Translating your website for new markets: the guide

With today’s tools, translating an entire site takes a few hours. That is exactly the trap: a site translated in a few hours often looks like a site translated in a few hours. The keywords are not the ones local clients type, prices stay in euros, the form asks for a five-digit postcode and trade terms change from one page to the next.

This guide opens our Website translation section. It follows the order of a market opening: choose the market, translate with method, decide what gets reviewed, adapt to the country, declare each language to search engines, then keep the site up to date. Each section links to the article that goes deeper. To discuss a specific project, tell us about the market you are targeting.

Which market should you open first?

No language wins by default. The right first market is the one where you already have demand (visits, contacts, orders from that country) and where you know how to deliver, invoice and answer. We compare German, Spanish and Italian in German, Spanish, Italian: which market to open first, and more distant markets in Opening an English-speaking market and China and Southeast Asia: site, payment, platforms.

A partly translated blog is also a good market test: translate first the articles that already attract visitors from the country and lead to an offer, and watch what happens. See Translating a whole blog: which articles first.

How do you translate a site without missing anything?

The method comes down to a few rules, detailed in Translating a website: method and pitfalls.

1. 01One URL per language.

   Each language has its own addresses, never a single page that switches language depending on the visitor.

2. 02Everything the visitor reads.

   The pages, but also title and description tags, menus, forms, automatic emails and the error page.

3. 03Vocabulary fixed first.

   Product names, trade terms, banned words, in a brand glossary.

4. 04Review matched to the stakes.

   In full for what commits you, by sample for volume.

5. 05A check before publishing.

   Missing text, numbers, glossary terms, links.

The glossary is the step most often skipped and most often regretted: without it, every tool and every translator picks their own words, and you fix the same error twice. See Brand glossary: avoiding inconsistent translations.

Machine or reviewed translation: which should you choose?

Both, page by page. Someone who reads the language reviews in full every page that commits the company: offers, terms, pages that sell. Repetitive pages are validated on their template and on a sample reviewed per language. Google considers it essential to review any AI-generated content, so sampling remains a compromise, reserved for volume. Details in Translating your site with AI: machine or reviewed?.

Which tool should you choose? None wins everywhere, and public rankings are not run on your texts. A test on twenty to thirty excerpts of your content, with your glossary, judged by someone who reads the language, answers better than any comparison: we describe this protocol in DeepL, Google or an LLM: who translates your trade best. And to know whether quality holds without reviewing everything, the method is in Translation quality: measuring it without reading everything.

Why localise rather than translate?

Because a foreign client spots in seconds a site that is translated but not adapted. Localising means changing what differs from one country to another beyond the words: currency, taxes and payment methods, the proof clients recognise, form fields, date and number formats. The full list is in Localise, don’t just translate: prices, proof and forms.

Keywords follow the same logic: a translated list does not tell you what clients in another country search for. The common word, the volume and the intent change, sometimes even the search engine. The research is redone locally, and its results then guide the translation: see Keyword research abroad: redo it, don’t translate it. Each version is finally declared to search engines with hreflang tags, a frequent source of errors we cover in Hreflang and multilingual SEO: costly mistakes.

Beyond the site: products, support, software and videos

Opening a market does not stop at pages. Each kind of content has its method:

• Product pages are translated field by field, at volume, with review of safety instructions and best sellers: Product pages for export.
• Customer support answers in the client’s language without hiring one person per language: Translating your emails and customer support.
• Software or an app is translated at every release, with the context of each screen: Translating software.
• Videos can be subtitled at low cost, and dubbing with a cloned voice requires the person’s written consent: AI subtitles and dubbing.
• Contracts can be translated with AI to understand them, never for the binding version: Translating a contract with AI.

One point runs through all of these: a text sent to an online tool goes to a provider, and if it contains personal data, GDPR applies. See Translation and GDPR: where your translated texts go.

How much does a multilingual site cost?

Translation is paid by the page or word when a person translates or reviews, by the character when a machine translates. But the figure that tells you whether a language pays off is the cost per market: translation, review, keyword research, forms, support and updates, added up over the year. The method is in Translating a site: cost per word, per page, per market.

The item that brings that cost down over time is the translation memory: at each update, only new or changed sentences go out again. Make sure it belongs to you and can be exported, as we explain in Translation memory: what the business gains.

Where to start

1. 01Look at where your demand comes from.

   Visits, contacts and orders by country: the first market is often already there.

2. 02Write the glossary.

   One page of mandatory terms, language by language, before any translation.

3. 03Redo keyword research locally.

   With tools set to the country and the language.

4. 04Translate what sells first.

   Offer pages, best product pages, articles that already attract visitors.

5. 05Measure before opening the next language.

   Traffic, requests and sales from the new market.

If you want to open a market with us, tell us about your site and the target country: we will tell you what to translate, review and adapt. For a site at volume, our programmatic SEO rolls out pages by market and by language.

Frequently asked questions