Guide · SEO and AI visibility
A website in several languages: what needs translating?
A multilingual website should let a customer understand your offer, explore it and contact you in their chosen language. Translating the homepage alone often leaves the rest of that journey unfinished. Start with the markets you can serve and the pages a customer needs before making an enquiry.
Decide what changes for the reader
Separate language from country. One German version can serve several markets when the offer is the same. A regional version needs a substantive difference such as availability, delivery, terms or a market-specific answer.
Prepare a record for each page: question answered, relevant service, language, reviewer and content requiring adaptation. Translating terms without checking the buying decision leaves gaps even when the sentences are correct.
Let people open and share each language
Each language should have its own address. That lets a customer send a link to the right version. Switching language should take them to the equivalent page, not force them to find the article again from the homepage.
For example, this website has English, Spanish, German and Catalan versions. Someone opening a German guide directly should be able to stay there, even if their browser normally uses Spanish. Automatic language detection should not trap visitors in the wrong version.
What should your developer check for Google?
Two settings often appear in multilingual proposals. A canonical identifies the preferred address among duplicate or very similar pages. Hreflang tells Google which versions are language or regional alternatives. They help describe the pages; they do not translate them.
Ask the developer to verify that each complete translation has the correct preferred address and that its language alternatives point to the matching pages. Pointing every translation to English as the preferred copy can send conflicting signals about which pages should appear.
Review wording, examples and links in each language
Review titles, examples, forms, error messages and contact links. German “Individualsoftware” may be more natural than a word-for-word translation of “custom software”. Choose terms that explain the service clearly.
Guide links should continue in the same language when an equivalent exists. If an external source is only available in English, preserve its attribution and identify its language when useful. Do not invent an official translation.
Try the whole journey as a customer
Open a service page on your phone, read a guide, switch language and try the contact route. Do the links still make sense? Are instructions and error messages in the chosen language? Can the business actually reply in it?
Make this journey part of acceptance. Also ask the developer to check the search-engine settings for every language. A working language selector alone does not establish that all versions are set up correctly.
Review results by language and question
Compare queries and pages by country and language over equivalent periods. Fewer impressions on a translation do not establish an hreflang error: demand, page age or the answer may differ.
Expand into a market when you can maintain its pages and handle enquiries. When an explanation changes substantially, review its equivalents and preserve original publication dates. Update modification dates only for content that actually changed.
To separate exposure from outcomes, read how to measure AI citations and visits.
Sources and further reading
Questions before we start
Do I need a separate domain for each language?
Not necessarily. This website uses subdirectories to maintain translations in one project. The decision depends on operations, markets and maintenance.
Are translations duplicate content?
A complete translation differs from copying content and only changing navigation. Provide a real answer in each language and configure the relationships.
Should a remote business publish city pages?
Only when location changes the answer and can be described truthfully. Remote availability does not justify identical pages with different city names.
How can I limit the cost of a multilingual website?
Start with one additional language and the complete journey needed for an enquiry: relevant services, supporting information and contact. Agree who checks the translation and updates it when the offer changes. Fewer complete pages are more useful than a large half-translated site.