A buyer reaches a page in their language, understands the offer and decides to contact you. The form, confirmation and reply need to carry that conversation forward.
That is the job a multilingual website brief should describe. Start with the customers you want to serve, the offer they can buy and the people who can review the content and handle the resulting inquiries. Then choose the pages and technical work that support that journey.
This guide is for commissioning a language version of a business website. If you are still choosing where to expand, begin with the national and international SEO planning guide.
Define the audience more precisely than a country
A language and a market are different decisions. English content can serve buyers in several countries. One country can contain customers who search, read and purchase in different languages.
Write a short audience statement: the buyer, the language they use for this purchase, the service available to them and the reason they would choose your business. Identify the differences that affect the offer, such as service availability, contracting arrangements, meeting times or the currency used in a proposal.
Google's international website guidance distinguishes multilingual content from regional targeting. Use that distinction in the brief. A new language version and a country-specific version can require different content and operating decisions.
Research the wording buyers actually use with a reviewer who understands the language and the service. Translating your preferred English keyword provides a starting point for investigation. It does not settle which questions the new page should answer.
Select a complete first journey
Choose a small connected set of pages around one offer. That may include the service page, relevant proof, an inquiry page, confirmation and essential policies. Include navigation, field labels, validation errors and downloads used along that path.
For each item, record the current source, the changes needed, the person preparing them and the person approving the finished version. Identify claims that need a fresh check: delivery areas, product availability, testimonials, professional terminology and any regulated service description.
A useful content brief also tells the reviewer what the page is trying to achieve. Ask whether a buyer can understand the offer, recognize what they receive and choose a sensible next step. Word-for-word fidelity alone will not answer those questions.
Plan the language versions as real pages
Agree stable URLs, a usable language switch and direct access to each version. Google recommends separate URLs for language versions and cautions against automatically redirecting people based on a guessed language. It also uses visible content to determine page language; translating only the surrounding navigation leaves the main job unfinished. See its multilingual site guidance.
Ask the implementation proposal to explain how genuine alternate pages are connected. Google's localized-page documentation describes hreflang, including self-reference, reciprocal references and fully qualified alternate URLs. Choose a maintainable annotation method and verify the actual page sets.
Canonical URLs need a consistent plan too. Google's canonicalization guidance recommends a canonical in the same language when using hreflang, or the best substitute when one does not exist. Agree how the CMS and site generation will preserve those relationships during later edits.
These technical choices support the content. They still need the language version to answer a real buyer's questions.
Use a first-language journey as the review artifact
Planning example: A fictional software supplier has received inquiries from French-speaking buyers and wants to assess a French version of one service journey. Its first brief could read:
- Audience: French-speaking operations managers evaluating the supplier's existing business software.
- Buyer questions: How the software fits their process, what implementation requires and how to request a demonstration.
- First page set: The service, relevant evidence, inquiry form, confirmation and essential policies along that journey.
- Language review: A competent French-language reviewer checks terminology, claims, navigation and form states before approval.
- Inquiry handling: A named French-speaking team member receives the inquiry with the service and language selected, and owns the reply.
- Technical review: Direct URLs, the language switch, alternate-page relationships and mobile behavior are checked on the proposed version.
- Ongoing owner: The product lead flags changes to the source offer; the language reviewer approves affected updates.
The supplier can use this record to request a scoped proposal, identify missing coverage and assign reviews before production.
Test the experience in the language you intend to publish
Review the pages with real-length text. Headings, buttons, navigation and error messages can wrap differently from the original. Check mobile layouts, keyboard navigation and the path back to a familiar language.
Declare the page language appropriately in the HTML. The W3C's language-declaration guidance explains using the lang attribute on the document and marking changes of language where needed. Include this in implementation acceptance alongside visible content review.
Then walk through the inquiry journey with the responsible team under an agreed test plan. Check the information requested, how success or failure is communicated and how the recipient knows which language and service the visitor selected. Confirm the practical reply arrangement before inviting that audience to contact you.
Budget attention for keeping it accurate
Add the new version to the website's publishing process. When an offer, policy or contact route changes, someone needs to identify affected pages, obtain the language review and publish the update. Record how an unavailable translation is handled and who makes that decision.
Measure the new audience separately where the available data allows: discovery of the relevant pages, search queries, qualified inquiries and the outcome of those conversations. Keep technical completion, indexing and business response as distinct observations when deciding the next expansion.
Bring your intended audience, one service journey and the language-review and inquiry coverage you can arrange. We can discuss a website and search scope that makes the first version practical. Start a project conversation.