Internationalization

Internationalization

Add languages and regions in a way that works for users, search engines, and the team maintaining the content. Stack-agnostic.

When to use

• Adding the first non-English (or non-default) language
• Adding additional locales to an existing internationalized site
• Choosing URL structure for languages
• Implementing hreflang tags
• Designing translation workflow
• Handling currency, date, time, and number formats
• Designing or fixing layout for RTL languages
• Auditing an internationalization rollout that's underperforming

When NOT to use

• Single-language site (use other skills)
• Domain strategy that's not language-driven (use domain-strategy)
• Content strategy independent of locale (use content-strategy)
• Marketing copy production (use content-and-copy)

Required inputs

• The locales in scope (language + region, e.g., en-US, de-DE, fr-CA)
• Business reason per locale (priority, audience size)
• Existing site architecture
• Translation resources (in-house, agency, AI-assisted, community)
• Content volume and update frequency

The framework: 5 layers

Internationalization touches everything. Five layers, each with their own decisions.

Layer 1: URL structure

How locales are reflected in URLs.

For most sites: subfolder is the default. Subdomain or ccTLD only when there's a specific reason (legal, infrastructure, or brand).

Within the chosen pattern, decide:

• Language only (/de/) or language plus region (/de-de/, /de-at/, /de-ch/)?
• Default locale: at the apex (example.com) or in a folder (example.com/en/)?

The default-locale-at-apex pattern is common but causes hreflang complexity (the apex needs an x-default and the canonical for the default language).

Layer 2: Content structure

How content is organized across locales.

Pattern A: Mirror. Every page in every locale. The translation IS the page. Suitable for marketing sites with controlled content.

Pattern B: Subset. Some content in all locales, some only in select locales. Common for product pages (only available products), blog (some posts translated), or regulatory differences.

Pattern C: Local. Each locale has its own content largely independent of other locales. Common for media or community sites.

Most marketing sites are A. Most large sites end up at B by necessity. C is for sites with strong regional editorial.

The pattern affects:

• How content models are designed (does each piece have parent/translation relationships?)
• How translation is managed (workflow assumes the structure)
• How the team coordinates

Layer 3: hreflang and canonicals

Telling search engines what's translated vs distinct.

hreflang specifies the language and optional region for each version.

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-US" href="https://example.com/en-us/page">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en-GB" href="https://example.com/en-gb/page">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-DE" href="https://example.com/de-de/page">
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/en-us/page">

Rules:

• Every page lists every translated equivalent (including itself)
• Pages must reciprocate (page A says page B is its German version; page B says page A is its English version)
• x-default is the fallback for users in unspecified regions
• Each page has its own canonical pointing to itself (not to the default language)

hreflang can be in the HTML head, in HTTP headers, or in the XML sitemap. Sitemap is best for large sites; HTML head is fine for small.

Canonicals:

• Self-referential per page
• Don't canonical the German page to the English page (search engines won't index the German page)

Layer 4: Translation workflow

How content gets translated, kept fresh, and quality-controlled.

Sources of translation:

• In-house translators (full-time staff)
• Translation agency (paid per word, professional)
• Community contributors (volunteer, variable quality, free)
• AI-assisted plus human review (cheap, fast, growing in quality)
• AI only (acceptable for some content, not for brand-critical)

Workflow stages:

1. Source content authored in the source language
2. Translation requested through a TMS (translation management system) or spreadsheet
3. Translation produced with translation memory (avoids retranslating reused phrases)
4. Review by a second translator or in-region staff
5. Localization beyond translation (currency, units, examples, cultural references)
6. Publishing in the destination locale
7. Update propagation when source content changes

The TMS pays off above ~10K words of total content. Below that, spreadsheets and disciplined naming are fine.

Update propagation is the hardest part. Source content changes. Translations go stale. Without a process, you end up with locales drifting from the source.

Layer 5: Locale-aware UX

Beyond translation, the experience must adapt.

Currency: display in the local currency where applicable. EUR for European locales, JPY for Japanese, etc. Don't show USD to French users for a French-locale page.

Numbers: thousand separators and decimals differ. 1,000.50 in en-US is 1.000,50 in de-DE.

Dates and times: format and order vary. MM/DD/YYYY in en-US, DD/MM/YYYY in en-GB, YYYY-MM-DD (ISO) is universal but unfamiliar to many.

Names and addresses: field order and required components differ. Country-aware address forms.

Phone numbers: E.164 international format universally; display formatting per locale.

Units: metric vs imperial. Most of the world is metric; the US is imperial. Some products serve both.

Right-to-left (RTL) languages: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu. Layout flips: navigation moves right, text aligns right, icons that imply direction may flip too. CSS logical properties (margin-inline-start instead of margin-left) make this manageable.

Language switcher: prominent but not intrusive. Show locale names in their own language ("Deutsch" not "German"). Persist the choice. Don't auto-redirect based on browser language without offering a way back.

Cultural sensitivity: colors, imagery, examples, references that don't translate. Avoid hand gestures in product imagery. Avoid country-specific references unless localized.

Workflow

Step 1: Decide which locales

Don't add languages just because you can. Each locale has ongoing maintenance cost.

• Audience research: where are visitors and prospects?
• Business priority: which markets are growth targets?
• Content readiness: do you have the resources to maintain it?
• Legal: do regulations require localization (GDPR, accessibility laws)?