Key takeaways
- Google defines a multilingual website as one offering content in more than one language, and a multi-regional website as one that explicitly targets users in different countries.
- Google recommends a separate URL for each language version and advises against automatically redirecting users between language versions.
- The W3C advises always declaring the page language with a lang attribute on the html element.
- Translating only navigation and boilerplate while leaving the main content in one language creates a poor experience.
- Forms, transactional emails, PDFs and legal pages are the parts of a website most often forgotten in localisation.
This guide is for marketing managers, e-commerce teams and web developers planning to take a website into new languages. It covers the decisions to make before translation, the launch process step by step, and the details that separate a localised site from a translated one.
The technical search side, including hreflang and keyword research, has its own article: see our guide to multilingual SEO. This guide focuses on the project as a whole.
What does website localisation involve beyond translating the text?
Website localisation involves adapting everything a visitor sees and does on the site, not only the page copy. A typical scope includes:
- page content, navigation, buttons and footer text;
- page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text and URL slugs;
- images and video with text or culturally specific scenes;
- forms, validation messages and confirmation pages;
- transactional emails, such as order confirmations and password resets;
- prices, currencies, payment methods, delivery and returns information;
- dates, times, phone numbers and address formats;
- terms and conditions, privacy and cookie notices;
- downloadable PDFs and help content.
Do you need a multilingual or a multi-regional website?
A website can target languages, countries or both, and the choice shapes everything else. Google's guidance on multi-regional and multilingual sites defines the two:
"A multilingual website is any website that offers content in more than one language." "A multi-regional website is one that explicitly targets users in different countries."
A UK software company adding French and German pages for anyone who reads those languages is building a multilingual site. A retailer with separate shops for France, Belgium and Switzerland, each with local prices and delivery terms, is building a multi-regional site, which may also be multilingual.
Which URL structure should a localised website use?
Each language or country version should have its own URL, and Google lists four ways to organise them. Google says it "recommends using different URLs for each language version of a page" rather than switching content with cookies or browser settings.
| Structure | Example | Main advantages | Main drawbacks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Country-code domain | example.de | Clear country targeting; easy to separate sites | Expensive; more infrastructure; targets one country only |
| Subdomain | de.example.com | Easy to set up; can be hosted separately | Users may not know if "de" means a language or a country |
| Subdirectory | example.com/de/ | Easy to set up; low maintenance on one host | Harder to separate sites; single server location |
| URL parameter | example.com?loc=de | None | Not recommended by Google |
For most small and medium businesses, subdirectories on the existing domain are the simplest option to build and maintain.
How do you launch a multilingual website, step by step?
A multilingual website launch runs most smoothly in the order below. Skipping the early steps is the main reason projects overrun.
- Choose markets and languages using sales enquiries, analytics and search demand by country, and decide on variants; our guide to Spanish for Spain vs Latin America shows how.
- Decide the URL structure and how the language switcher will work.
- Prepare the content management system. Install or configure multilingual support, and check that menus, forms, templates and plugins can all be translated.
- Audit the content. List every page, template string, email and PDF, and decide what to translate, adapt, rewrite or leave out for each market.
- Build a glossary and style guide for product names, key terms and tone of voice.
- Research keywords natively in each language before translating page titles and headings.
- Translate and adapt. Use professional translation for core pages and transcreation for slogans and campaign copy.
- Localise formats and assets, including currencies, dates, images and legal pages.
- Test every page on desktop and mobile, including forms, checkout and emails.
- Launch, monitor and maintain. Set up a process so new pages and updates are translated before they go live.
How should visitors switch between languages?
Visitors should be able to choose their language with a clearly visible switcher, and the site should not force them into a version automatically. Google advises: "Avoid automatically redirecting users from one language version of a site to a different language version." It suggests adding links so users can pick their language instead.
- Show each language in its own language, such as "Deutsch" rather than "German".
- Link each page to the equivalent page in the other language, not to the home page.
- Do not rely on flags alone, because a language is not the same as a country.
- Remember the visitor's choice for future visits.
Declare the language in the code as well. The W3C's advice is: "Always use a language attribute on the html tag to declare the default language of the text in the page." (W3C: Declaring language in HTML). This helps browsers and assistive technologies handle the text correctly.
Which content needs local adaptation, not just translation?
Formats, prices, legal information and imagery usually need adapting for each market, because a correct translation can still look foreign or be wrong locally.
Dates, numbers and currencies
Formats differ by locale: decimal commas, date order, currency symbols and spacing all vary. Use locale data from the Unicode CLDR through your platform, rather than formatting by hand.
Legal and commercial pages
Returns, delivery and consumer rights information may need changing for each country, not only translating. See our guide to translating e-commerce checkout and legal pages.
Images and examples
Screenshots with English text, local holidays, sizes and measurements should match the market. Customer examples and case studies may need local equivalents.
Common website localisation mistakes
Most website localisation mistakes are about scope rather than language quality. These are the most frequent:
- Translating only the template. Google warns that "Translating only the boilerplate text of your pages while keeping the bulk of your content in a single language" creates a poor experience.
- Publishing raw machine translation at scale. Google's spam policies class mass-produced pages that add little value as scaled content abuse, including pages generated from other content "through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating, or other obfuscation techniques".
- Forgetting non-page content, such as form errors, emails, cookie banners and PDFs.
- Using IP-based redirects that lock visitors and search engines into one version.
- Launching without a maintenance plan, so language versions fall out of date.
- Translating keywords literally instead of researching how people search in each market.
Websites for games, apps and software follow the same principles as the products themselves; see our guide to video game localisation and our article on translation vs localisation vs internationalisation.
How TranslationWorks can help
TranslationWorks is a UK-based translation agency that localises websites into 150+ languages with native-speaking linguists. Our translation services cover page content, metadata, emails and legal pages, and our transcreation service adapts headlines and campaign copy so they work in each market. Online shops can also see our e-commerce translation page.
We are ISO 17100 certified, ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 registered and Cyber Essentials certified, and we have served 300+ companies. Send us your site address or a content export and your target languages, and we will reply with a free website localisation quote within 24 hours.
