Building a Multilingual Website: How to Reach an International Audience
Step by step explanation of setting up a multilingual website that satisfies both users and Google.
<p>The Netherlands is a trading nation. Many businesses want to reach customers in multiple countries and languages. But how do you build a good multilingual website?</p><h2>Separate URLs per language</h2><p>Use /nl/ for Dutch and /en/ for English. This is better for SEO than language detection based on IP address.</p><h2>Professional translations</h2><p>Google Translate is handy for a first version, but always have your content reviewed by a native speaker.</p><h2>Hreflang tags</h2><p>Tell Google which language version of a page belongs to which region with hreflang tags. This prevents duplicate content issues.</p><h2>Cultural adaptations</h2><p>Translation alone isn't enough. Also adapt date formats, currency, and cultural references per target audience.</p>