If a company that expects customers from abroad has a site only in Turkish, a foreign buyer may give up on the very first page. That is why a multilingual site is often the first step for businesses that export or want to sell abroad. But there is a common mistake here: running the texts of the Turkish site through a translation tool and publishing them as they are. Such a site is technically multilingual, but it doesn't build trust with a foreign buyer and doesn't bring the expected results in search engines either. What's more, a foreign buyer often evaluates you without ever meeting you face to face; your site is the first, and sometimes the only, point of contact with your company. Preparing the foreign-language version with the same care as the Turkish site also shows how serious your company is.
Why do you need localization instead of translation?
Localization means not just moving content into another language but adapting it to what buyers in that market expect. A sentence that works in Turkey may sound too boastful to a purchasing manager in Germany. The same product may be searched for under different names in different countries. The service support a machinery manufacturer highlights on its Turkish site turns, for a buyer abroad, into the question of whether on-site service is available in their country. Details such as units of measurement, date and phone number formats, and delivery and payment terms play a decisive role in the buyer's decision. The information that builds trust also changes by market: in some countries certificates and test reports stand out, in others reference customers and delivery times. That is why the texts should be written, or at least checked, by someone who knows the language like a native speaker and understands your sector. Don't forget downloadable documents such as product catalogs and technical data sheets; buyers often review them before making a decision.
Each language should have its own address
For search engines to recognize each language separately, each language version needs to live at its own address. Setups where the address stays the same and only the text changes when a visitor picks a language usually show search engines a single language, and the other languages don't appear in search. There are three common ways to create separate addresses. The choice depends on how many markets you are entering and who will manage the language versions. Whichever you choose, all language versions should have the same layout and the same quality.
- Subfolder (yoursite.com/en, yoursite.com/de): The easiest option to set up and manage. All languages share the strength of the same site. This is the first choice for most small and medium-sized businesses.
- Subdomain (en.yoursite.com): Can be preferred when you want to manage the language versions more independently of each other. However, search engines may treat each subdomain a little more like a separate site.
- Country-code domain (yoursite.de): Gives a strong local impression in a specific country, but each domain needs to be managed and built up separately. Registering some country-code domains may depend on extra conditions, such as having an address or a company in that country.
How do you appear in the right language in search?
Once each language has its own address, you need to tell search engines that these pages are versions of each other. This is done with small tags added to the pages' code that say "the English version of this page is at this address" (hreflang). That way, someone searching from Germany sees your German page, and someone searching from the UK sees your English page. Page titles and the descriptions shown in search results should also be written separately for each language. For this, you need to know which words people in each market actually search with; a word-for-word translation of Turkish search terms doesn't always give the right result. Instead of forcing visitors into another language based on the country they are in, it is better to put a visible language switcher at the top of the page. Forced redirects annoy visitors and can also cause search engines never to see some language versions. The language switcher should also take visitors to the same page in the other language; sending them to the home page every time forces them to find the page they wanted all over again.
What should you decide before you start?
First, identify the markets where you actually sell or want to sell. Doing a few languages fully usually works better than doing many languages halfway. Then answer these questions: Who will write the texts and who will check them? When a new product is added, who will update it in every language? Who will reply to forms and emails from foreign customers, and in which language? This question matters more than it seems, because a late or unclear reply weakens even the best-prepared site. Do your privacy and cookie notices comply with the rules of the markets you sell to? Get support from your legal advisor on this. The languages your sales team can speak should also be part of this decision. Preparing the core pages first and adding product and service pages gradually is also a sensible start. Making these decisions before choosing the platform helps you build the site correctly from the start. At Adorb, we build sites for Google and AI search from the start; we can look together at what a multilingual setup should look like for you in a free discovery call.