A material study photographed in bright daylight. A wall of closely spaced clear turquoise glass fins sweeps around a vertical bend on the right of the frame, the near fins reading thick and deeply coloured and the far ones pale and clear, with a polished pearl silver ribbon rising through the bend. The left of the frame is empty pale mint.
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Multilingualwebsites.

A multilingual website is several first class experiences that share one structure, each language authored by a person who writes it rather than translated after the fact. It is one of three services under Websites and Platforms.

Each language complete rather than partial, with its own search foundation and its own words.

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HUREAL / Material studies

In your words

Soundslike this?

  1. Half our customers write to us in a language the site does not speak.

  2. We put the site through a translation tool and now nobody wants to send it to a client.

  3. We are bidding on work where serving customers in French is part of the requirement.

  4. Our second language pages get almost no search traffic and we do not know why.

  5. The confirmation emails and the error messages are all still in one language.

  6. Our team in Montreal writes their own version of everything by hand.

  7. We are opening in a second market and the site is the first thing they will see.

If the languages are settled and the problem is that publishing into the site is painful, the page for that is Content platforms.

In plain language

Written in each language,not translated into it.

A translated website is a website in one language with a copy attached. A multilingual website is several first class experiences that share a structure. The difference is visible to a customer in about four seconds.

Translation moves the words. Authoring moves the argument.

We author per language. A page is written by a person who writes that language, from the same brief, for the same customer decision, using the words that market actually searches for. Search behaviour is researched per language, because customers do not translate their questions, they ask different ones.

Where a language runs right to left, the layout is built for it rather than mirrored at the end. Typography, line length, numerals, dates, forms, error messages and automated email are all part of a language rather than decoration around it.

Quebec's Charter of the French Language sets requirements for serving customers in French. We design for those requirements and document what was built, so your counsel can make the determination. We do not make it for them.

When the smaller thing is the right thing. If one language carries almost all of the revenue and the second is a courtesy, the honest first project is smaller: the handful of pages that carry a contract, authored properly, and the rest left alone until the market is real. Three pages somebody wrote beat forty somebody generated. And if the languages are already settled and the problem is reach, the work is Search and AI Visibility rather than a rebuild.

The capability table

What a multilingualbuild includes.

Thirteen capabilities, what each one does in plain words, and what it changes for the business. The ones at the bottom are the ones most builds leave out, which is why they are listed.

Multilingual websites, the capability table
Capability What it does What it changes
Scope the languagesBefore anything is built
Language and market scoping Which languages, which regions, and which content already exists in each. You find out what the second language costs before committing to it.
Search research per language The questions, the terms and the behaviour in each market, researched rather than translated. Each market is targeted with the words it actually uses.
A first class content model Each language is a version in its own right rather than a field on the first one. A page can exist in one language without being broken in another.
Author and lay outThe build
Native authoring per language Written by people who work in that language, from one brief, so the argument stays consistent. A customer reads something a person wrote.
Layout and typography per script Including right to left, built in rather than mirrored at the end. The second language is not visibly a retrofit.
Language switching Keeps the visitor on the page they were reading rather than returning them to a home page. Switching stops being a punishment.
Per language URLs, hreflang and sitemaps Each language addressable, declared and crawlable on its own. Search engines index each market instead of picking one.
Structured data per language The same markup, authored in each language rather than left in the first one. An assistant answering in one language quotes that language.
Everything the customer also readsWhere most builds stop
Forms, errors and confirmations Every string a customer meets, including the ones that only appear when something goes wrong. The experience does not revert at the worst possible moment.
Automated email and notifications Written per language and tied to the language the customer wrote in. A reply arrives in the language the question was asked in.
Editorial workflow per language Per language editors, review and publishing, using roles your team already has. A page can ship in one language while another is still in review.
Native speaker review before launch Every page read by a speaker of that language, recorded in the launch checklist. The review is a step with a name on it rather than an assumption.
Documentation of the language decisions What was built for French and what was not, written for your counsel to review. The gap is a list somebody owns rather than a surprise.

Scroll the table sideways to read it.

How it works

One structure,several first languages.

The parent's drawing, read once per language. Every plate on it exists in each language you publish: the page, the next step, the form, the record, the reply and the report.

Scroll the drawing sideways to read it.

One drawing, run once per language. The plates do not change. What is written inside them does.

What the system does

The work, the path it takes, and everything HUREAL builds. It never means anything else.

What stays with a person

The line, its single opening, and the plate standing in it. On a light board it is the one dark plate.

What you already run

Present, named, and not for sale. The lowest contrast on the board, deliberately.

  1. They arrive in a language, and the page stays in it.

    Search, a referral and an ad arrive in the language the person was thinking in. What they land on is the page written in that language, not the first language page with a switcher on it.

  2. The next step is written, not converted.

    A quote, a call or a slot, phrased the way that market asks for it. The offer itself can differ by market, because the decision does.

  3. The form speaks it too.

    Labels, help text, validation messages and the thank you page. The strings a customer only sees when something goes wrong are the ones most often left behind, and they are the ones that decide whether the site felt real.

  4. The record carries the language.

    Which language the inquiry arrived in is a field on the record, because it decides who replies and in what. It is also how you find out which market is actually producing work.

  5. The reply goes back in the same language.

    Including the automated part. A follow up that arrives in the wrong language undoes the whole build, and it is the cheapest part of it to get right.

A second language is cheaper to plan for than to retrofit. The structure is the expensive part, and it gets decided in the first week whether or not anybody mentions a second language.

The site it sits on

The deliverables

What youend up with.

  • A site where each language is complete

    Not one language with a partial copy attached to it.

  • Per language search foundations

    URLs, hreflang, sitemaps and structured data, so each market can rank on its own terms.

  • Research per language

    The questions and terms that market actually searches, as a document rather than a translated keyword list.

  • A publishing workflow per language

    Editors, review and scheduling, so one language can ship while another is in review.

  • Customer communication in the language they wrote in

    Forms, errors, confirmations and automated email.

  • The native speaker review record

    Who read which pages, before launch, in the launch checklist.

  • A written record of the French language design decisions

    What was built and what was not, prepared for your counsel.

  • The layout rules per script

    Including right to left, in the design system rather than in one developer's head.

What is not on this list. The words for a market you have not decided on. Scoping names the languages before anything is authored, and a language that is not in the scope is not quietly half built. The pages a publishing programme fills are Content platforms, and the site the languages sit on is Corporate and marketing websites.

By category

What a multilingual siteconnects to.

By category, because the category is the question. The systems that quietly send a customer something in the wrong language are usually the ones nobody listed, which is why the list is long rather than tidy.

  • Content management

    Where each language is a version in its own right rather than a field.

    headless platforms, WordPress multisite, an in house CMS

  • Terminology and translation memory

    Where your agreed terms are kept so a writer stays consistent across years.

    a glossary your team owns, a terminology tool

  • CRM

    Where the language a customer wrote in becomes a field on the record.

    Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Dynamics

  • Marketing automation

    Where a sequence has to exist once per language rather than once.

    Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot

  • Search and analytics

    Where each market is measured separately rather than added together.

    Google Search Console, Google Analytics

  • E-commerce

    Where product content, checkout and receipts each need a language.

    Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce

  • Your industry system

    The one that sends the automated message nobody knew existed.

    dispatch, booking, practice management, property management

Every connection is validated by HUREAL's engineers during scoping and confirmed in writing before signature. Where a system genuinely cannot be connected, you hear it during discovery rather than during the build, and the scope is drawn around it instead of making a platform migration the price of entry.

Asked and answered

Questions peopleactually ask.

  • Can we launch in one language first and add the second later?

    Yes, and it costs less than retrofitting a translated layer. The structure is built for the second language from day one, so adding it is authoring and review rather than a rebuild. We will tell you honestly whether waiting is a good idea for your market.

  • Can you use machine translation for the first draft?

    For internal drafts, sometimes. Not for anything a customer reads. Machine output is a starting point that a native writer rewrites, and the published page is the writer's work. Customers notice the difference, and so does search.

  • Does a second language help or hurt our search rankings?

    It helps, when it is authored. A page written in a language targets the questions people ask in that language, which are usually different questions with less competition. A translated page tends to target nothing precisely, because nobody searched in those exact words.

  • Who writes the second language?

    A person who writes it, working from the same brief as the first, for the same customer decision. Naming the human is the point: a language is a craft rather than a setting, and the review before launch is by a speaker of that language.

  • How does this work for right to left languages?

    The layout is built for it rather than mirrored at the end. Direction is a property of the design system, so components, forms, numerals, icons and spacing all behave, and the work is tested in that direction rather than assumed to survive it.

  • What about Quebec?

    Quebec's Charter of the French Language sets requirements for serving customers in French. We design for them, and we document what was built and what was not, so your counsel can make the determination. A vendor offering to make it for them is offering something they do not have.

  • What does it cost?

    The build price is set after the discovery call and sent in a written proposal, because an honest number needs the scope, and on this service the scope is mostly how many pages carry a contract. The number is written into the signed scope and does not move once it is signed.

Three pages next to this one

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Two ways to start.Both end with a document you own.

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For when you know the site has to change and want the scope before the spend. A discovery call with the people who own the outcome. We agree the job, the audience, the decision path and how success is measured, and afterwards you get a written proposal with a scope, a price and a timeline you can sign or walk away from.

Book a discovery call

Request a performance audit

For when you want the evidence before the decision. We look at what you have against the job you want it to do, and give you a prioritised plan with the arithmetic attached. The document is yours either way.

Request a performance audit

Know what you are building? Book a discovery call. Not sure where the problem is? Request the audit. If neither is right for you, we will say so, and tell you what is.

Not ready for either? Talk to the demonstration in your browser for three minutes, or paste your own address and hear it answer as your business. No form and no booking, and the transcript arrives by email a minute later.

Hear it work
A material study photographed in bright daylight. A thin sliver of the monumental pleated turquoise glass wave enters from the right edge of a very wide frame, its fins and one polished silver ribbon catching the light at the crest, above a pearl reflective floor that runs the full width. The left of the frame is an almost empty pale mint room.

Each language written, not translated.

HUREAL / Material studies