What You Need to Consider for Multilingual Websites!
How to Optimize Your Website for International Markets
You want to present your company on your website and sell your products through your own online shop? Then you're likely already familiar with how web projects work and what they involve.
If you’re now aiming to serve or further expand into international markets, it’s essential to make your website or online shop multilingual. What’s often overlooked is that different language and country versions involve much more than just translation effort.
That’s why, in this video series, we want to show you what to consider in multilingual web projects, where the challenges lie, and how—based on our experience—these processes can be optimized.
We usually love to talk about technology, but this time it’s all about processes, content, and maintaining your website. For all multilingual web projects, our focus is always on ensuring that your customer reaches the right product with all necessary information—and that you receive the best advice possible and can easily maintain your site later on.
If you want to expand into international markets, you need a multilingual web presence.
Multiple Country Versions Despite the Same Language?!
Let’s assume your company wants to expand into various countries or is already active internationally. In that case, you need a web presence that not only covers different languages but also considers all country-specific details.
Some languages may be spoken in several countries, but different versions of the website are still necessary—because the differences are often not language-based but country-specific! Take English, for example: it’s spoken in the USA, the UK, and Australia. Despite sharing a language, you’ll often need three country-specific versions because different products may be sold in each region, or those products may require unique descriptions, accessories, or technical specifications. Just think of the different power plugs used in each country.
This means that when launching web projects, we always consider both multilingual support and country-specific versions right from the planning phase.
A web presence must account for different languages and country-specific details.
Time Pressure Leads to Frustration – A Phase Plan Helps!
Time pressure leads to frustration – and that’s why it should be avoided. Nothing is worse than lack of planning in a project.
That’s why it makes sense to use a phase plan that structures the team’s tasks and outlines the timeline – with that, the first challenge is already tackled. For data acquisition, relevant information must be defined and its sources analyzed. This data can then often be migrated from existing systems and enriched with new information. Translations are always a challenge because not only technical content and marketing pages need to be considered, but also navigation and interface elements.
And watch out – images and documents can also be language- and country-specific! Additionally, differences in reading directions and text length across languages must be taken into account – not just in print, but also for websites. This point should not be forgotten just because we’re dealing with a digital medium.
We are familiar with all these challenges and are happy to help you tackle them successfully in your project!
A phase plan brings structure to the project.
Which Rollout: Big Bang All at Once or Step-by-Step?
In a multi-country project, the question arises fairly early: Should we roll out to all countries at once as a “Big Bang,” or better one after the other?
Both approaches have their pros and cons: A phased rollout, country by country, provides more time for content preparation. It also allows you to learn from each country to improve the next rollout. However, it can mean maintaining and running two systems simultaneously and having different country versions with inconsistent appearances. There are also many dependencies in terms of SEO, redirects, and domain strategy – not to mention translation maintenance. A Big Bang rollout requires a high level of preparation and all content must be ready at once. It also increases the pressure because if something goes wrong, it affects the entire platform globally rather than being limited to just one country during initial testing.
So there’s no right or wrong approach – the decision must fit your technical setup, editorial processes, and of course, your marketing strategy!
The choice of rollout strategy depends on your processes.
Good Planning in Advance Ensures an Efficient Process
We’ve been supporting web projects – including multilingual ones – for many years, and in our experience, time pressure is always a major issue.
Especially when many stakeholders are operating across multiple time zones, it's particularly important to have a solid schedule that takes this into account. Such a plan outlines the different phases of the overall project in advance, giving all participants enough time for planning and execution. This also helps avoid conflicts between interdependent tasks from the outset.
Often, multiple service providers are involved in a project – and just like in home construction, one can only start when the other has finished. For example, the translation agency may be ready at the planned time, but all text content must be finalized by then. For us, working efficiently is essential. That’s why our project team consists of members with different core competencies who still always keep an eye on the bigger picture.
When working with many stakeholders across time zones, a solid project plan is essential!
How the Right Content Appears on Your Website
Behind every modern website are well-structured data. In addition to product pages, there are marketing and visual pages like the homepage, various entry points, a contact form, and so on.
What does that mean for the project? Ideally, you first create a sitemap that defines the individual pages your new website should consist of. Then you consider where the content for these pages will come from: For example, can technical data be sourced via integration with existing systems or through data migration – or will the content be manually maintained?
Marketing texts often exist in different formats, which can be imported into various templates through a content management interface. Media such as images, videos, and other documents also need to be compiled and prepared. Additionally, the translation process for all of these areas must be planned in.
We’re happy to optimize the provided data during import upon request – and of course, we also advise you on automated and manual processes.
Behind every modern website are well-structured data!
Why It's Not Just Text That Needs Country-Specific Versions
To ensure the new website looks good in every country, all pages naturally include media – such as images, videos, icons, or other design elements. Even for these media assets, certain things need to be considered when presenting in different country versions!
At first glance, you might think: an image isn’t text, so nothing needs translating. But there are certainly language-specific images, such as graphics with legends embedded in them. And videos or brochures are often already available in different language versions. These can then be pulled automatically from a database – if they’ve been stored there clearly and correctly!
Another scenario: if a composite image shows several products, you don’t want to include a product that isn’t actually available in the selected country. That means such a composite must be customized for that specific country’s website!
In general, all images and media should be web-optimized and created in accordance with the corporate identity or style guide.
When building multilingual websites, remember: images can also be language- or country-specific!
How to Avoid Common Issues with Country-Specific Websites
In this video, I’d like to address some typical issues that can occur on websites with country and language versions.
Case 1: You realize that a product is live in Germany but not in Italy. In this case, it might be because the product is not part of the Italian portfolio – or simply because there is no translation yet.
Another example: You notice that technical specifications are missing or incorrect on a page. This could be due to missing data from an external system or a manual input error.
It’s also common that a content editor cannot enter or view certain information – in that case, it’s worth checking whether they have the necessary permissions.
Or perhaps a country notices translation errors on a page – but then those errors need to be corrected not just on the specific page, but also in the central translation database, the translation memory!
As you can see: It’s best to have someone by your side who knows your data, your data structure, and your processes inside and out – and can offer fast and efficient solutions!
Bring someone on board who knows your data structure and processes really well!
Why a Good First-Level Support Makes Sense
In the previous video, we discussed some issues that can arise on websites with country and language versions. This clearly shows how important it is for multilingual web presences to be well planned and efficiently executed, both in terms of timing and content.
However, ongoing maintenance and support are also key factors for the success and acceptance of your website. Even after the official project is completed and the site is live in all planned countries, there’s always more to do: websites usually go through regular updates and extensions – maybe even a new country rollout. Or questions arise regarding content management or technical issues.
This is exactly why setting up a first-level support is useful! This support should also include user training to avoid errors and to ensure process transparency for all users. We also recommend using a ticketing system to handle and resolve support requests through first-level support. That way, reviewing, analyzing, and prioritizing user requests becomes traceable and well-documented.
Good first-level support is a key factor in your website’s success!
Five Success Factors for a Successful Multilingual Website
At this point, I’d like to summarize the five most important points to help ensure your multilingual website becomes a success.
First: Take time to create a solid project plan that considers skills and resources throughout the project – this helps avoid frustration.
Second: Choose a rollout strategy that fits your needs and prepare it thoroughly. Even with a country-by-country strategy, all countries should be mapped out early in the project plan!
Third: Defining the right data and optimizing it for migration forms the core of a multilingual web project.
Fourth: A style guide for language and visuals helps ensure consistent design and wording for a product or brand – no matter the language or country.
Fifth: Make sure you get solid advice and support for maintenance and ongoing updates.
Defining the right data from the start forms the core of your multilingual web project.