Website in multiple languages: how to sell in other countries

Is it worth translating your site?

CSA Research’s study of 8,709 consumers in 29 countries found that 76% prefer to buy products with information in their own language and that 40% simply won’t buy from websites in other languages (CSA Research, 2020). For services, where trust matters even more, fully understanding the offer in your own language is part of the decision.

It also helps with AI search: a Weglot analysis of 1.3 million citations found that translated sites were cited more often in assistant answers than sites available in a single language (Search Engine Journal). Weglot sells translation services, so the figure is worth reading with caution, but the logic is clear: if you don’t have content in the language of the person asking, it’s hard for you to get recommended.

How much does a multilingual website cost?

There’s no fixed price, because it depends on how much content needs translating and how the site will be maintained. These are the factors that move the budget the most:

• How many pages and blog posts are translated.
• Who translates: machine translation with human review costs less than professional translation, but needs closer checking.
• Localization: adapting keywords, examples and calls to action to each market takes more work than translating.
• What visitors don’t see: forms, automated emails, alt text, URLs and structured data.
• Maintenance: every change in one language has to be made in the others too.

If the site doesn’t exist yet, it’s worth planning it for several languages from the start. Adding a language to a site that wasn’t built for it usually costs more than doing it right from day one.

To find out what it would cost in your case, tell us what you need.

Subfolders, subdomains or separate domains?

For most small businesses, subfolders are the simplest and most efficient option. Google documents all three options and their pros in its guide to multi-regional sites (Google Search Central).

What is hreflang and why does it matter?

Hreflang is a tag that indicates which version of a page corresponds to each language or country. Without it, Google may show the English page to someone searching in Portuguese, or treat the versions as duplicate content.

Each version should link to all the others and to itself, and it’s a good idea to define an x-default version for anyone who doesn’t match any language (Google Search Central). Plugins like Polylang or WPML generate it automatically in WordPress, but you need to check that the pairs are complete.

Is machine translation enough?

It works as a draft, not as a final version. Each market searches with its own words: in Argentina people search for “diseño de página web”, in the United States “web design agency” and in Brazil “criação de sites”. Good localization work reviews terms, examples, currencies, date formats and calls to action.

You also need to translate what isn’t visible: URLs, titles, meta descriptions, image alt text and structured data.

Which mistakes should you avoid?

• Automatically redirecting visitors based on their location. Google advises against it because it keeps people and crawlers from reaching each version. A visible language switcher works better.
• Publishing half-translated languages, with menus in one language and copy in another.
• Using flags to choose a language: Spanish isn’t spoken in just one country.
• Forgetting forms and automated emails, which also need to be in the customer’s language.

Frequently asked questions