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Comprehensive guide to multilingual websites and best practices

The global marketplace has expanded beyond geographical borders, and as a result, more businesses are recognizing the importance of catering to a diverse and multilingual audience. Building a multilingual website can be a game changer, providing the opportunity to reach new audiences, improve user experiences, and increase conversions. However, creating a multilingual website comes with its own set of challenges. In this guide, we’ll explore the best practices for multilingual websites, how they impact SEO, and tips for maintaining content consistency across languages.

Why multilingual websites matter

A multilingual website allows a business to target international audiences, broadening its reach. In an era where localization can increase relevance and conversions, multilingual sites help improve user experience by providing content in users' native languages. This is particularly significant for e-commerce sites, digital services, educational content, and tourism, where the ability to engage users globally translates to greater revenue potential.

Key benefits of a multilingual website include:

Enhanced user experience: Offering content in the user’s language improves comprehension and engagement.
Higher conversion rates: Localized content tends to convert better because it resonates more with the target audience.
SEO advantages: Optimized multilingual content can improve search rankings in different regions and for specific languages.
Stronger brand image: Supporting multiple languages projects a global and inclusive brand image.

Best practices for building a multilingual website

Choose the right URL structure

One of the most critical decisions when setting up a multilingual website is choosing the correct URL structure. Here are the most common options:

cctld (country-code top-level domains): Example: www.example.hu for Hungarian, www.example.sk for Slovak. This method is effective for targeting specific countries but requires significant effort to manage separate websites.
Subdomains: Example: hu.example.com or sk.example.com. Subdomains provide a balance between managing localized content while keeping it organized under a single domain. This option works well for global brands aiming to target multiple languages without fully separating the sites.
Subdirectories: Example: www.example.com/hu/ or www.example.com/sk/. Subdirectories are often the preferred option for SEO as they allow content to remain under a single domain while still making it easy to differentiate between languages.
URL parameters: Example: www.example.com/?lang=hu. This method is not recommended for SEO purposes as it can lead to poor indexing and user experience issues.

The best practice is to use either subdirectories or subdomains depending on the level of localization and the regions targeted. If you're focusing on country-specific content, subdomains or ccTLDs may be better suited. However, for a single brand across various regions, subdirectories are usually the easiest to manage and provide consistent SEO benefits.

Implement hreflang Tags

Correct implementation of hreflang tags is essential for helping search engines understand which language and region a particular page is intended for. These tags help avoid duplicate content issues that could arise from serving similar content in different languages.

Each page should have an hreflang tag specifying the language and, optionally, the region it's targeting. For example, to target Slovak speakers in Slovakia, the hreflang tag would look like this:

<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.example.com/hu/" hreflang="hu" />
<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.example.com/sk/" hreflang="sk" />

Ensure that hreflang tags are correctly implemented across your website, and don't forget to include self-referencing hreflang tags.

Translation and localization strategies

Simply translating content word-for-word won’t cut it when building a successful multilingual website. Localization is the key to success, as it involves tailoring content to fit the cultural context, idioms, and preferences of your audience. Here are some localization best practices:

Cultural adaptation: Content should resonate culturally with the target audience. This includes adapting visuals, color schemes, and even website layout depending on user behavior in specific regions.
Currency and measurements: Ensure that prices, units of measurement, and dates are adapted to the local format.
Legal and compliance issues: Be mindful of region-specific legal requirements and ensure your site complies with local laws (e.g., GDPR in Europe).
Local seo considerations: Optimize keywords and phrases for search engines in the target language. Using tools like Google Keyword Planner in the specific language can help identify relevant search terms.

Content management for multilingual sites

One of the biggest challenges of running a multilingual website is keeping content consistent across different languages. Implementing a robust content management process is crucial:

Use a multilingual CMS: Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla offer plugins or modules that simplify content management in multiple languages. Platforms like WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) or Polylang allow you to manage translations and ensure the right language is displayed for the appropriate audience.
Regular content updates: When updating content on one language version of your site, make sure to update it across all other languages. This can be automated to some extent with certain CMS platforms, but manual review is often necessary to maintain quality.
Content duplication issues: To avoid duplicate content penalties, ensure that each language’s content is distinct and optimized for local audiences. Hreflang tags also play a role in preventing duplicate content issues.

SEO best practices for multilingual sites

SEO plays a critical role in multilingual websites, and proper optimization ensures that your content ranks well in different regions. Key SEO strategies include:

Localized keyword research: Conduct keyword research in each target language. It’s crucial to recognize that direct translations of keywords may not have the same search volume or relevance. Instead, find out what users in the target language are actually searching for.
Optimize metadata: Each page in different languages should have unique meta titles and descriptions tailored for that language and region. Avoid using automatic translation tools for meta information, as they may not accurately convey the content’s value.
Local backlinks: Just as with any SEO strategy, backlinks play a significant role in search engine rankings. When running multilingual sites, try to gain backlinks from local websites relevant to the target region and language.
Geo-targeting in Search Console: If you're using subdomains or ccTLDs, it’s beneficial to configure geo-targeting in Google Search Console to specify which region each subdomain or ccTLD is intended for. This helps Google understand your regional focus and improves rankings within that region.

Performance considerations

Multilingual websites often involve serving multiple versions of media, scripts, and other resources. To ensure optimal performance across all versions of your site:

Caching: Implement caching for each language version of your site to reduce load times and improve the user experience.
Content Delivery Network (CDN): Utilize a CDN to ensure fast content delivery globally. CDNs automatically serve content from the nearest server to the user, minimizing latency.
Language detection and redirects: Avoid automatically redirecting users based on their browser language settings unless necessary. Some users may prefer to view content in a different language, so always provide an option to switch languages easily.
Mobile optimization: Multilingual sites must be mobile-friendly, ensuring that translations and language switchers are accessible and easy to use on mobile devices.

Canonical Link Tag, linking to different language versions

When managing a multilingual website, it’s essential to help search engines understand the relationships between different language versions of the same content. Incorrect or missing tags can lead to issues like duplicate content penalties, poor user experiences, and reduced search engine rankings. Here’s where the canonical link tag, the x-default hreflang tag, and proper language-specific linking practices come into play.

Canonical Link Tag

The canonical link tag (rel="canonical") informs search engines about the preferred version of a page when there are multiple versions of the same or very similar content. This is especially useful in preventing duplicate content issues, where search engines may penalize your site for having the same content across multiple URLs.

For multilingual websites, you might have similar or even identical content in different languages (or with slight regional variations). In such cases, the canonical tag should be used carefully.

When to use the canonical tag in a multilingual website:

Same content, different languages: If the content is entirely the same in all languages, you typically wouldn’t use the canonical tag, as hreflang tags are better suited to handle language variations. The canonical tag should only be used when you want to signal one version of the page as the primary one for search engines.
Identical content across regions: If your content does not change between countries (for example, example.com/fr/ and example.com/fr-ca/ are the same), you might use the canonical tag to point to a single version (e.g., example.com/fr/). However, it’s generally better to differentiate content for each region to avoid the need for canonicalization in multilingual setups.

A canonical tag looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/en/" />

Use the canonical tag with caution in multilingual setups, as hreflang is generally more appropriate for handling different language versions of a page.

x-default hreflang Tag

The x-default hreflang tag is used in conjunction with other hreflang tags to indicate the default version of a page when none of the specified languages or regions match the user’s preferences. It tells search engines which page should be served as the fallback option if a user’s language or region isn’t specifically targeted by any of the available language versions.

The x-default tag is essential for ensuring that users who speak a language not covered by your specified language pages still have a proper default experience.

Here’s an example of how the x-default hreflang tag might be used alongside other hreflang tags:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/en/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="hu" href="https://www.example.com/hu/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="sk" href="https://www.example.com/sk/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/en/" />

In this case, users who visit the site but do not speak English, Slovak, or Hungarian would be served the English (x-default) version of the site.

The x-default tag is crucial for maintaining a seamless user experience, as it ensures that users who do not match a specific hreflang tag are still provided with a coherent page rather than getting a blank or error page.

Linking to different language versions

Correctly linking to different language versions of your pages helps users navigate between them and enables search engines to correctly index the appropriate pages. You can handle linking in two main ways:

Language switcher for users: A language switcher is a dropdown menu or a set of links that allows users to switch between different language versions of the site. It should be easily accessible and clearly labeled. The switcher should link users to the equivalent page in the other languages, not just to the homepage.
Hreflang tags: Hreflang tags are HTML attributes that indicate the language and optional geographic targeting for each page. As mentioned earlier, they help search engines understand which page to serve to users based on their language preferences or location. They also help ensure that users land on the correct language version of your site based on search engine results.

Here’s an example of how hreflang tags would be implemented for different language versions of a page:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/en/page/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="hu" href="https://www.example.com/hu/oldal/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="sk" href="https://www.example.com/sk/stranka/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/en/page/" />

This setup helps search engines correctly index each language version and ensures that users land on the version of the page that matches their language preferences.

Key considerations for multilingual linking

Consistent linking: Ensure that internal links within each language version of your site direct users to the appropriate language-specific content. For example, if a user is on the Hungarian version of the site (www.example.com/hu/), clicking on a "contact" link should take them to www.example.com/hu/kontakt/, not the English version (www.example.com/en/contact/).
Language-specific Sitemaps: To help search engines discover your multilingual pages, create language-specific sitemaps. Ensure each sitemap references only the URLs for that specific language or region. You can also link to these sitemaps in your robots.txt file or submit them via Google Search Console.
Localized URL slugs: Where possible, localize your URL slugs for each language. For example, instead of using www.example.com/en/about-us/ and www.example.com/hu/rolunk/, use www.example.com/hu/esettanulmanyok/ for Hungarian. This adds a layer of localization and makes your URLs more user-friendly.

Conclusion

Building and maintaining a multilingual website requires thoughtful planning, especially regarding SEO, user experience, and content consistency. By following these best practices, you can ensure that your website effectively reaches a global audience while delivering localized content that resonates with users. Remember that a successful multilingual website is not just about translating words—it's about creating a cohesive, culturally relevant experience for your visitors.

By implementing proper URL structures, using hreflang tags, prioritizing localization, managing content carefully, and optimizing for local SEO, you will create a strong foundation for your multilingual website. And finally, don't forget the importance of monitoring performance and continuously improving your content based on user feedback and analytics. If you're looking to establish a robust multilingual presence, let Playful Sparkle guide you in setting up a website that caters to diverse audiences and enhances user experience across cultures.

Resources

Autor článku Zsolt Oroszlány

Vedúci kreatívnej agentúry Playful Sparkle, prináša viac ako 20 rokov skúseností v oblasti grafického dizajnu a programovania. Vedie inovatívne projekty a vo voľnom čase rád cvičí, pozerá filmy a experimentuje s novými funkciami CSS. Zsoltova oddanosť svojej práci a záľubám poháňa jeho úspech v kreatívnom priemysle.