Skip to content

Web Design · 5 Min. Lesezeit

Designing a multilingual website that does not feel translated 

Adding languages is an architecture decision long before it is a translation task.

Dieser Beitrag ist derzeit nur auf Englisch verfügbar. Er wird in anderen Märkten nicht indexiert, solange keine echte lokalisierte Fassung vorliegt.

Separate content from components

Interface components should never contain language. Keep every string in structured locale resources so a new market is a content task, not a development project.

Localise URLs, not just text

A visitor and a search engine both benefit when the path is in the language of the page. Keep a route map so every page has an equivalent address in each locale.

Design for expansion

German and French sentences run longer than English; Greek and Cyrillic have different rhythm and letterforms. Layouts and typography must tolerate a 35% length difference without breaking.

Never force a language

Detect the browser language as a suggestion at most. Automatic redirects based on location frustrate visitors and confuse crawlers.

Prepare hreflang from the start

Each page should be able to declare its equivalents in every locale plus an x-default. Retrofitting this later is significantly more expensive.

Ihre nächste Website sollte mehr leisten. 

Lassen Sie uns ein digitales Erlebnis rund um Ihr Unternehmen gestalten.