Expanding into global markets demands more than just translating your website. You also need a strategic approach to multilingual website design.
As a web design agency, Webstacks has seen firsthand how enterprises benefit from building digital experiences tailored to international audiences. A great multilingual website removes language barriers, drives engagement, improves SEO visibility in local markets, and creates lasting trust with users across regions.
Whether you're leading marketing at a fast-scaling B2B SaaS company or managing digital transformation at the enterprise level, multilingual design is a business imperative.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to create a multilingual website design that actually works.
How to Plan Your Multilingual Website Design
Before tackling translation or plugins, multilingual website design starts with a strategic foundation. The goal is to publish content in multiple languages and to deliver value in each market with intention and precision.
1. Identify Target Languages Based on Business Goals
Start with data. Use your analytics tools to understand where current traffic comes from and which regions offer the most growth potential. Prioritize languages based on high-impact opportunities—existing user bases, untapped markets, or customer support needs.
Webstacks recommends combining Google Analytics, CRM insights, and sales team feedback to validate language priorities before investing in any design or development.
2. Prioritize the Right Content for Translation
Not all content needs to be translated at once. Focus first on high-impact pages like product overviews, pricing, contact pages, and conversion-focused assets. This ensures your localized experience supports real business outcomes from the start.
3. Plan Resources and Internal Ownership
Multilingual websites require ongoing management. That includes translation workflows, content approvals, SEO audits, and QA. Decide early who will own the process—an internal localization team, your content marketers, or an external partner.
4. Align with Marketing and Localization Goals
Multilingual design should fit into a broader go-to-market strategy. Coordinate with regional marketing teams or international stakeholders to ensure the content reflects local preferences and campaigns.
Strategic planning upfront saves significant time and costs down the road. It also makes sure your multilingual experience is scalable and aligned with the business outcomes you care about most.
What Does the Technical Implementation of Multilingual Website Design Entail?
The right technical foundation separates a scalable multilingual website from a short-term patch. From platform selection to URL structure, each decision impacts your site's performance.
1. Choose a CMS That Supports Multilingual Capabilities
Your content management system (CMS) should allow for flexible multilingual architecture natively or through integrations. A multisite CMS can help you manage multiple websites on one platform.
Popular platforms like Webflow and Contentful offer robust multilingual features. Headless CMS platforms like Sanity or Prismic also offer localization flexibility via APIs for enterprise-grade needs.
At Webstacks, we recommend our clients implement a CMS solution that balances ease of use for marketing teams with scalability for dev teams. It prevents future bottlenecks when adding more languages or content layers.
2. Define Your URL Structure
There are three main URL structures to choose from:
- Subdirectories (e.g., example.com/fr/) – SEO-friendly and easier to manage.
- Subdomains (e.g., fr.example.com) – Offers more separation for regional teams.
- ccTLDs (e.g., example.fr) – Best for country-specific SEO, but expensive to manage.
Each has pros and cons, but consistency and hreflang implementation are more important than your chosen format.
3. Implement Language Switching and Detection
Make it easy for users to find their preferred language. Offer a visible, accessible language switcher, ideally in the header or main nav. You can also use browser-based language detection, but always let the user manually override it.
4. Optimize for Multilingual SEO
Implement hreflang tags correctly to signal language/region variations to search engines. Make sure that translated pages are indexable, and avoid duplicate content issues by creating fully localized versions, not just mirror pages.
5. Think Ahead with Scalable Architecture
Don’t hard-code content or language selectors into your front end. Use modular design systems and dynamic content fields to support easy updates and expansion later on.
When your tech stack is aligned with your global strategy, your multilingual website can scale and perform reliably across languages, devices, and markets.
Design and User Experience
Good multilingual design makes it easy for users from different cultures to interact with your site. A poor UX in one region can damage your brand as quickly as a bad translation.
1. Keep Branding Consistent
Your brand voice and visuals should feel familiar across all languages, but allow for regional adaptations where needed. For example, imagery, icons, or even taglines based on local customs or expectations can help you be consistent and relevant.
If you need help creating a scalable design system, Webstacks can help you build one that preserves brand integrity across markets, and enables localized content teams to adapt where needed.
2. Design for Text Expansion and Contraction
Languages such as German or Finnish may use up to 30% more space than English, while Chinese or Japanese may use less. Your layout, buttons, and containers should be responsive enough to accommodate text changes without breaking the design.
3. Ensure Accessibility Across All Versions
Every localized site should meet WCAG accessibility standards. This includes contrast ratios, keyboard navigation, and screen reader compatibility. Just because content is translated doesn’t mean it’s accessible, especially when you introduce dynamic language-switching or custom components.
4. Account for Cultural Sensitivity
Colors, symbols, gestures, and even navigation patterns can have different meanings in different regions. For example, red can symbolize danger in one culture and celebration in another. Avoid design assumptions by validating visuals with native reviewers or regional stakeholders.
Content Localization
While translation is part of multilingual website design, true localization goes deeper. It adapts content so it resonates culturally, contextually, and emotionally with each audience.
1. Go Beyond Word-for-Word Translation
Direct translations often fall flat. Implementing a localization strategy adapts your tone, idioms, and references to fit the expectations of the target audience. For example, a call-to-action like “Book a demo” might be better phrased as “Schedule a consultation” in regions where direct sales tactics are less effective.
Webstacks advises clients to localize with intent. Instead of translating entire sites upfront, focus on high-conversion assets where nuance matters most.
2. Localize Multimedia and Visual Assets
Text is only part of the story. Videos, graphics, charts, and CTAs should reflect the local language and cultural norms. Subtitles, voiceovers, localized testimonials, and region-specific imagery all contribute to a more authentic experience.
3. Adjust Formatting for Regional Norms
Dates, currencies, time zones, and even measurements should reflect regional standards. A U.S. visitor expects dollars and “MM/DD/YYYY”, while someone in Germany expects euros and “DD.MM.YYYY”.
4. Implement a Quality Assurance Process
Review localized content with native speakers for language accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and emotional tone. This includes proofreading, UX testing, and validating any automatic translations before launch.
5. Align Local Content With Local Strategy
Localization shouldn’t happen in a silo. Work with regional sales or marketing teams to check that your content supports the larger go-to-market plan, whether that’s education, lead generation, or brand awareness.
3 Examples of Multilingual Website Design
For inspiration, check out these brands that did a great job implementing multilingual website design:
Nielsen
Nielsen, a global leader in marketing information and analytics, operates a multilingual website available in 12 languages, including Italian, French, Spanish, and Japanese. The site features an intuitive language menu in the top-right corner, making it easy for users to access localized content and services.
Cakemail
Cakemail, which provides email and transactional marketing solutions for businesses, offers its website in four languages: English, French (France & Canada), Italian, and Spanish. The site is designed for freelancers, small businesses, and enterprises, with a user-friendly language switcher and testimonials tailored to users speaking different languages.
Notion
Notion, a popular productivity and collaboration software, has a multilingual website supporting 7 languages. The entire site, including product imagery, is localized to give users the same experience regardless of their language.
Tools and Resources
You need the right tools to build and maintain a multilingual website at scale.
Below are key categories of tools that support multilingual website design, along with examples commonly used by B2B enterprises:
1. Translation Management Systems (TMS)
TMS platforms centralize the localization process, allowing teams to manage translations, track updates, and collaborate with linguists in real time. They integrate with CMS platforms and reduce manual work.
Examples:
- Lokalise – Ideal for fast-moving SaaS teams; integrates with GitHub, Figma, and headless CMS platforms.
- Smartling – Enterprise-grade platform with automation features, visual context, and analytics.
- Phrase – Offers in-context editing and developer workflows for multilingual apps and websites.
2. CMS Plugins and Extensions
If you’re using WordPress or similar traditional CMS platforms, plugins can help you implement multilingual support without rebuilding your site.
Examples:
- WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) – Supports string translation, SEO features, and multilingual e-commerce.
- TranslatePress – Allows live front-end translation and integrates with visual builders like Elementor.
- Polylang – Lightweight and developer-friendly, great for smaller sites or custom themes.
The Webstacks team recommends our clients to evaluate current and future language needs before choosing a plugin, as some tools don’t scale past a few languages.
3. Professional Localization Services
Automated translation has limits. For high-impact pages, such as product messaging, CTAs, and region-specific legal content, professional translation is necessary.
Your options include:
- Partnering with certified translation agencies.
- Hiring native freelancers for target markets.
- Creating hybrid workflows that combine AI and human review.
4. Language Switcher and Detection Tools
Make it easy for users to change languages or automatically detect their preferences.
Examples:
- GeoIP-based detection tools for custom builds.
- Weglot – Provides automatic translation with customizable language switchers and supports 100+ languages.
With the right stack in place, your team can focus on scaling content and optimizing global performance, and avoid struggling with translation logistics.
Turn Your Multilingual Strategy into Scalable Growth
Multilingual website design is a strategic investment in global growth, user experience, and brand trust.
But building a site that performs across markets requires cross-functional collaboration and thoughtful execution.
The most successful multilingual websites aren’t just translated—they’re localized and continuously improved.
At Webstacks, we help enterprises turn complex digital ecosystems into scalable, multilingual experiences. We can do this in multiple ways, including helping you select and implement a CMS or a full localization strategy.
If you're planning to expand globally or need help scaling your multilingual infrastructure, we’re here to support you.
