Adding a second language to your website seems simple. You have the text translated, put a button in the top right corner and you're done. In practice that is the start of a series of problems: Google doesn't find your other-language pages, visitors end up in the wrong language and the translation sounds like a machine wrote it.
I know this first-hand. ferhat.io itself is trilingual: Dutch, English and Turkish. Every page, every service and every blog article exists in those three languages, with its own addresses and its own copy. What follows are the mistakes I see most often on multilingual sites, each with its fix.
You don't need to be a developer to follow this. But if you're having a multilingual site built, it helps to know which questions to ask.
Mistake: all languages on the same address
The classic. The site shows Dutch or English depending on a cookie, a button or a piece of JavaScript, but the address in the address bar stays the same. For the visitor it seems to work. For search engines only one version exists, usually the default language. So your English or French pages are hardly ever found.
On top of that, nobody can share a link to the English version. Whoever opens the link simply gets whatever language their browser or cookie happens to choose.
The fix
Give every language its own URL. The most common and clearest approach is a subfolder per language: the main language at the root of your domain, the other languages under `/en/`, `/fr/` or `/tr/`. That's how ferhat.io works: Dutch sits at the root, English under `/en/` and Turkish under `/tr/`. Each version can be found, shared and measured separately.
Mistake: slugs stay in the original language
You have an English version, but the addresses are still called `/en/diensten/contact-opnemen`. It looks sloppy, and it's a missed opportunity. The address is one of the first things a visitor and a search engine see. An English-speaking customer searches for "services", not "diensten".
The fix
Translate the slugs too. On ferhat.io, "diensten" becomes "services" in English and "hizmetler" in Turkish, and the same goes for every page. That takes a bit of extra work in the setup, because your site has to know per language which address belongs to which page. But it gives you addresses that read naturally in every language. Keep slugs short, lowercase, without special characters, and don't change them once they're live.
Mistake: missing or wrong hreflang
Hreflang is a small tag in your page's code that tells search engines: this page also exists in these other languages, and here they are. Without that tag Google has to guess which version suits which searcher. With a wrong tag it guesses worse than without one.
The most common mistakes: the tags only point in one direction, the page doesn't refer to itself, or there are wrong language codes in them.
The fix
Every language version of a page lists all versions, including itself. Also add an `x-default` for visitors whose language doesn't match any of your versions. This is what it looks like:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="nl" href="https://www.example.com/diensten">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.example.com/en/services">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="tr" href="https://www.example.com/tr/hizmetler">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://www.example.com/diensten">Important: that list must be identical on every language version. If the English page points to the Turkish one but the Turkish page doesn't point back, Google ignores the connection. Have it generated automatically by the site itself, not by hand per page.
Mistake: the language choice gets in the way
Two variants. In the first, the site automatically sends you to a language based on your browser setting or your location, with no way back. A Dutch-speaking business owner travelling in Turkey suddenly gets everything in Turkish. A French-speaking resident of Brussels with an English browser is stuck in English. In the second variant, the language button always takes you back to the homepage instead of to the same page in the other language.
The fix
Never force a language. You can make a suggestion, for example a small bar saying this page also exists in English. But the visitor decides, and you remember that choice. Put the language switcher in a fixed, visible spot, and write the language names in their own language: Nederlands, English, Türkçe. Flags are tempting, but a flag is a country, not a language. Which flag do you use for Dutch if you have customers in Belgium and the Netherlands? And make sure the button takes you to the same page in the other language.
Mistake: translating instead of localising
A text can be perfectly translated and still not work. A pun that lands in Dutch falls flat in English. An example about a baker in Ghent says little to a Turkish reader. A business tone that's right in Flanders can sound too stiff or just too casual in another language.
The fix
Localise. That means: the same message, but rewritten for the reader in that language. Adapt examples, check whether your form of address fits, and check dates, number formats and currency. Look at length too: German and Turkish words are often longer, which can make buttons and headings overflow. Test your design in every language, not just the one it was designed in.
Mistake: letting everything be translated automatically
Machine translation is a useful starting point. But some things you should never push through it blindly. Brand names sometimes get translated, street names appear in English and legal texts turn into something that no longer means anything legally.
The fix
Make a list of what doesn't get translated, or what a human has to proofread:
- Brand and product names
- Your company name and address
- Legal texts such as terms and the privacy policy
- Prices and how you write them
- Trade terms your customers keep using in the original language
- Text that contains a promise, such as guarantees or delivery times
Have every translated page read by someone who really speaks the language. Ideally someone who knows your audience.
Mistake: a half-translated site
The menu and the pages are translated, but the rest isn't. The error message in the contact form is in Dutch. So is the confirmation email. The page titles and meta descriptions that appear in Google were never adapted. The cookie notice stays in one language. For the visitor the site feels unfinished, and that costs trust.
The fix
Treat multilingualism as a property of the whole site, not as a layer of text on top. Go through every place where text appears:
| Part | Forgotten? |
|---|---|
| Page titles and meta descriptions | Very often |
| Forms and error messages | Often |
| Automated emails | Often |
| Image alt texts | Often |
| Cookie notice and legal pages | Sometimes |
| 404 page | Almost always |
Good technology helps: if all text runs through one translation system, you immediately see what is still missing. A simple check that finds text without a translation makes sure nothing slips through.
What does a multilingual website cost?
With me, a multilingual setup costs from €350 excluding VAT, on top of the package. That covers the technical setup: separate URLs, translated slugs, hreflang and a language switcher that works. The translation itself or copywriting per language is separate, because it depends on how much text you have and whether you supply it yourself. You can read more about how I build sites under custom websites.
My advice: don't start with five languages because you can. Start with the languages your customers really search and buy in, and do those well.
To wrap up
A multilingual site isn't a translation job but a building decision. If you set it up properly from the start, you don't have to tear anything down later. Want to know how that would work for your site, in which languages and at what price? Get in contact for a no-obligation thirty-minute conversation. Free, and afterwards you know where you stand.
