Set individual static pages to "draft" status in specific locales

Updated

Control when and which localized pages go live

When managing a multilingual website, some pages may require additional time for translation, legal review, or region-specific content updates. If you’re an Enterprise Localization customer, you can set individual static pages to “draft” status for a specific locales. This gives you greater control over publishing on your localized website and ensures that only complete, market-ready pages go live.

How to draft a page in a specific locale

First, choose the locale in which you want to set the page to a draft:

  1. Go to the page you want to set as a draft
  2. Open the page’s settings
  3. Click the Save dropdown
  4. Choose to set the page to draft in current locale

What happens to draft pages?

  • Draft pages are excluded from publishing — anyone visiting the page’s URL will get a 404 error.
  • SEO exclusions — draft pages do not appear in sitemaps or RSS feeds to prevent indexing.
  • Branching — branching is supported, existing merge rules for page status applies
  • Locale routing updates automatically — if a primary page is set to draft, its hreflang tag is removed, ensuring proper redirection.
  • Redirects for previously published pages are not automatic — you’ll need to manually set up 301 redirects if necessary.

Note

We do not automatically remove links for localized pages. For example if you have a “Terms of Service” page in your English locale but not your Spanish locale, and you link to that page to from the website home page, you’ll need to remove or update the link on the Spanish version of the home page.

How to stage a drafted page for publishing

First, choose the locale in which you want to set the page to a draft:

  1. Go to the page you want to stage for publishing
  2. Open the page’s settings
  3. Select the locale where the draft page lives
  4. Change the page status from draft to stage for publish in current locale
  5. Publish your site—the newly staged page will now be live.

This feature helps ensure that only polished, localized content is visible to your users, making website updates more seamless and reducing the risk of unfinished content being published.

Related articles