Sitemap
The sitemap is the index or map that your site hands to search engines with the list of all its pages. The LingoPress sitemap includes the addresses for all languages, each with its prefix. Together with the language tags on each page, it’s a complete, sufficient setup for search engines to understand your site.
Note: if you have the “Discourage search engines” option enabled in your WordPress settings (which asks Google not to show your site in the results), WordPress disables the sitemap entirely. This is a WordPress feature of its own, not a LingoPress one.
No browser-language redirect — on purpose
Many plugins redirect each visitor based on the language set in their browser. LingoPress doesn’t do this, and it’s a deliberate decision. That kind of redirect brings more problems than solutions:
- It confuses Google and the other search engines. Google’s bot usually browses in English, so it might never get to see the versions in other languages.
- It creates chains of hops from one address to another.
- It breaks the links people share.
The right approach already comes built in: the language tags tell the search engine which version to show, and the language switcher leaves the control in the visitor’s hands so they can choose.
The logo always keeps the language
Links that lead “to the home page” (the logo, the site title, the menu item that goes to the start —Home—) respect the language the person is browsing in. If someone is in the English section (/en/), the logo takes them to the English home page and not to the site’s root. That way the visitor never loses their language while browsing, and everything works without cookies or complications.