Multilingual Website: What a Second Language Adds

en 2026-09-17 7 min read

A second language adds a second set of content and a second set of URLs, but it does not move the site up a step. A three-page site in one language is step 02 at EUR 900-1.500; in two languages it is still step 02, plus the extra language add-on at EUR 250-500 for the technical setup, with translation separate.

The design, the components and the deployment are made once. The words and the addresses are made per language, which is why translation is its own cost. The add-on is the same whether the site is new or already live.

What is built once and what repeats

Read the right-hand column as your content list: none of it is hard, and all of it has to stay correct in both languages the day you change a price.

A second set of URLs brings its own decisions

Two languages means two addresses for every page, and that brings decisions a single-language site never has to make:

• A URL structure, such as a folder per language (/en/ and /nl/) on one domain.
• A language switcher that lands on the matching page, not on the home page of the other language.
• hreflang tags, so search engines read the two pages as versions of each other rather than as duplicates competing for the same search.
• One sitemap that lists both sets, and canonical tags that point each page at itself.
• A rule for visitors whose language you do not publish, and a rule for pages that exist in one language only.
• Translated slugs, or one slug for both. Either works; pick one and keep it.

None of these is expensive on its own, but they shape the templates and the routing, so they are settled in scoping, before any writing or building starts. How we handle that side of a project is on design and engineering.

Translation is content work, and it is the part that waits on you

The second set of words can come from three places:

• You write it. It costs your time, and it is only as good as your writing in that language.
• A translator you hire. A professional working into their native language, briefed on what you sell. You pay them directly and still read the result.
• Machine output, edited by a person. Fast for the first draft. The edit is not optional: prices, product names, legal wording and anything with a number in it need a human who speaks the language and understands the business.

Whichever route you choose, this is the part of your project that waits on you. The build can be finished with the first language loaded and the second set of pages empty, but it cannot launch that way.

What a second language adds on each step

Translation is separate on every row, and the quote confirms the scope. The full description of every step is on the packages page, and a fixed quote always follows scoping.

Process and timeline

1. Scope. The page list in both languages, the URL structure, and the rule for anything that will exist in one language only.
2. Design. Once, with room in every layout for the longer of the two languages.
3. Build. Templates, language routing, the switcher, hreflang, the sitemap. Our stack for this is described on the Next.js development page.
4. First language. Loaded, read through and signed off by you.
5. Second language. Loaded and reviewed by someone who speaks it.
6. Check and launch. Every page reachable in both languages, no switcher link pointing at a missing page, no untranslated title or error message left behind.

The weeks are the ones on the step: 1-2 weeks for step 01, 2-3 weeks for step 02, 3-6 weeks for step 03, 6-12 weeks for step 04. A second language sits inside those weeks when the translated copy is ready at the start of the build, and pushes past them when it is not.

When one language is enough

• Your enquiries already arrive in one language. Check your inbox and form submissions first. If buyers already write to you in English, your English site is serving them.
• You want to test a market, not enter it. One landing page in the second language, step 01 at EUR 600-900, tells you whether that audience responds before you translate a whole site.
• Nobody will maintain it. A second language that falls behind the first shows old prices and old services to the people reading it. No second language is better than a stale one.

What it costs after launch

Care at EUR 100-300/mo covers updates, monitoring, backups and small fixes. On a bilingual site a text change is a change in two places, and care covers that as a small fix. Care does not cover a redesign or new features.

If the second language is meant to bring in search traffic, that is separate work. SEO foundation is a one-off at EUR 450-750: Search Console, analytics, indexation, technical hygiene, titles, internal links and a 3-6 month plan. On a site where every page exists twice, indexation is exactly where mistakes hide. SEO growth at EUR 500-800/mo is the continuing part: technical and on-page work, service, location and content pages, internal links and authority, and monthly reporting.

Questions buyers ask

Can I launch in one language and add the second later?

Yes: the second language is then the extra language add-on at EUR 250-500, with translation separate. Say so at the start. The URL structure, the switcher and the hreflang tags are simpler to build into the first version and leave unused than to retrofit into a live site whose pages are already indexed. Ask for the language routing in the first build even if only one language goes live.

Should each language have its own domain?

A folder per language on one domain keeps one site, one analytics setup and one set of links. A separate domain per country makes sense when the two markets have different products, prices and teams. For a business selling the same thing to two audiences, the folder is the simpler answer.

Who owns the translated content?

You do. You own the code, the repository and the database, and the translations live in the same repository and database as everything else. Where the site is hosted is agreed per project.

What changes for whoever edits the site?

Every CMS entry gains a second version, and the failure to plan for is an entry updated in one language and forgotten in the other. Ask for the CMS to show which entries are missing a translation. Decide up front whether an untranslated page is hidden or shown in the original language with a note.

If you know your page list and your languages, send them over and you will get a step and a fixed quote after scoping.