How To Translate A Website: Steps, Examples, Best Practices

Most websites are written in just a few languages—primarily English, which makes up just over 49% of web content, with Spanish (6%) and German (5.6%) as distant runners-up. But the Internet serves billions of people who speak hundreds more.[1]

Whether you’re browsing foreign sites or managing a large public portal, website translation is essential. This guide walks through website translation functionality for businesses, how it’s done, and what to consider for accuracy, efficiency, and long-term success.

• Web browser extensions like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Microsoft Edge offer one-click translation for personal browsing needs

• Website owners can implement translation solutions through plugins, addons, content management systems (CMS), or translation management (TM) platforms

• AI translation + human review delivers the best balance of speed, cost, and quality for business websites

• Proper multilingual SEO setup ensures translated website content appears in search results for speakers of other languages

• Translation memory and glossaries maintain brand voice consistency across languages

Many internet users speak languages other than English, and 75% of consumers prefer to buy products from online stores in their own language.[2]

Website translation improves user experience by offering content in their preferred language. It helps businesses reach new markets without building separate sites from scratch and makes government services accessible to diverse citizens.

For businesses in particular, website translation helps with:

• Increased traffic & conversions: Multilingual sites attract new audiences, elevating organic search visibility and reducing bounce rates.

• Equity & accessibility: Even if you’re not targeting international audiences, web translation is important for multicultural societies. 47% of foreign-born residents and 2% of US-born residents (over 27 million people combined) in the US report poor English proficiency, making translation a priority for government services.[3]

• Expanded sales pipeline: Offering content in local languages leads to more form fills, content downloads, demo requests, and meetings booked, fueling a larger marketing pipeline.

• Revenue growth aligned with goals: Organizations that invest in website localization report enormous ROI thanks to streamlined workflows, expanded capacity, and better customer engagement. Even in B2B sales, 67% of businesses want to engage with localized websites.[4]

• Enterprise-level metrics improvement: Translation enhances user experience and engagement (users spend more time onsite), directly impacting key enterprise KPIs like registration rates, lead volume, and MQL-to-SQL conversions.

Traditionally, translating a business website was a costly process, often requiring extensive back-and-forth with a third-party translation agency. Fortunately, modern AI-powered translation tools make quality website translation easy to handle in-house, and a no-brainer investment for any business looking to go global.

There are three main ways to translate web pages: AI translation, human translation, or a combination of both.

AI translation uses computer algorithms to convert languages automatically. Translation tools can translate entire web pages instantly.

To translate a web page to English or other languages using AI:

1. Copy the website URL

2. Paste it into a translation tool, e.g., the Google Translate website

3. Select your target language from the dropdown menu

4. View the translated version

AI translation works well for basic understanding but may miss context or specialized terminology. It’s free and instant, but not always accurate for complex content.

You can hire professionals who understand both languages and the subject matter. They can capture nuance, cultural references, and specialized vocabulary that AI might miss.

This approach takes longer and costs more, but delivers higher quality. It’s important for legal content, marketing materials, or technical documentation where precision matters, particularly given data privacy regulations like GDPR and China’s PIPL. [5]

This combines AI and human expertise, balancing speed and quality. AI translation creates the first draft, and a human reviewer refines it for accuracy and natural flow.

It’s faster than pure human translation but more accurate than AI alone. Many companies use this workflow to deliver better results more efficiently. For example, Smith + Nephew used Smartcat’s AI agents to reduce translation turnaround time by 400% without the need to contact outside agencies.

Go to smartcat.com/website-translator. Log in or sign up for a Smartcat account.

On your Smartcat dashboard, select Translate Website. Enter your website URL and choose the source language (your site’s current language) and one or more target languages (the ones you want to translate into).

Website Agent will automatically create a translation project. Use the gear icon in the top right corner to adjust how users will see the translated content, how the language selector appears on the site, and other settings.

Right-click Start translation in the toolbar, and Website Agent will deliver translated versions of web content for all your specified target languages.

Click Edit to make any desired changes to match tone, vocabulary, or cultural preferences.

Click Publish, and Website Agent will provide a JavaScript code to insert into your website’s header. After the script is added, click Validate and continue to display translations on your site using the language selector.

Website Agent has helped industry leaders scale localization quickly at low cost. E-commerce giant expondo was burdened by high translation costs and lengthy delays localizing for its global workforce and customers in 18 countries.

By using Website Agent to centralize translation and eliminate manual file-sharing, expondo boosted productivity by 50% while cutting translation costs in half.

expondo serves customers in 18 different countries, in their own languages.

If you manage a website, translation plugins offer a simpler alternative to a full TMS.

These plugins typically:

• Scan your website for translatable content

• Create copies of pages in new languages

• Add a language switcher widget for visitors

• Handle URL structures for different languages

Some plugins use AI translation automatically. Others let you enter translations manually or connect to editing tools via API.

Smartcat offers easy-to-use plugins for popular website platforms such as WordPress, Squarespace, Vix, WooCommerce, and others. Our plugins integrate Smartcat’s Website Agent with your website tools, letting you automate the publishing of multilingual content.

Setting up an integration in Smartcat is easy. Simply:

1. Open your Smartcat workspace and select the set up integration button

2. Choose the CMS to integrate, e.g., WordPress, PageWiz, Contentful, etc.

3. Follow the platform-specific instructions shown on the page

Integrations via plugins reduce manual tasks, file sharing, opening and closing programs, and other time-consuming activities, which can lead to considerable savings at scale.

Babbel used Smartcat’s website integrations to great success. With over 10 million active users globally, the popular language learning platform struggled to provide high-quality localized web pages in 14+ languages while meeting deadlines and staying within budget. That’s a lot of work, and a language learning company can’t afford to make translation mistakes.

After adopting Smartcat’s expert-enabled AI agents, centralized platform, and website translation plugins, Babbel saved 31 work hours per month while meeting 100% of its quality standards.

When translating websites, keeping a consistent voice across languages is challenging. Terms, phrases, and expressions might translate differently depending on context.

• Translation memory: Stores previously translated segments and reuses them when identical or similar text appears again

• Glossaries: Define approved translations for specific terms, product names, or industry jargon

• Style guides: Outline tone, formatting, and language preferences for each target language

These tools help ensure your website sounds like your brand in every language. They’re especially important when multiple people work on translations over time.

Translation platforms like Smartcat include these features to maintain consistency across large translation projects.

Unlike traditional translation tools, Smartcat’s Agents are expert-enabled—they don’t just translate content, they adapt to your brand voice, terminology, and context with every project. Reviewer edits are fed back into the system, enabling the AI to produce more accurate and context-aware translations.

Through this feedback loop, the Agent absorbs your institutional knowledge, including your company’s style and preferred phrasing. Over time, less and less human intervention is required, driving efficiency, quality, and consistency at scale.

Translating a website affects how search engines find and rank your pages. Without proper setup, translated content might not appear in search results for speakers of other languages.

Key considerations for multilingual SEO:

• URL structure: Choose between subfolders (example.com/es/), subdomains (es.example.com), or separate domains (example.es)

• Hreflang tags: Tell search engines which language each page targets

• Metadata translation: Translate titles, descriptions, and keywords for each language

• Local keyword research: Find terms people actually search for in each target language

Subfolders are often easier to manage and share SEO value with your main site. Separate domains might work better for highly localized content targeting specific countries.

Getting website SEO translation right ensures that potential customers will find your services and helps drive sales. The SEO translation tools in Smartcat’s Website Agent helped Welcome Pickups, a multinational transportation service, achieve a 66% increase in bookings.

Websites change constantly. New content gets added, existing pages are updated, and old content is removed. Translation workflows need to handle these changes efficiently. Here’s what you should use to make sure your translated content stays fresh and relevant:

So, what does localization look like in action? Here are three great examples of what localization looks like when it works.

Translation quality improves when you continuously collect and apply feedback. Effective feedback loops include:

• Tracking user engagement with translated pages

• Collecting comments from internal reviewers

• Monitoring how translations perform in search results

• Updating glossaries based on reviewer edits

Each round of feedback improves future translations. AI translation systems learn from these corrections and produce better results over time.

Website translation used to be slow, expensive, and difficult. Modern translation platforms combine AI translation tools with human expertise to deliver quality translations faster and at lower cost.

Free tools like Google Translate are sufficient for daily browsing, but integrated translation platforms offer more control and consistency for business websites.

As technology improves, new AI models understand context better, preserve formatting more accurately, and handle specialized terminology more effectively than earlier versions.

Sign up for free to start using Smartcat’s AI translation platform and see how quickly you can translate your website into multiple languages!

Using your browser’s built-in translate icon usually provides a good general understanding, but often misses nuance. It works well for basic content but struggles with technical terms, cultural references, and complex sentence structures. For high-quality translations appropriate for business use, it’s best to use a specialized translation platform instead.

Traditionally, professional website translation costs between $0.10-$0.30 per word, depending on language pair, content complexity, and turnaround time. A typical business website might cost $1,000-$5,000 per language.

Fortunately, modern AI-powered translations like Smartcat make website translation much more affordable without sacrificing quality. Tools like Website Agent and a centralized Editor drive efficiency and make human input more cost-effective—the average cost for reviewing AI translations on Smartcat Marketplace is only $0.03.

Translating your website can be done without noticeably affecting performance, especially if you choose the right method. While client-side JavaScript solutions might add a second or two to initial load time, server-side or static translation approaches typically have little to no impact. To keep your site fast and responsive, we recommend optimising images, using a content delivery network (CDN), and selecting a translation method that best fits your performance goals.

Mobile browsers often offer built-in translation features. Tap the menu or address bar, look for translation options, and select your preferred language. You can also access Smartcat’s Website Agent on your mobile device to access our powerful AI translation for enterprise on the go.

As a solution for global enterprises, Smartcat supports over 280 languages, including major ones like Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Russian, as well as many less widely spoken languages and specific dialects. Most other translation tools typically support only 50-100 languages, with limited support for less common languages.

1. Statista. (2024). Most common languages on the internet as of January 2023, by share of internet users. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262946/most-common-languages-on-the-internet

2. CSA Research. (2020). Can't read, won't buy—B2C. https://csa-research.com/Featured-Content/For-Global-Enterprises/Global-Growth/CRWB-Series/CRWB-B2C

3. Migration Policy Institute. (2023). Language diversity in the United States. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/data/state-profiles/state/language/US

4. Forrester. (2023, March 15). The future of localization is here—Are you ready? https://www.forrester.com/blogs/the-future-of-localization-is-here-are-you-ready/

5. Cognitive Market Research. (2024). Website localization service market report 2024. https://www.cognitivemarketresearch.com/website-localization-service-market-report