Your German website is ready, but the enquiry form still sends an English confirmation email. Your Arabic pages read correctly, but the menu is awkward to use. Someone updates a service description on the main website, and nobody remembers to change the translated versions.
These are the details that make multilingual websites difficult to manage.
We build websites that help businesses handle those details from one place. Rehan Ahmed, our CEO, and the team at Smart Web Agency have delivered more than 50 multilingual projects covering languages including Arabic, German, Swedish, Finnish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Czech, Dutch and Polish.
This guide draws on that experience, including our multilingual website work for GeoPura, Love Paper and Two Sides. It covers what to plan, how website localisation works and what needs looking after once your new languages are live.
Contents
- What does multilingual website development involve?
- How is website localisation different from translation?
- Which languages should you start with?
- Can you use your existing website?
- How should you organise your language versions?
- What needs to change in the design?
- Where does AI translation help?
- How should multilingual SEO be handled?
- What did we deliver for GeoPura?
- Who should manage the translated content?
- What should you test before launch?
- What affects the cost?
- Frequently asked questions
What does multilingual website development involve?
Multilingual website development means building or adapting a website so people can use it in more than one language.
The work includes translated content, page layouts, navigation, search visibility and the systems behind the website. It also includes deciding how your team will review and update each language.
A visitor should be able to read a service page, complete a form and understand what happens next without unexpectedly returning to English.
For an online shop, the same principle applies to product information, delivery details, checkout messages and order emails. For an event website, it might include registration, payment and joining instructions.
The scope depends on what people need to do on your website.
How is website localisation different from translation?
Translation changes the language. Website localisation adapts the content and experience for the people using it.
For example, translating a UK product page into French does not answer whether you deliver to France, what delivery costs or which currency the customer will pay in.
Localisation deals with those questions.
It can include:
- Local contact details and opening hours.
- Currency, measurements and date formats.
- Products and services available in each market.
- Relevant photography, examples and case studies.
- Forms that accept local addresses and telephone numbers.
- Delivery information and payment options.
- Wording that sounds natural to the intended audience.
Language and country are also different considerations. French content might serve audiences in France, Belgium or Canada, but the commercial information may vary between them.
Decide whether you need another language, a separate regional experience or both.
Which languages should you start with?
Start with the customers you can realistically serve.
Look at where your enquiries come from, which countries already visit your website and where your sales team sees demand. Speak to local colleagues or distributors about the questions customers ask.
Then choose the pages that matter to those customers.
You may need your main service pages, relevant case studies, contact information and enquiry forms first. Translating years of old news articles can wait.
A useful first phase has a clear purpose. That might be helping a German sales team explain your services or allowing Arabic speaking visitors to register for an event.
Rehan Ahmed’s experience across more than 50 multilingual projects informs how we plan this work at Smart Web Agency. We consider who will maintain the content alongside which languages the business wants to launch.
If nobody can review a language or answer enquiries from that market, resolve that before committing to a large rollout.
Can you use your existing website?
Often, yes.
An existing website may already have the structure needed to support additional languages. Before proposing a rebuild, we review the platform, templates, content and integrations.
The important questions are practical. Can text be translated without damaging the layout? Are forms and automated emails covered? Can editors update a translation safely? What happens when the original page changes?
WordPress websites
Our WordPress multilingual work includes WPML, custom translation integrations and workflows that allow clients to review content before publication.
For websites built with Gutenberg, translated content needs to preserve the page blocks and formatting. Copying an entire page into a translation tool and pasting it back can create unnecessary repair work.
The setup should keep content organised and make future updates manageable.
Ecommerce websites
An ecommerce project needs to account for the full purchase journey.
Our work across Shopify, WooCommerce and OpenCart includes the wider development and integration tasks that can sit alongside localisation. Depending on the brief, these may involve product data, payment gateways, stock systems and customer communications.
A translated product page is only one part of that work.
Custom platforms and connected systems
A customer portal or bespoke application may need translations across dashboards, notifications, documents and account screens.
Smart Web Agency’s services include custom software development, CMS and CRM integrations, API development and payment integrations. That means we can assess what happens after a visitor submits a form or makes a purchase, as well as what appears on the page.
For example, an enquiry can carry the visitor’s selected language into the CRM so the receiving team has that information.
How should you organise your language versions?
You do not automatically need a separate website for every language.
For a business sharing broadly the same content across markets, language folders within one website can keep administration straightforward. A German version might sit under /de/, with French under /fr/.
Subdomains or separate country websites may suit organisations whose regional operations differ substantially.
The decision should account for:
- How much content is shared.
- Whether products, prices or services vary by country.
- Who owns and approves local content.
- Which systems each region uses.
- How much ongoing administration the team can support.
Separate websites can provide independence, but they also create more work. Updates, security, reporting and content reviews still need an owner for each site.
Agree the structure before translating large amounts of content.
What needs to change in the design?
Translated text takes up different amounts of space. A heading that fits neatly in English may wrap over several lines in German. A button may need more room.
Check the design using real translated content, particularly on mobile.
Menus, cards, forms and comparison tables are common places where problems appear. Text embedded in images also needs attention because translating the page will not change the image itself.
Arabic needs proper layout testing
Arabic reads from right to left, which affects navigation, alignment and the arrangement of page elements.
Some content, such as telephone numbers and email addresses, still needs careful handling within that layout.
At Smart Web Agency, Arabic website development includes reviewing how the page works as a whole. We test mixed language content, menus, forms and mobile screens.
Make the language choice easy to find
Use recognisable language names and keep the selector accessible on smaller screens.
Where an equivalent translated page exists, switching languages should take the visitor there. Sending someone back to the homepage forces them to find the same information again.
Where does AI translation help?
AI can reduce the time spent preparing a first translation draft, particularly across a large website.
Our translation workflows can use DeepL, OpenAI or Claude according to the language, content and project requirements.
The review process still matters.
Technical terminology, product claims and short marketing phrases need particular attention. A sentence can read smoothly while changing the meaning of the original.
Our approach is to prepare the source content, agree important terminology, generate translations and give the client or language reviewer a chance to amend them before publication.
A glossary helps keep repeated terms consistent. It can also identify brand names and product names that should remain unchanged.
Once wording has been approved, later automated updates should not casually overwrite it. The workflow needs to distinguish between new content, changed content and translations that have already been reviewed.
How should multilingual SEO be handled?
Each language needs attention beyond translating the main page text.
Start with how people describe your services locally. A direct translation of an English keyword may not be the phrase your audience uses.
Your page titles, headings, descriptions and internal links should reflect the content and language of each page.
The technical checks should also cover:
- Separate, accessible URLs for language versions.
- Hreflang annotations that identify related language or regional pages.
- Canonical tags that reflect the intended indexing setup.
- Sitemaps containing the relevant pages.
- Links that lead to the appropriate language version.
- Redirects where existing page addresses change.
These details help search engines interpret the site. They do not replace useful content or guarantee rankings.
Reporting should separate performance by language and market. A rise in international traffic is encouraging, but enquiries, registrations and sales tell you more about whether the website is helping the business.
What did we deliver for GeoPura?
GeoPura wanted to expand its website into additional languages without commissioning a separate website project for every market.
We adapted its existing WordPress website, implemented WPML and developed a custom plugin connecting the translation workflow with DeepL.
GeoPura’s team retained the opportunity to review and amend the translated content before publication.
The multilingual platform, translation workflow and initial language rollout were completed within two months. German and Italian were the first live language versions described in the project case study.
With the system in place, a first version of a new language can be generated across the website in around two days.
That is the draft generation stage. Content review, local amendments, testing and approval still need time.
The case study contrasts the two month delivery with an estimated fully manual approach of up to 12 months. That comparison relates to this project and its scope. For GeoPura, the lasting benefit is having a repeatable process. The next language can use the existing structure, translation workflow and review process.
Who should manage the translated content?
Decide this before launch.
A central marketing team may own the main website, while country managers review local wording. Translators may need access to copy without permission to change templates or website settings.
We can configure language or country permissions around those responsibilities.
A straightforward workflow is usually enough:
- The main content is approved.
- A translation is prepared.
- The local reviewer checks it.
- Amendments are made.
- The approved version is published and tested.
There also needs to be a process for later changes. If a service description changes in English, someone should know which translated pages need reviewing.
This is where multilingual websites can become inconsistent over time. Clear ownership prevents small updates from being forgotten.
What should you test before launch?
Test the tasks your visitors will actually complete.
Submit an enquiry in each language. Check the confirmation message, the email received by the visitor and the information passed to your team.
For ecommerce, test a purchase and the associated messages. For an event, complete the registration journey.
Then check mobile layouts, navigation, search, downloads and language switching. Look for untranslated buttons, error messages and text inside images.
A local reviewer should see the content in the website itself. Wording that looks fine in a document may feel wrong on a button or become unclear when separated across different sections.
After launch, keep checking the important journeys as content, plugins and integrations change.
What affects the cost?
The number of languages is only part of the calculation.
A small service website with two languages is a different project from an online shop with thousands of products, regional pricing and several connected systems.
The main cost factors include content volume, the condition of the existing website, translation review, layout changes, integrations and ongoing support.
Ask for a proposal that separates the initial setup from translation work, software subscriptions, review and maintenance. It should also explain what adding another language later would involve.
Our GeoPura work shows why that distinction matters. Preparing the platform required an initial project, while subsequent languages can reuse that work.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
It depends on the platform, the amount of content and the review process. For GeoPura, the multilingual platform, translation workflow and initial language rollout were completed within two months. A first draft of a new language can now be generated in around two days, before review and testing.
Not usually. Language folders such as /de/ or /fr/ within one website keep administration simple when most content is shared. Subdomains or separate country websites may suit organisations whose regional operations differ substantially.
Often, yes. A WordPress multilingual website can be built on your existing site using WPML or a custom translation integration, once the templates, forms and automated emails have been reviewed.
AI website translation with tools such as DeepL, OpenAI or Claude speeds up the first draft. A client or language reviewer should still check terminology, product claims and marketing phrases before publication.
Multilingual SEO covers local keyword research, translated page titles and descriptions, separate URLs for each language, hreflang annotations, canonical tags, sitemaps and redirects where page addresses change.
Multilingual website design should allow for longer translated text, right-to-left layouts such as Arabic, a language selector that is easy to find and text that is not embedded in images.
Planning a multilingual website?
Tell us which languages you need, what platform you use and who will review the content.
Smart Web Agency can assess your existing website and plan the development, website localisation, translation workflow and ongoing support.
Whether you are adding one language or bringing several regional websites together, we can help you work out a sensible first phase.
Discuss your multilingual website with Smart Web Agency.
