How Weglot handles link translation and exclusions

Weglot automatically translates both the URL of a link and its text label, based on the current language. This page explains the default behavior and how to control each part independently.

Default behavior

Take this link:

<a id="my-link" href="https://weglot.com" title="Weglot website">this is my link label</a>

On the French version of your site, Weglot outputs:

<a id="my-link" href="https://weglot.com/fr/" title="Weglot website">ceci est le label de mon lien</a>

• The label (this is my link label) is translated.

• The URL is automatically adapted to include the language code (/fr/).

Excluding a link from translation

If you exclude the link (for example with the #my-link selector in your exclusion rules), the label stays untranslated — but the URL is still adapted to include the language code:

<a id="my-link" href="https://weglot.com/fr/" title="Weglot website">this is my link label</a>

This is expected: excluding a block prevents its text from being translated, while link URLs are rewritten by a separate mechanism.

Keep the URL untranslated but still translate the label

Sometimes you want the opposite: keep the link URL exactly as-is (no language code) while still translating the label. Add the wg-excluded-link attribute to the tag:

<a id="my-link" href="https://weglot.com" title="Weglot website" wg-excluded-link>this is my link label</a>

Result in French:

<a id="my-link" href="https://weglot.com" title="Weglot website">ceci est le label de mon lien</a>

• The URL stays https://weglot.com (no /fr/).

• The label is still translated.

Use this when a specific URL must stay untouched (an external tracking link, a file, a third-party endpoint…) while still giving your visitors a localized link text.