What is the right way to create a multilingual site?

Most of the time the client or novice web designers don’t know the right way to make a multilingual website, they end up doing a mere translation or doing things wrong… Very wrong.
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What is the right way to create a website with more than one language?

A multilingual website is one that offers its content in different languages, it is one that is oriented to users from different countries through specific languages.

2 errores fatales que comete el cliente o programadores/diseñadores web´s novatos son:

  • A translation overloading on the same site of the  Google transalte type.
  • mydomain.com/posts-1.html in Spanish and mydomain.com/posts-1-english.html the latter is fatal and one of the worst mistakes a company can make.

Remember that an instant translation is not a multilingual site..

So what is the right way to make a website with more than one language?

There are 2 ways to create a multilingual website correctly

  • Use subdomains or folders
    • www.en.mydomain.com (subdomain english version)
    • www.mydomain.com/en/ (English version folder)
    • www.es.mydomain.com (subdomain spanish version)
    • www.mydomain.com/es/ (Spanish version folder)
  • Use specific domains
    • www.mydomain.mx / www.mydomain.com.mx (Spanish version)
    • www.mydomain.com (English version)

If you are going to use domains for each regional language, English is the most spoken language in the world so the best idea is to always leave the .com in English.
A tip I can give you if you are going to use folders within your server or subdomains is to redirect from the index to the users according to the language where they visit us, this way the user does not find the classic index “choose your language” that looks ugly and unprofessional.

Although it is valid to have www.mydomain.com in Spanish
and www.en.mydomaio.com / www.mydomain.com/en/ in English
I do not recommend it because they have more disadvantages than advantages, in this case subdomains should be made for each language from the moment you plan to make a multilingual site.

Let’s look at case studies

Google does the following:
English / United States – https://www.google.com
English / England – https://www.google.co.uk/
Spanish / Mexico – https://www.google.com.mx/
Spanish / Argentina – https://www.google.com.ar/

Google redirects the domain according to the country, but be careful, each country has its own domain, this is a correct way to make a multilingual and multiregional website.

Let’s go further, here is a table directly from Google support

URL structures

We recommend that you use a URL structure that allows you to geographically target certain parts of your site to different regions. The following table lists the options available to you:
URL structure Example Advantages Inconveniences
ccTLD domains example.ie
  • The geographical orientation is clear.
  • The location of the server is irrelevant.
  • The sites can be easily separated.
  • The cost is high (and may have limited availability).
  • They require more infrastructure.
  • In some cases, the requirements for the use of ccTLD domain names are strict.
Subdomains with gTLDs de.example.com
  • They are easily configured.
  • They can use the geographic targeting of Google Webmaster Tools.
  • They allow different server locations.
  • The sites can be easily separated.
  • The URL may not be sufficient for users to recognize the geographic orientation (e.g., “de” corresponds to the language and country).
Subdirectories with gTLDs example.com/de/
  • They are easily configured.
  • They can use the geographic targeting of Google Webmaster Tools.
  • They do not require high maintenance (the host is the same).
  • The URL may not be sufficient for users to recognize the geographic orientation.
  • They allow a single server location.
  • It’s more difficult to separate the sites.
URL parameters site.com?loc=de
  • Its use is not recommended.
  • URL-based segmentation is difficult.
  • The URL may not be sufficient for users to recognize the geographic orientation.
  • It is not possible to use Google Webmaster Tools geo-targeting.

SOURCE | Google Webmaster Tools | Managing multi-regional and multilingual sites

Is a multilingual site really 2 sites? Do I really have to create 2 sites?
Yes and yes, they are 2 sites actually independent of each other.

If you are a web designer/programme

I know why you came here and it is because you are in one of the following cases.

My client wants me to do the English version but it was never in the quote.
A: Explain to your client, that it is to redo the site changing not only the text, it is to redo the installation, edit images and relocate everything.

I already answered that but it tells me that the site is already done, that it is only a matter of changing the “little letters”..
A: Give him the following example, it has always worked for me, “If I were an architect, it would be like making a twin building by changing the colors and the signs, even though I have already made the plans, I have to build again from the foundations”.

My client wants a translation of the type
www.mydomain.com/entry-1.html to www.mydomain.com/post-1.html
 “to reduce costs”
A: This is a big mistake, remember that this will carry your signature and maybe this client will leave you alone doing it, but after a while mistakes like this will close more doors than you will have open.

They cloned my creation in a static html version and made it in English.
A: Depending on the country where you are based and where the site is hosted, you can take legal action, check your agreements as well, it is important to include this point in your agreements or notices.

How much should I charge for each language?
If the client is going to give you the texts already translated; charge the time of installation, the time of retouching of images, eye retouching because you already did them previously so in many cases it is only changing the text in the image, upload it again and ready, calculate the time it will take you to put and shape the texts, regularly varies from 30% to 65% of the price that has been given to the site and if it is more than one language reduce the costs per language since more quantity at a lower price each one will still give you a very good profit.

11 Comments

  1. gabouh
    gabouh on January 2, 2014 at 1:12 am

    Hola, que bueno tu articulo sobre las traducciones, tenia la duda de que hacer con mi proyecto. Investigando tambien encontre que existe una funcion en php llamada gettext y sirve para traducir textos, aún no me he terminado de informar pero ya sigo en ello, y muchas gracias por la info.

    Reply
    • evZek
      evZek on January 2, 2014 at 1:16 am

      Hola gabouh, gettext se usa en php para los ficheros .po es decir cambiar cadenas de texto, mas no de urls. En los próximos dias si gustas saco una rtículo de gettext
      Saludos…!!!

      Reply
      • gabouh
        gabouh on January 2, 2014 at 2:22 am

        Si de hecho estaba viendo esto sobre gettext, por lo que tambien pienso que no tiene mucho impacto sobre SEO. Tendre que hacer 2 sitios por lo menos ya tengo toda la version español lista, pero me da mucha pereza :/ gracias

        Reply
  2. Oscar Castro
    Oscar Castro on May 12, 2014 at 11:27 am

    Muchas gracias por la información, tengo una duda y si me puedes colaborar te lo agradecería: Utilizando Subdirectorios para los diferentes idiomas, es necesario que en cada uno de ellos contenga un index, ej: midominio.com/index.php (principal) – midominio.com/it/index.php (italiano) al hacer esto se requiere la utilización de link canonical? es correcto hacerlo de esta manera? Gracias por tu ayuda.

    Reply
  3. Ronald
    Ronald on August 11, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    Hola, tengo una consulta, varias veces mensionas que “midominio.com/entrada-1.html en español y midominio.com/entrada-1-english.html” es fatal… pero no explicas el por qué?

    Reply
    • evZek
      evZek on August 12, 2014 at 11:39 am

      Hola Ronald es fatal, porque no es la manera correcta en todo caso sería mejor
      midominio.com/carros-1.html en español y
      midominio.com/carrs-1.html en inglés.

      Recuerda que los buscadores identifican la cabecera de cada página

      Saludos…!!!

      Reply
  4. Frank
    Frank on March 21, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    Hola saludos, EXCELENTE EXPLICACIÓN

    Mi consulta es: como ves mi web termina .ar, debería realizarla nuevamente pero .ar/en? Tipo carpeta?

    Yo poseo toda la traducción de mi sitio, nunca me gusto google translate

    En mi proveedor de hosting tengo la posibilidad de 2 dominios adicionales y en el caso de los sub/dominios es infinito

    Muchas gracias.

    Reply
  5. Ruben
    Ruben on May 22, 2016 at 10:42 pm

    Hola, no es posible crear un diccionario dentro del sitio, para no duplicar paginas? es decir un php con cada idioma y que contenga una funcion llamada traducir, recibiendo como parametro la palabra original en español?, por ejemplo:
    function traducir($palabra){
    switch $palabra
    case “hola”: “Hello”
    case “adios”: “good bye”
    …
    …
    case “productos”: “Product”
    ]
    Entonces si el usuario cambia el idioma,se actualiza la pagina tomando las palabras del php que corresponda al diccionario del idioma elegido, por ejemplo eng.php, esp.php,etc, esto es menos trabajoso que armar todas las paginas de nuevo…

    Reply
    • Pedro Bravo
      Pedro Bravo on May 11, 2021 at 4:50 pm

      No soy experto en esto de SEO y las mejores prácticas para ello, pero si soy bueno programando y aunque comparto tu idea de programar algo (una estructura que reciba como parámetros el idioma y basado en ello, escriba la parte correspondiente en el documento), la lógica me dice que al hacerlo así, lo buscadores solo registraran un solo sitio (o idioma), mientras que creando los n sitios por cada idioma, los buscadores indexaran así mismo de forma independiente cada uno de ellos.

      Reply

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