Multi-language site with several subdomains

[mynameismarco]

Hi

We have a site at marcosgrounds.com serving English speaking customers. Now we want to expend to French and German speaking customers.

The idea is that users who have "device language" French or German be redirected to fr.marcosgrounds.com or de.marcosgrounds.com for the French and German versions of the site.

These subdomains would be hosted on different "Shopify Stores" and be totally independent stores and have their own sets of email marketing and sms marketing.

Now

1. Is this the easiest way to go about this international development? Bear in mind we want to use device language instead of country as there are countries of interest to us with several languages (eg Switzerland with a German and a French part)

2. How can we redirect from one store to the other? is there an app for that? Bear in mind the redirect just needs to be from marcosgrounds.com to the others (the others will have a flag to click on if the user wants to revert back)

Thanks so much for your help

[SocialAutoPost · Accepted solution]

Hello @mynameismarco,

Welcome to Shopify Community!

Using device language to redirect users to different subdomains is a good approach for international development, especially for countries like Switzerland where there are multiple languages spoken. This approach allows you to target users who are most likely to prefer your content in their native language.

There are different ways to redirect users to different subdomains based on their device language. One option is to use a Shopify apps. These apps allow you to create rules that redirect users to different subdomains based on their device language or location. 

To redirect from marcosgrounds.com to the other subdomains, you can use a simple 301 redirect in your domain registrar or hosting provider's settings. This will redirect all traffic from marcosgrounds.com to the appropriate subdomain based on the user's device language.

If you want to setup multi-language in the same store you should explore Shopify Markets. 

Shopify Markets is a feature that allows you to sell your products in multiple currencies and languages within a single store, but it does not create separate storefronts for different languages or regions. Instead, it automatically detects the location of your customers and displays your store in their local language and currency, while still using the same domain name.

If you want to create separate storefronts for different languages, it sounds like the approach you described earlier with using subdomains (e.g. fr.marcosgrounds.com and de.marcosgrounds.com) would be a better fit.

Thanks

[SocialAutoPost · Accepted solution]

Hello @mynameismarco,

Welcome to Shopify Community!

Using device language to redirect users to different subdomains is a good approach for international development, especially for countries like Switzerland where there are multiple languages spoken. This approach allows you to target users who are most likely to prefer your content in their native language.

There are different ways to redirect users to different subdomains based on their device language. One option is to use a Shopify apps. These apps allow you to create rules that redirect users to different subdomains based on their device language or location. 

To redirect from marcosgrounds.com to the other subdomains, you can use a simple 301 redirect in your domain registrar or hosting provider's settings. This will redirect all traffic from marcosgrounds.com to the appropriate subdomain based on the user's device language.

If you want to setup multi-language in the same store you should explore Shopify Markets. 

Shopify Markets is a feature that allows you to sell your products in multiple currencies and languages within a single store, but it does not create separate storefronts for different languages or regions. Instead, it automatically detects the location of your customers and displays your store in their local language and currency, while still using the same domain name.

If you want to create separate storefronts for different languages, it sounds like the approach you described earlier with using subdomains (e.g. fr.marcosgrounds.com and de.marcosgrounds.com) would be a better fit.

Thanks

[coleatkinson · Accepted solution]

I would like to offer an alternative approach that would be better for SEO, and would prevent you from having to open separate Shopify stores for every market/language you want to target. This can all be achieved within Shopify Markets on a single store.

English speaking customers would browse and shop on marcosgrounds.com, German customers on marcosgrounds.com/de, and French customers on marcosgrounds.com/fr. The subdirectory setup is much more preferable for different languages than subdomains, not least of all because you are using a single domain, and this is preferable for SEO (your ranking is established on a single domain, instead of having to be established and spread across multiple subdomains).

You can then redirect customers to the right currency and language with the Geolocation app, or an app from the app store like ORBE.

Let me know if you have any questions!