How to Set Up Weglot on Squarespace (and Which Options to Choose)

I recently added Latin American Spanish to SQSPThemes with Weglot.

The setup was pretty simple once I did it in the right order. But I took a small detour first, and that detour showed me something worth knowing if you’re about to do this on a Squarespace website:

Start inside Squarespace.

I initially began in Weglot and worked through its general setup. That route works, but it made the process feel more technical than it needed to be. Squarespace 7.1 has a direct Weglot integration that connects the two platforms and adds the language switcher to your site automatically.

After that, the only technical part is setting up the URL for the translated version. Where you do that depends on who manages your domain’s DNS.

Here’s the full process, including the choices I had to make along the way.

Disclosure: Weglot sponsored this article. I installed and tested it on SQSPThemes before writing this guide.

The short version

If you’re using Squarespace 7.1, this is the order I recommend:

1. Decide which language you want to add.
2. Connect Weglot from Settings → Site Languages → Multilingual inside Squarespace.
3. Choose whether the translated site will use a subdomain or subdirectory.
4. Add the DNS record Weglot gives you wherever your DNS is managed.
5. Return to Weglot and verify the connection.
6. Review your important pages, navigation, forms, and brand terms.

The direct Squarespace integration is only available for Squarespace 7.1. If your site is on version 7.0 or 5, you’ll need to use Weglot’s general integration instead. Weglot’s official Squarespace setup instructions.

Before you install anything, choose a language

I chose Latin American Spanish because the analytics for SQSPThemes showed an existing audience across Spanish-speaking countries. Those visitors were already finding the site and driving a decent amount of revenue.

That gave me a practical reason to start with Spanish instead of choosing a language based on reach alone.

If you’re deciding which language to add, look at:

• The countries already sending traffic to your website
• The languages your existing customers use
• The community around a local business or organization
• Markets the business is actively trying to enter
• The pages and products those visitors are engaging with

Country data won’t tell you everything. A Spanish-speaking visitor in the United States still appears as United States traffic. But it can give you a useful place to start.

One small detail: Weglot labels Latin American Spanish with the locale code es-419. That doesn’t mean you have to use es-419 in the public URL. I kept Latin American Spanish as the translation and used es for the subdomain.

Step 1: Connect Weglot from inside Squarespace

In your Squarespace dashboard, go to:

Settings → Site Languages → Multilingual

Find Weglot and click Connect. Squarespace will ask you to allow Weglot to access the site. From there, you can create or connect a Weglot account, name the project, choose the original language, and add the language you want.

For SQSPThemes, I selected:

• Original language: English
• Translated language: Spanish — Latin America

Once I saved the project, the site was translated and the language switcher was already there.

That is why I would start inside Squarespace instead of beginning with Weglot’s general installation screen. The Squarespace route handles the site connection and the switcher for you. You can still use the Weglot dashboard afterward to manage translations, exclusions, and other settings.

Step 2: Choose a subdomain or subdirectory

The translated pages need their own URLs if you want search engines to find and index them properly.

The two common options are:

Option	Example	What changes	When it makes sense
Subdomain	es.example.com	You add a CNAME record for each translated language.	A controlled rollout, an established site, or a setup where you don’t want to reroute the main domain.
Subdirectory	example.com/es/	Weglot’s setup can require verifying the domain and changing an existing DNS record so translated paths route through Weglot.	A long-term setup where you strongly prefer every language to appear under the main domain.

I chose a subdomain.

SQSPThemes is an established site with a large archive, and this began as a test. Adding one new language CNAME felt cleaner than changing how the main domain was routed. It also gave me the simpler public URL es.sqspthemes.com.

That doesn’t mean subdomains are universally better. A subdirectory can feel more unified and Weglot recommends that structure in parts of its general setup. But it is a more involved DNS change than adding a language subdomain.

From a search standpoint, the important part is that each language has its own URL and the language versions are connected correctly. Google’s multilingual-site guidance recognizes both subdomains and subdirectories and recommends separate URLs with hreflang annotations. Google’s multilingual-site guidance and Weglot’s DNS setup guide.

My practical rule would be:

• Choose a subdomain if you want the lighter-touch setup or you’re testing multilingual demand.
• Choose a subdirectory if the site is making a long-term multilingual commitment and you prefer a folder-style URL enough to take on the additional DNS setup.

Step 3: Set up the language URL

Back in Squarespace, go to the Multilingual SEO section and select Setup subdomains.

Weglot will generate the DNS record for your project. If you selected Latin American Spanish, the default hostname may appear as es-419. You can edit the hostname to es if you want the translated site to use es.example.com while keeping Latin American Spanish as the language.

Weglot may also offer Quick Connect, which uses Entri to add the DNS record for you. I chose the manual route because I only needed to add one CNAME record and wanted to make the change myself.

Either route can work. The more important question is: Where is your DNS actually managed?

Your website can be hosted on Squarespace while your DNS is managed somewhere else.

That was true for me. SQSPThemes runs on Squarespace, but its DNS is managed through GoDaddy. So I connected the site inside Squarespace, then added the language record inside GoDaddy.

Step 4A: If your DNS is managed by GoDaddy

Sign in to GoDaddy and go to:

Domain Portfolio → Select your domain → DNS → Add New Record

Then add:

Field	What to enter
Type	CNAME
Name	The language subdomain, such as es
Value	The unique translate-cf.weglot.io value shown in your Weglot setup
TTL	Leave the default unless you have a reason to change it

Save the record.

Do not copy the CNAME value from someone else’s setup. Weglot generates a project-specific value for your site. GoDaddy’s instructions for adding a CNAME.

Step 4B: If your DNS is managed by Squarespace

Open your Squarespace domains dashboard and go to:

Select your domain → DNS → DNS Settings → Custom Records → Add record

Choose CNAME, enter the language prefix in the Name field, and paste the project-specific Weglot target into the Data field. Then save it.

Squarespace may ask you to reauthenticate before changing DNS records. Squarespace’s DNS instructions.

If your DNS is managed by another provider, the fields will be the same even if the menu labels are different: CNAME, language hostname, and the unique target Weglot provides.

Step 5: Return to Weglot and verify the DNS

Once the record is saved, go back to Weglot and click Check DNS.

The status may turn green within a few minutes. DNS changes can sometimes take longer to propagate, so don’t assume something is broken if verification isn’t instant.

When the domain shows as ready, test the translated URL in a private browser window and click through several pages.

Step 6: Review what was translated

Getting the first translation live is not the same as finishing the multilingual experience.

I would check:

• The homepage and main navigation
• Headers, buttons, and calls to action
• The footer
• Forms and confirmation messages
• Product, checkout, scheduling, and member areas
• Third-party embeds
• Page titles and descriptions
• The language switcher on desktop and mobile
• Internal links as you move from page to page

I would also add glossary rules for brand names and product names that should never be translated. Weglot lets you edit translations directly, and its Visual Editor is useful when you want to see the copy in context.

Automatic translation gets you a working first version quickly. Important sales pages, legal language, and anything where tone matters should still be reviewed by someone fluent in the language.

One more decision for larger websites

Weglot plans are based in part on the number of translated words. If your Squarespace site has years of blog posts or a large resource archive, decide whether you need to translate all of it immediately.

You may want to begin with the homepage, primary navigation, important service or product pages, contact pages, and your best-performing content. Weglot lets you exclude specific URLs and blocks from translation.

It is better to set those exclusions early: excluding a URL later does not automatically remove translations that were already generated. How Weglot counts translated words and Weglot’s translation-exclusion instructions.

What I would do differently next time

I’d make the same choices—Latin American Spanish and a language subdomain—but I’d do everything in a different order.

Start in Squarespace.

Connect Weglot there first and let Squarespace handle the site integration and language switcher. Then decide how you want the translated URLs structured and make the DNS change wherever your domain is actually managed.

Once I understood that Squarespace was handling the website integration while GoDaddy was handling the DNS, the whole thing became pretty straightforward.

And that’s really what surprised me about Weglot.

You’re not rebuilding your Squarespace site in another language. You’re not duplicating pages, creating a second navigation system, or maintaining two versions of the website every time something changes.

You’re adding another language to the site you already have.

For SQSPThemes, I can now send someone directly to the Spanish version at es.sqspthemes.com, while continuing to manage the actual website in Squarespace like I always have.

If you already have visitors, customers, or prospects who would rather experience your site in another language, this is a pretty low-friction way to find out what happens when you actually serve them in it.

Try Weglot on your Squarespace website →