Using Weglot to create a multilingual website

You can use Weglot to offer translation options for visitors to your website.

Understanding Weglot's services and plans

Format has integrated with Weglot to allow you to easily add translation capabilities to your site. With Weglot, you can add translations for multiple languages, set up subdomains or repositories for those languages, and customize the look of your site's language switcher widget.

Before we get to the setup steps, let's go over Weglot's plan options.

When you create your Weglot account, you'll be on a 14-day free trial. After 14 days, this free trial will convert to the Free plan, as long as you are within the usage limits of that plan. The Free Weglot plan includes:

• One translated language on one website
• Up to 2,000 words translated 
• 2,000 translation requests per month*

*To be more concise, the free plan allows up to 2,000 cumulative page views of translated content on your site per month. 

If you have a high-traffic website and expect to receive more translated page views than this per month, you may need to opt for a paid Weglot plan. Likewise, if you have multiple sites, you may need to consider a paid plan. Not sure how many words are on your site? You can use Weglot's Website Word Count tool to find out.

View Weglot's complete plan comparison and details here.

What happens if I exceed the 2,000 word limit?

If you exceed the 2,000 word limit of the Free plan, you'll receive an email from Weglot notifying you of this. The email will include a link to upgrade to a paid plan. If you do not want to upgrade to a paid plan, you can instead exclude some content on your site from being translated.

1. Weglot Free plan notice: As long as your website fits within the limits of the Free plan, you can continue using it for your site

If you don't exclude content from your site and continue to exceed the word limit of your plan, the following will occur:

• On a Free plan: The language switcher will still be visible on your site, but translations will not work. You will need to either upgrade to a paid plan, or exclude content to fit within the 2,000 word limit
• On a paid plan: New words on your site will not be translated, but existing translations will still display

Setting up a Weglot account for your Format site

You can connect to Weglot via your Format account's Settings > Site panel (pictured below). When you initially access this section, you will be prompted to connect to Weglot via an API key. In order to do so, you'll first need to create an account with Weglot.

1. Settings: Navigate to your Format settings area
2. Site: Navigate to the Site panel
3. Translate with Weglot®: Click Configure

1. Create a Weglot Account: Click this hyperlink to be redirected to Weglot and create your account

You'll be redirected to Weglot, where you can create an account with your email address or a social login:

1. Email Address and Password sign-up: You can sign up using your email address and a password OR
2. Google social sign-up: You can sign up using your Google account

Once you create your account, you'll be sent an email from Weglot to validate your account. This is the last step in creating your Weglot account:

1. Validate email: Follow the instructions provided by Weglot to validate your account

Creating a Weglot Project

Once you've validated your Weglot account, you'll be prompted to create your first Project. A Weglot Project is another term for a translated website. By creating a Weglot Project, you are creating a new translation for your Format website.

Step 1: Naming your Project

First, you can give your project a name. It's best practice to give this the same name as your Format website.

1. Project Name: Give your Weglot project a name
2. Website Technology: Select "Other" from the dropdown
3. Next: Continue to the next step

Step 2: Selecting translated languages

Next, you'll select which languages to translate your site into.

1. Original Language: Select the language that your Format website currently uses
2. Translated Languages: Select which languages to translate your Format site into. The Free plan of Weglot allows for only one translated language
3. Next: Continue to the next step

Step 3: Connecting your Format site

Next, you will input your Format site's URL and specify your translated site's URL structure. 

1. Domain URL: Enter your Format site's full, secure URL. For a custom domain name, this should begin with https://www.
2. Publish Destination: Choose your translation's publishing destination from the following options:
   1. Connect my live website: Go live with your website's translation automatically. If you have selected this step, please proceed to step 4.
   2. Use a preview URL: Preview your website's translation before publishing it. If you have selected this step, please continue with all remaining steps in this section.
3. URL Type: Choose how your translated site will appear, using either subdomains* or subdirectories**. This option will only appear to you if you have selected Connect my live website in the previous step
4. Next: Continue to the next step

Format Domain Names: If you are using a Format-hosted domain name, please reach out to our Success Team for help setting up your URL Type, as it will require us to make updates to your domain's DNS records.

*URL Type: We strongly discourage the use of subdomains on third-party domain names, as this will negatively impact the connection of your domain to your Format site. If you are using a third-party custom domain name, please select subdirectories.

**URL Type: If you are using a Format Address instead of a custom domain name, you must use the Javascript integration, noted in the light-blue window underneath URL Type. Selecting Subdomains or Subdirectories will not work properly with a Format address, due to its URL structure.

Step 3.1: Previewing your translated site

If you selected Use a preview URL in the previous step, you'll be provided with a temporary link to view your translated site:

1. Translation link: Click this to be redirected to your Format site with Weglot's language switcher widget available

You can now preview your site's translation feature. By default, the widget will be placed in the lower-right corner of your site:

1. Weglot language switcher widget: Choose from the translated languages you set up in Step 2

Navigate back to the Weglot setup page once you've tested your site preview. You should have automatically been brought back to your Project management area. Select Finish my setup from the Setup panel to continue:

1. Setup: Navigate to the Setup panel
2. Finish my setup: Click this button to continue setting up your Weglot Project

Step 4: Enabling subdomains or repositories

The next step is optional, but useful for your website's SEO. Setting up your translation's URL structure is a technical step, and will require you to add DNS records to your domain's DNS area. If you have a domain name hosted with Format, you should reach out to our Success Team for help with this. 

1. Use Quick Connect: If you have a domain name hosted with a third-party registrar like GoDaddy, Hover, etc., we strongly recommend selecting this option to quickly and painlessly add the necessary DNS records to your domain's DNS area
2. Setup DNS manually: If you are proficient in the technical aspect of domain management, you can choose this option instead. If your domain name is managed Format, you will need to select this option and reach out to our Success Team so that we can add the necessary DNS records to your domain's DNS area for you
3. Check DNS: Once the necessary records have been added to your domain's DNS area, you can Check DNS to see that they are working correctly. They may not work immediately, and can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate, but typically far less time than that
4. Skip this step: If you don't want to set up your translation's URL structure right now, you can skip this step and come back to it later. It is not necessary to set up your translation's URL structure in order for the translation to work, however this may impact your website's SEO

Step 5: Connecting to Format and viewing your live site

Now it's time for the final step in setting up your Weglot project.

1. Copy API Key: Copy the code presented in this step. You will need the API Key only. The API Key is the string of text following "api_key: " in the screenshot, minus the single quotation marks. Put simpler, your API Key should start with wg_ and be followed by a string of numbers and letters, similar to this: wg_123456789abcdefg 

Once you have copied this API Key, go back to your Format Settings > Site area, and paste this API Key into the blank Weglot API Key field from the first step in this article:

1. Paste API Key: Paste your Weglot API Key here
2. Connect: Connect to Weglot

You should now see Weglot enabled for your site:

Navigate back to your live site, where you should now see the Weglot widget in the bottom-right corner. Click this widget and preview your site using a translated language. 

1. Weglot language switcher widget: Choose from the translated languages you set up in Step 2

Once you've done this, navigate back to Weglot, where you should have automatically been advanced to a Setup Finished screen:

1. Setup Finished: Confirmation that your Weglot translation is active on your Format site
2. Go to my translations: View your Weglot Project's management area

Managing your Weglot Project

Once you've finished the setup for your Weglot Project, you can customize it as much as you'd like from its management area. You can also view analytics for your translations, and change the appearance of the Weglot Language Switcher widget on your Format site.

You can access the Projects area from your Weglot Dashboard. We encourage you to explore the Weglot Project management area on your own, and read through Weglot's help articles for more concise, comprehensive guidance.

Still have questions? Reach us on our live chat or email us at info@format.com. We’re here to help!