Three tips for optimising multilingual websites

An effective multilingual website is essential for companies looking to reach an international audience and strengthen their competitiveness. But this involves more than just translating texts. To succeed globally, your website needs to be localisedi.e. tailored to suit each language and culture and make things more convenient for customers while strengthening your brand.

A well-optimised website not only helps visitors find what they’re looking for, it also builds trust and loyalty. With the right strategy, you can create a user experience that feels natural and relevant, no matter where your visitors hail from.

Your company probably already has a good idea of the markets you should focus on, but if the original website is in English, it can be a good idea to analyse your visitors – for example via web statistics and customer data – to identify the markets with the greatest potential. It’s often better to focus on quality rather than quantity – a website that has been carefully translated into a few languages will inspire greater trust among your visitors than a website that’s available in many languages, none of which quite hit the mark.

In this post, we share three valuable tips for when you’re ready to translate your website into other languages.

Tips 1. Focus on localisation, not just translation

Localisation means tailoring content to the cultural and linguistic context of the local market. It’s more than just translating words – localisation creates a sense that the website has been created specifically for that particular target audience.

Localisation includes:

• Date and time formats
  In Sweden, it’s more usual to write dates as 2025-06-15whereas other countries may use 15 June 2025 or 15/06/2025.
  
• Currencies and units of measure
  Swedish visitors expect prices in kronor (SEK) and weights in kilograms. While American and British visitors all understand English, they have different ideas of how many litres make a gallon. Thus units of measure may also need to be adapted country by country, not just by language.
  
• Idioms and proverbs
  Expressions like keep your shirt on or a miss is as good as a mile cannot be translated literally into other languages, but must be localised appropriately to be understood.
  
• Cultural nuances
  Images and texts should reflect the customs and observances of the country where they’ll be used. For example, Midsummer is an important tradition in Sweden, but relatively unknown in other countries.

Tips 2. SEO optimisation for multilingual websites

Being visible on Google and other search engines is just as important internationally as it is in your home market. For a multilingual website, make sure each language version is search engine optimised (SEO).

Here are some important steps:

• Create unique URLs for each language page, for example dinsida.se for Swedish and dinsida.se/en for English.
• Localise keywords and content for each language version. Directly translated keywords rarely work well; instead, conduct a thorough keyword analysis for each market
• Update metadata (title, description) and image alt texts for each language.

An SEO-optimised multilingual website increases your visibility globally and enables more customers to find your service.

Tip 3. Assure the quality of the website's translation

Poor or incorrect translations can quickly undermine your company's credibility. Language is not just words; it’s communication, confidence and trust.

To ensure the highest quality in your website translation, you should 

• work together with professional translators who have a local understanding of the language and culture
• avoid machine translations as they lack nuance and often lead to misunderstandings
• review and assure the quality of the content regularly to keep it current and accurate.

A natural, accurate translation not only creates a better reading experience, but also boosts your brand’s professional and customer-focused image. On the other hand, an incorrectly translated technical description can confuse readers and in the worst case cause them to leave the page. Websites with quality-assured texts are perceived as reliable and clear, and inspire trust in the reader.

Technical solutions for automatic language identification

There are also technical solutions that can help a company reach a larger market by using more languages. One can naturally have the website machine translated. While this is cheap and quick initially, there’s a high risk of inaccuracies if the translation is not carefully reviewed by a native speaker who’s familiar with the industry. Thus in the long run, such solutions can be more time-consuming and expensive.

Nevertheless, once a website is translated into multiple languages there are smart solutions to make sure the customer lands in the right place right away. Automatic language identification allows the website to read the user's browser language or geographical location and automatically display content in the correct language. In this case, it can be smart to clearly complement this function with a language selector in the menu, allowing users to easily switch languages if the automatic setting is not what is desired.

Why a multilingual website is important

Investing in a multilingual website is a powerful way to increase your global reach and build long-term relationships with customers in different parts of the world. By offering content in multiple languages, you can create experiences that are more personal and relevant for your visitors. A multilingual website also boosts brand awareness and enables you to compete effectively in international markets.

Want to find out how you can succeed with a website in multiple languages? Contact us at Språkbolaget – we help companies create bespoke solutions for global communication.