---
title: Configuring URLs for multilingual websites
related:
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/setting-domain-names-for-sites.md
  - https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/configuring-settings-for-sites/settings-urls-and-seo.md
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

> **Note:** Scenarios described on this page apply only for sites using [content tree-based routing](https://docs.kentico.com/13/developing-websites/implementing-routing/content-tree-based-routing.md).
>
> To see which routing mode is used on your website, open the **Settings** application -> **URLs and SEO** and check the _Routing_ section, or consult your website developers.

You can configure the format of URLs on your multilingual site in two ways: using language prefixes or using separate domains.

For example, you can achieve the following format of URLs for two different cultures using language prefixes:

- English – www.example.com/en-us/path
- Spanish – www.example.com/es-es/path

While using separate domains, the URLs can look like this:

- English – www.example.com/path
- Spanish – www.ejemplo.es/path

## Using separate domains for different languages

Having a different [domain name](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/setting-domain-names-for-sites.md) for each [culture](https://docs.kentico.com/13/multilingual-websites/setting-up-multilingual-websites.md) is a good way to let visitors know that the particular version of the site is intended for a certain language audience. It is also the best option for multilingual websites with regard to search engine optimization.

For example, if the English version of your site is available under _domain.com_, the French version could use _domain.fr_ and so on. This scenario uses a different country‑code top‑level domain, but you can set any other domain name format, such as unique subdomains for each culture.

To implement domain separation based on languages you need to first configure the setting:

1. Open the **Settings** application on the **URLs and SEO** tab.
2. Set **URL format for multilingual sites** to _Domain_.
3. Click **Save**.

Then, set up the main presentation URL and domain aliases for different languages according to [Setting domain names for sites](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/setting-domain-names-for-sites.md):

1. Open the **Sites** application.
2. Edit () your site.
3. On the **General** tab, select your website's primary language in the **Visitor culture** field.
   - This assigns the given language to the site's main presentation URL.
4. Set up additional domain names for other languages as live site domain aliases on the **Domain aliases -> Live site** tab.
   - Just like with the main domain, you can assign a language to each alias by selecting the matching culture in the **Visitor culture** field.

> **Note:** **Configuration requirements**
>
> When setting up the **Visitor culture** of the site and its aliases, only assign each language to a single domain and do not use the _(Automatic)_ value. Otherwise the system cannot determine which content culture to display.

![Creating a domain alias for a specific culture](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/configuring-urls-for-multilingual-websites/Domain_Alias_Culture.png "Creating a domain alias for a specific culture")

The system now ensures the following:

- The content culture is selected based on the domain name (presentation URL) through which the website is opened.
- All page URLs are generated using the presentation URL to which the current content culture is assigned.

> **Info:** **Authentication with multiple domains**
>
> The user context is not carried over when switching between domains on the live site. If you are using standard [Forms authentication](https://docs.kentico.com/13/managing-users/user-registration-and-authentication/configuring-forms-authentication.md), registered users who change the content culture while browsing need to log in separately on each language version of the website.
>
> If this is a problem, you can work around it by implementing a [single sign-on](https://docs.kentico.com/13/managing-users/user-registration-and-authentication/configuring-single-sign-on.md) mechanism for all domains.

> **Note:** **Switching between URL formats**
>
> When you change the _URL format for multilingual sites_ setting to either the _Language prefix_ or _Domain_ option, URLs are regenerated to comply with the new setting and the old URLs are permanently removed. Therefore, you need to manually handle any broken links or links incorrectly indexed by search engines that could be created by this change.

## Using language prefixes for URLs

If you do not own a different domain name for each language version of the website, but still want to ensure unique URLs for each culture, you can use language prefixes. Language prefixes insert a segment into the URL in format **//**, for example: _/fr-FR/Home_. The language prefix corresponds to the matching [culture code](https://docs.kentico.com/13/multilingual-websites/setting-up-a-multilingual-user-interface.md) by default, but can also be changed to an alias.

To enable language prefixes in your URLs:

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Select the **URLs and SEO** settings category.
3. Set **URL format for multilingual sites** to _Language prefix_.
4. Click **Save**.

If the language prefix URL format is enabled, the system automatically generates URLs containing the appropriate URL prefix for all pages represented in the content tree.

### Hiding language prefixes for the default culture

You may want to use URLs without the language prefix for the most used (i.e. the default) content culture. To enable this:

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Select the **URLs and SEO** settings category.
3. Enable **Hide language prefix in default culture URLs**.
4. Click **Save**.

All pages with the default content culture will have URLs without the language prefix, i.e. in the format **/**.

### Changing the language prefix text

If you want to change the language prefix for a certain language, the best way is to enable and set culture aliases.

By default, the language prefix matches the culture code of the requested language. To override this behavior:

1. Open the **Settings** application.
2. Select the **URLs and SEO** settings category.
3. Enable **Use culture alias as language prefix in URLs**.
4. Click **Save**.

Continue by setting _aliases_ for your site's cultures in the **Localization** application. If a culture alias is set for a language, it takes precedence and the system uses the alias in URL prefixes instead of the culture code.

> **Note:** **Culture alias URL collisions**
>
> The system does not validate the values set for culture aliases. Make sure aliases do not cause URL collisions with existing URL slugs of pages. For example, a collision can occur if you set a culture alias to _English_, but already have a page with the _English_ URL slug on the first level of the content tree.
>
> In the case of collisions, the culture alias takes priority in page routing.

For example, to change the language prefix for the French language to _France_:

1. Open the **Localization** application.
2. Select the **Cultures** tab.
3. Type_fr-FR_ into the **Culture code** filter and click **Search**.
4. Edit () the _French - France_ culture.
5. Set the **Culture alias** property to _France_.
6. Click **Save**.

The system generates new URLs for all pages in the French culture. The language prefix in page URLs now matches the entered alias, for example _/France/Home_ instead of _/fr-FR/Home_.

## Setting page URL slugs for different culture versions

Forcing culture domains or using language prefixes for URLs ensures that you have a different URL for every culture version of each page. You can change [URL slugs of pages](https://docs.kentico.com/13/managing-website-content/working-with-pages/managing-page-urls.md) if you want different culture versions of pages to also have different names in the URL path.

For example, if you want the Articles page in French to have a different URL (slug) than the English version:

1. Open the **Pages** application, and select the Articles page in the content tree.
2. Select the _French_ language in the selector below the content tree.
3. Open the **Properties -> URLs** tab.
4. In the **Page URL** section, set the URL slug of the page to _/ArticlesFrancais._
5. Click **Save**.

![Setting the URL slug for a page language version](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/13/configuring-urls-for-multilingual-websites/Url_slug.png "Setting the URL slug for a page language version")

To try out how the custom URL works, sign out and view the English version of the website. If you open the URL _/articlesfrancais_ (or _/fr-fr/articlesfrancais_ if you use language prefixes), the website automatically switches the culture to French and displays the French version of the Articles page.

All child pages of the page with the edited slug will also have URLs with the corresponding URL path.

> **Tip:** You can also configure various settings related to the format of URLs in the **Settings** application -> **URLs and SEO**, such as enforcing lowercase URLs or the use of trailing slash.
>
> See [Settings - URLs and SEO](https://docs.kentico.com/13/configuring-xperience/managing-sites/configuring-settings-for-sites/settings-urls-and-seo.md) for more information.