Wordpress two languages quick questions

Hey fellow bhwers

I have 2 quick questions regarding bilingual wordpress website. I don't want to use any plugins like WPML etc. I want to have it in two separate folders on the same server.



I already have a website www.somedomain.com which is my english site. It's almost finished. To create it in second language should I install wordpress in separate folder and build it from scratch once again or is there a way copy the WP installation from the 1st folder and have the links in the webpage changed somehow and content manually translated?

I own both .com and local domain. Should I create the folder for a domain for example www.somedomain.com/de and redirect domain somedomain.de to it or should I build it right away on somedomain.de? I am asking this because I like how the www.somedomain.com/de looks more professional when you enter the website in a browser than just somedomain.de but on my business card I will have somedomain.de to make it shorter

What would you guys suggest me?

I would recommend a separate subdomain for each new language.

There's different ways about it, for a quick overview I'd say take a look in the wordpress codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress

Make sure that when you've got your site set up, you go to G webmaster tools and check whether your hreflang declarations are found (search traffic -> international targeting). This might take a couple of days as WMT is slow as f*ck.

Build your second language site on www.somedomain.com/de. That looks most professional.ok

Built the second site on the /de folder and redirect the .de domain to the folder. Also, you can copy the WordPress installation on your first site to the folder using a plugin called 'Duplicator' (free) or 'Backup Buddy' (paid).

After copying it over, you can then edit each post manually and replace the english version of each post with their Deutsch versions.

sbndnb said:

There's different ways about it, for a quick overview I'd say take a look in the wordpress codex:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Multilingual_WordPress

Make sure that when you've got your site set up, you go to G webmaster tools and check whether your hreflang declarations are found (search traffic -> international targeting). This might take a couple of days as WMT is slow as f*ck.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the hint sbndnb

SEO Power said:

Built the second site on the /de folder and redirect the .de domain to the folder. Also, you can copy the WordPress installation on your first site to the folder using a plugin called 'Duplicator' (free) or 'Backup Buddy' (paid).

After copying it over, you can then edit each post manually and replace the english version of each post with their Deutsch versions.

Click to expand...

Thanks SEO Power, I've decided to go with the /de folder and .de domain redirection. Will try "Duplicator" tonight as I've finished polishing my .com site

Build a new website in a different language. You should make the website original if you want good seo ranking. do not duplicate

If you want to do it manually:
Copying the website Files:
1- Go to your Cpanel (or similar panel)
2- Go to file manager and zip all your website's files
3- Create the "de" folder, and cut/paste the zip file you created into it and extract it

Copying the database:
1- You can use a separate database:
In your cpanel, create a new database and a new user, and assign the db to the user
Configure your wp-config.php database credentials
go to phpMyAdmin, export your current site database and import it to the newly created one.
2- Or you can use the same database with different prefix
Export your db as .sql from phpmyadmin
open it with a text editor
replace wp_ with the new prefix, save it and import it to the same database from phpmyadmin
edit your wp-config.php in the "DE" folder to use the new prefix (change $table_prefix = 'wp_'