Every language gets its own URL, and today that URL is a subdirectory: example.com/es/pricing/. Language subdomains such as es.example.com are in a closed beta and cannot be selected yet, so subdirectories are what to plan around, on WordPress and through the API alike.
What you choose per language
The URL structure is fixed for a project. What you pick for each language is the segment that identifies it, under URL Format, and it takes three forms:
- The language code, so Spanish becomes
/es/. The usual choice. - The region code, so Spanish (Mexico) becomes
/mx/. Useful when you are targeting countries rather than languages, and clearer to visitors who think in markets. - A custom segment of 2 to 6 characters, when neither code reads the way you want.
Each segment has to be unique within the project, and it applies to every path uniformly. It can be changed later from the language's row on the All Languages screen. See Add and remove languages.
Why subdirectories
Worth knowing even though it is the only option, because it is the one most sites should want:
- Nothing to configure. No DNS records, no certificates, no per-language hosts.
- Every language contributes to one domain's authority instead of splitting it across hosts.
- Each language is still a real, separately indexable URL, which is what search engines need.
What does not change
Your slugs stay in the source language. /es/pricing/ is Spanish at /pricing/, not /es/precios/. The language segment is added; the rest of the path is passed through exactly as it was. If a translated slug matters to you, that is not something Universally does.
Your existing URLs keep working. Adding a language does not move or rewrite anything that was already published. See Existing URLs and redirects.
Language subdomains
Serving each language on its own hostname is being built and is limited to a closed beta at the moment. Two things to know if you are planning for it:
- It is not available on WordPress. The beta covers projects that route traffic through Universally rather than through the WordPress plugin.
- It is set when the project is created and cannot be switched afterwards. Moving an existing project from subdirectories to subdomains means creating a new project.
Each language hostname also needs its own DNS setup: a routing record plus two validation records issued when the certificate is created. That is the main practical difference from subdirectories, which need none.
If subdomains matter for your site, tell support and they can tell you where it stands. See Get support.