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A multilingual website is a website with the ability to show content in more than one language. It’s also one that’s been localized. Localization is the process of adapting content according to an audience in a specific geographical location, their preferred language, and cultural nuances.
Having a multilingual website breaks down language barriers that would have otherwise prevented audiences from discovering your business and engaging with you. In an essentially borderless world, it’s never been easier to reach new audiences in every corner of the world—especially if your website is available in multiple languages. With Squarespace, you can easily create a multilingual website by using our Weglot .
Do I need a multilingual website?
Not every business needs a multilingual website. For instance, a small local business targeting one community that speaks only one language won’t need one unless you’re in a bustling tourist destination. But if your audience is made up of different native speakers or you’re keen on targeting potential customers in a foreign country, a multilingual website is necessary.
A recent survey by language operations platform, Unbabel, showed that 68% of consumers said they would switch to a brand that offers support in their native language. And 64% of buyers said they’d pay a higher price for a product or service from a brand working in their native language. That means a huge missed opportunity for your business if it’s available in only one language.
If you’ve identified a portion of your visitors coming from a different locale and language, you’ll reach a wider audience by making your website multilingual.
What are the benefits of having a multilingual website?
So, how exactly does a multilingual website benefit your business? It can help you improve your marketing and reach new audiences.
Cost-efficient marketing
Your website is your virtual doorstep to your audience, regardless of where they are. Making it multilingual is an especially effective and cost-efficient way to get the word out about your business and make sure people find you.
What’s more, content marketing on your website is 62% cheaper than other traditional approaches and can produce more leads, according to communications firm, Ragan. Producing content in your target markets’ languages will build trust and confidence, making users more inclined to do business with you instead of competitors.
Find new audiences
If your website content is only in one language, then the rest of your audience won’t understand what you’re offering. But if it’s in multiple languages, you can reach a broader audience—especially when you realize that 41.2% of web content isn’t in English.
More importantly, even if part of your audience does speak English, they’re more likely to convert if they read the information in their native language. You’ll reach these demographics more effectively by offering translated—or even transcreated—content that’s tailored to their background.
Translating your website means accessing markets that were previously unreachable, which could mean big opportunities for your business.
Improve SEO presence in different countries
You could have the most helpful content in the world. But it won’t make a difference if your target audience can’t find it.
Being visible on search engines in different countries is crucial to having your audience discover your content and interact with you. Naturally, users won’t use English search terms if they don’t primarily speak or write in English. They’d use queries or keywords in their native language, especially if they want to buy a product or service in their own country. They may also be inclined to use search terms that are more familiar to them, which would also be in their native tongue.
This also applies to dialects. An internet user in the United States would use “apartment” to look for information about what a user in the United Kingdom would call a “flat”. In this case, if you’re in real estate and hoping to enter the U.K. market, you’ll have to adjust your content accordingly.
Opportunities to sell internationally
When your website is available in multiple foreign languages, you vastly increase your potential to sell to audiences in different countries. That’s a huge opportunity for your business to go global, especially if you’re already receiving significant traffic from other countries.
When you take down the hurdles that prevent people from fully understanding your product or service, they’re more likely to transact with you. In the best-case scenario, they’ll even tell others about your business.
And word-of-mouth marketing is powerful. Most people trust recommendations from people they know more than any others.
Boost your overall sales and conversion rates
Foreign users that don’t understand your website have no reason to stick around. A multilingual website will decrease your bounce rate since more people know what you have to offer. And when they can understand everything about your products, they’ll consider purchasing from you.
That means it’ll be easier than ever to convince people to purchase your products and services instead of going for your competitors. Especially if your competitors don’t have a website that caters to this particular audience. Your audience will feel more confident engaging with you, increasing opportunities for sales and conversions.
How can I make my site multilingual?
There are two main ways to make your Squarespace website multilingual: the traditional workflow and the automated workflow.
1. Traditional workflow
The traditional way to get a multilingual website is:
Work with professional translators.
Create new pages for each language version you plan to have.
Prime the content for SEO, as search engines could struggle to index your translated content without proper setup, like added hreflang tags.
As you can imagine, this process is resource intensive. It could take professional translators anywhere from weeks to months to completely translate a website.
During this process, you likely can’t revise or create new content, as it will only delay the process of setting up your multilingual website.
2. Automated workflow
The automated workflow for getting a multilingual website means using technology to make some processes self-operating when translating your website. That means using some form of machine translation, which has rapidly advanced in quality and accuracy thanks to artificial intelligence.
There are two main technology paths you can follow.
Use machine translation to translate copy and pasted content to get instant, cost-efficient results. However, you’ll have to proofread the entire output. And you’ll need to transfer the translated and proofread content to your website. Finally, you have to redo the process every time you update your website content.
Use a translation solution like Weglot. Weglot uses top machine translation providers for a first layer of automatic translation to scan and translate all of the content on your site.
Other tools in Weglot help to make designing a multilingual website more efficient.
It displays new content for you, so you don’t have to retranslate everything every time you make an update.
A visual editor means you can edit translations in context with other content on the page. You’ll see the translation exactly as it’ll appear for your site visitors.
Automatic SEO attributes ensure that search engines pick up your translated content correctly. This way, you don’t get penalized for creating duplicate content. When your multilingual website is properly set up, you’ll find your content on SERPs sooner than through the traditional method.
Curious about what a multilingual website with Weglot would look like? You can install Weglot’s Squarespace extension directly from the Language & Region panel in your Squarespace Settings and test it for free by signing up for a 10-day free trial.
Learn more about using Weglot on your Squarespace website
Best practices for multilingual websites
Here are some best practices to keep in mind when making your website multilingual.
1. Make the language switcher easily visible
At first glance, your audience will immediately know that your website is in a different language. That’s why it’s important for them to quickly see that you offer the option to switch languages .
To ensure its visibility, place the switcher in a prominent location throughout your website—especially the homepage. Refer to each language the way its native speakers do, such as “Français” for French and “日本語” for Japanese.
The language switcher automatically gets placed in your header when you connect Weglot to Squarespace. You also have style and customization options to help it stand out.
2. Consider text expansion and contraction
When you translate text from one language into another, the length will almost always change. Some languages are just naturally wordier than others, like English and Portuguese, which can use more than 30% more space than other languages. On the other hand, compact languages like Chinese and Japanese convey information succinctly through one or two characters.
The varying lengths will affect how the content displays on your website, so you may need to modify your design accordingly. That’s why it’s crucial to use website translation software that can adapt your design to fit text that expands or contracts when translated.
3. Use culturally appropriate symbols, images, and colors
Visual elements mean different things across cultures. For instance, in some cultures, white often symbolizes innocence, youth, and purity. But other cultures associate white with death.
Research the implications of the visual elements you use in your marketing and branding for each of your new markets. That way, you’ll make sure your promotional efforts resonate with your international audiences and not alienate or offend them.
4. Account for date and other formats
One more thing to keep in mind when creating a multilingual website is to ensure you’ve adapted each language version according to the numeric formats the native speakers use. For instance, Europe uses the day-month-year format, but the U.S. uses month-day-year. Measurement units, currency symbol placement, and time format can also vary by region. Using the correct format will help your users understand the information on your website.
Making your Squarespace website multilingual is a surefire way to invite visitors that speak other languages to get to know your products and services. A website translation solution like Weglot makes it possible to unlock new markets for your business.