Web pages available in different languages are special as they display the same content multiple times. In order to guide visitors and make them quickly find the desired information in the right place, it is important to set up the site with a clear and organized structure.

To do this, the following must be taken into account:

Present the language selection in the first level of navigation

Visitors should be able to select the language in the first level of navigation, so the first thing they should see are the options you offer them, for example, “Spanish” and “English”. All other subpages should be brought to the second or third level.

Plan content in advance

When we talk about multilingual web pages, we are really referring to a single web page that has two or more subpages where we can find the same translated information.

Therefore, first consider how you want to structure the navigation to make your job easier. Creating a multilingual website later is more complicated than doing it directly from scratch.

Evaluate if translation tools are an option, although perhaps not the best solution

On the Internet you can find tools that translate the content automatically. If you want to install such a tool on your website, visitors can change the language by clicking. However, the texts will sound like robots talking and can lower the quality of the content.

Steps to make a website in several languages

1. Configure the language selection in the first level

The first thing is to configure a subpage for each language that you want to have in the first level of navigation. Then you can put each subpage the name of the corresponding language. For this, it also uses the home page and deletes all the other subpages of the first level, but first saves the content.

Once this is done, you will have visible in the first level of your navigation menu only the subpages corresponding to the languages you want to offer.

2. Enter the content only for the first language

Here you start to shape your site. Set the subpages you need for the first language. It is advisable to plan the structure in advance and maintain a navigation with few subpages that are also clear.

Try to put all the information, images, buttons and texts you need, so that your web page is already available in that first language. The navigation can be more or less like this:

3. Add navigation for other languages

Now it is the turn of the other languages. To further complete your multilingual web page, duplicate the first language subpages and drag the duplicate pages down to the second language level. Remember to translate the name of the subpages.

Another option is to add new subpages without duplicating them; however, duplicating pages saves you from having to repeat the block structure on each subpage.

4. Translate the content

Now all that remains is to translate the subpages:
Texts
Titles
Buttons (CTA)
Alt-Text for images