Providing multiple languages for your online content is crucial for your international visibility. This can help you expand your customer base, improve your SEO, and stay relevant in a competitive market. Having a multilingual website can minimize misunderstandings while maximizing your customer satisfaction and international success.
You can use the language settings in your cockpit to add additional languages to your website. The translations for standard texts or functional texts on your website, for example in the main menu or in your checkout (if activated) are provided by the system. Your website content (such as your product descriptions) will be automatically translated using the AI translation technology provided by DeepL.
Caution
The feature is still in development, which is why there may be parts of your website that are not yet included in the automatic translations.Skip to:
- How to add a language
- How to add more languages
- How to remove a language
- Tips & tricks for best results
How to add a language
After adding a language, your website content should be available in this language within a few minutes. Depending on your website package, you can add one or more of the following languages: Danish, Dutch, English (UK), English (US), Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. Your default language is already active, which means that you will not see it in the list of languages in your language settings in the cockpit.
This is how you add a language for your website:
- In the sidebar of the cockpit, navigate to Settings > Languages.
- Select Add language.
The table lists all available languages. - Select Add for the language you want to activate for your website.
The selected language has been successfully activated and your website is being translated.
In your Language settings, you can remove activated languages and access the translated version(s) of your website. Simply select Open website preview in the line of the language you want to check.
Note
Depending on the amount of your content, it may take a while for your website to be fully translated. As soon as you have activated a language, any changes you make to your content will be automatically reflected in that language as well.How to add more languages
Depending on website packages available in your region and/or your current package, you may be able to add multiple languages. In the Additional languages table at the top right, you will find an indication of the maximum number and the number of languages you have added so far, for example 2/3 languages added.
If you are still below the limit, you can add more languages at any time:
- In the sidebar of the cockpit, navigate to Settings > Languages.
The Additional languages table lists all activated languages. - In the top bar, select Add language.
- Select Add for the language you want to activate for your website.
The selected language has been successfully activated and your website is being translated. If you want to add more languages, repeat the steps above.
In your Language settings, you can remove activated languages and access the translated version(s) of your website. Simply select Open website preview in the line of the language you want to check.
Note
Depending on the amount of your content, it may take a while for your website to be fully translated. As soon as you have activated a language, any changes you make to your content will be automatically reflected in that language as well.How to remove a language
- In the sidebar of the cockpit, navigate to Settings > Languages.
The Additional languages table lists all activated languages. - In the line of the respective language, select Remove.
- Confirm your choice by selecting Remove language in the pop-up.
You have successfully removed the selected language and thus deactivated it. Your website is no longer available in this language and all automatic translations have been deleted. If you would like to offer the language again, you can add it again as described above.
Note
After you have removed a language, you will need to wait a while until you will be able to re-add it. If you try to re-add it too early, you will see a warning message informing you when exactly you will be able to re-add the language.Tips & tricks for best results
In the following, you can find some best practices on how to prepare your content in order to optimize your automatic translation:
Context is key
Automatic translations work best with context, as context reduces ambiguity in a text. If you want to offer a good experience for your international customers, try to provide detailed texts in full sentences for your content pages and product descriptions. For the latter, the AI tool for product descriptions can help you with that. It can also be helpful to use descriptive product and variation names.
Avoid abbreviations
Abbreviations often remain untranslated and can mean different things in different languages. For example, when using clothing sizes “S”, “M”, “L”, these will typically be kept as “S”, “M”, “L”, in the translation. While the size “S” means “small” in many languages, it means “large” in Norwegian, for example. To avoid misunderstandings like this, it is recommended to avoid abbreviations and be as specific as possible. In our example, you could use “Small” instead of “S” or specify the region that the size refers to: “S (US)”.
Be careful with idioms and puns
While automatic translations are often able to translate idioms correctly, lesser-known idioms and creative puns may result in a translation that is at best strange and at worst impossible to understand or even offensive. For example, if you sell rock’n’roll vinyls and would like to highlight that your website is available 24/7, you might want to write a catchy headline like “Rock around the clock”. While this probably makes sense to most customers in English, it may result in very strange phrases in other languages.
Be careful with slang, regional and trendy language
Depending on your target group, you might be using slang words, dialect/regional language or trendy terms. If you offer your website in another language, it may be best to err on the side of caution with this kind of language, as it often doesn’t translate well and may not make sense or even come across as offensive in other languages. For example, if you sell tea and promote your newest products with a tongue-in-the-cheek slang headline like “So, what’s the tea?”, it will probably be understood by your target group in your language, but it will likely not make sense in another language.
Be accurate
When you’re offering your website in another language, it is recommended to proof-read your own texts or use a tool that helps you check your texts for typing errors, as these might lead to nonsense translations. While a sentence with a typo like “We will sea”, may still be understood in English, it may result in an automatic translation that is completely incomprehensible.