Being a marketing agency in Vancouver, we know a thing or two about working with diverse audiences. Our beautiful city is home to people from all around the globe, all who contribute to our wonderful business community.

Inclusivity is something we consider in all of the work we do, from web design projects to social media campaigns. One of the questions we frequently get from local businesses is about making websites available in multiple languages, and offering a translation service for web pages.

If you’re here reading on, you’re probably wondering what goes into building a multilingual website, and we’re here to give you the details. First, a bit about platform options.

We recommend Webflow and WordPress for multilingual sites

Both Webflow and WordPress make building multilingual sites uncomplicated, saving us time during our site builds, and saving you money.

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of building a website with multiple languages in Webflow.

Let’s talk locales

A locale, in Webflow terms, is a language. In most cases, your primary locale will be English (either Canadian or United States, depending on where your business is located). Your secondary locale will be the language you’d like your website translated into. For the purposes of this example, let’s suppose you’re translating your site into Icelandic. That makes English your primary locale, and Icelandic your secondary locale.

When we build your site, we build it in English first. This includes all words, designs, images, graphics, everything. Once the job is finished, then we begin making all of the necessary updates to your secondary locale.

In Webflow, we will work to translate all of the web copy. This is a fairly quick, straightforward job. Images are a touch trickier, having to be done individually.

What about search engine optimization for multilingual sites?

One of the reasons we love Webflow is because it makes search engine optimization (SEO) a priority. For each page we build in our secondary locale, we take the time to translate all title tags, alt images, and meta descriptions into your secondary language (Icelandic, remember?).

Making the switch

Once we finalize your secondary locale, there’s one last thing to do: build a locale switcher.

In the header of your menu, we’ll build a button that tells site visitors they can change the language of the page. From here, users can select their language of preference, whether it be English, Icelandic, or any other language you choose to offer (yes, we can program way more than two languages, should you wish to offer multiple languages).

Publishing your multiple language website

From here, we’re ready to publish your brand new, multilingual website. We’re sure you’ll be surprised at how easy the process really is, along with how happy your diverse clientele are now that you offer a website in their first-language.

If you’re interested in learning more, book a meeting with us today, or fill out our contact form.

Þakka þér fyrir for reading (that’s thank you in Icelandic).