BigCommerce - Integration / Setup
Translate your BigCommerce website
This is a step-by-step guide to help you integrate Weglot into your BigCommerce website and make it multilingual
1. Create a Weglot account
This account is where you’ll be able to view and manage all of your translations. Simply create a Weglot account here.
2. Choose languages
After you validate the email, you will arrive on the Weglot setup pages.
Here, the first step is to indicate that you are using BigCommerce:
After clicking on "Next", you can select the original language of your website (the language in which you originally created your website) and the languages you want to translate into:
After clicking on "Next", you will need to enter your website URL.
Note: You must enter your own domain name, like mywebsite.com.
Click on the blue " Next" button to go to the following step.
3. Create language subdomains for improved SEO
Note: If you do not want to setup subdomains now, just click on "connect Weglot to your website without it" (see the screenshot above) to go to the next step of this guide: Install the Weglot library.
Prerequisite: The subdomain integration method requires accessing the DNS records of your website domain, so you will need to have purchased your own domain name already. If you haven’t bought a domain name yet, do not choose this integration method.
Enter the DNS records that are shown to you in your DNS Record Zone. Depending on where you bought the domain, these records will be accessible to you at one of two possible locations.
- If you bought your domain name directly via BigCommerce, you’ll find your DNS records in Settings > Domain > Email & DNS Records > Web Hosts.
- If you bought your domain name from an external provider (these include sites like GoDaddy, 1&1, Gandhi, etc.), your DNS records will be located in your dashboard on this provider’s website.
At this stage, you should be able to create new entries in the DNS section on your screen.
- Select CNAME as the type of entry
- Enter "en" (for those adding English) as the host
- Point it to the "xxx.translate-cf.weglot.io" value that will be displayed
If you need any help finding or updating your DNS records, you can send us an email at support@weglot.com. Just provide us with your BigCommerce admin access codes, and we will do the whole thing for you!
Note: If you do not want to share your admin access codes, you can create collaboration access for us by following the BigCommerce documentation here: Adding User Accounts. You can use the support@weglot.com email address to create the account.
4. Validate DNS
Once you have added and saved the entries, go back to the Weglot page. You can click on the blue " Check DNS" button and a green check-mark icon should appear: this means everything has been successfully set up (This can sometimes take a couple of minutes or even 10, so do not be alarmed if the green check-mark icon hasn’t appeared next to your DNS record yet).
Click " Next".
5. Create language subdirectory for improved SEO
If you chose to use the subdomain integration, you can skip this part.
If you need to use the subdirectory integration on your website, you can refer to this article to help you set up the subdirectories.
6. Install the Weglot library
You will need to add the Weglot Javascript library to your website’s code. Copy the Javascript code snippet that is shown to you on your Weglot account, it should look like the one in the screenshot below:
Go to your BigCommerce dashboard > "Channel Manager" menu and click on your store in the "Storefronts" section:
Then, go to the " Script Manager" menu and click on the blue "Create a Script" button:
Enter whatever "Name of script" and "Description" you want, and fill up the remaining fields as follows:
- "Location on page" = "Head"
- "Select pages where script will be added" = "All pages"
- "Script category" = "Essential"
- "Script type" = "Script"
- "Script contents" = Here you only paste the code snippet's <script> two parts as you can see in the screenshot below (you will add the hreflang links elsewhere in the next step)
Click on the blue " Save" button:
Finally, you have to copy-paste the hreflang links into your BigCommerce dashboard by going to Settings > Advanced > Data Solutions.
Click the " ..." dots in the Universal Analytics box and click on the "Edit" option:
Fill up the remaining fields as follows:
- "Connect with" = "Tracking Code"
- "Tracking code" = Here, you paste the hreflang links from your Weglot account
Click " Save":
Note: If you do not have yet Google Analytics in your BigCommerce admin, you'll have to set it up following the BigCommerce documentation here: Setting Up Google Analytics.
6. You are all done! 💪
Finished! Go to your website, and you will see the language switcher button appear at the very bottom right. Give it a few minutes to make sure your subdomains are properly set up, then you can try changing the language, and you’ll see your translated pages.
Check out our getting started video to see all of Weglot’s features.