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LingravelixMultilingual websites, planned properly

Fictional examples

Three fictional multilingual sites, explained

The three organisations on this page are invented. They are not clients, their names are made up, and no results are claimed for them. Each one shows how the decisions in our guides fit together for a different kind of Swiss organisation: which languages, which structure, how the switcher behaves, and what had to be checked.

Example one: a pasta maker in Bern

The situation

Imagine a small producer of fresh pasta in Bern that sells to restaurants and shops across Switzerland and to private customers through a simple online order form. Its site is in German only, so orders from the Romandie would arrive by phone, because customers there could not read the order form comfortably.

The language plan

  • Languages: German and French in full; Italian for the product range and ordering, for a handful of Ticino restaurants; English as a one-page summary for visitors.
  • Structure: language folders on the .ch domain, with translated slugs, and a short language chooser at the root that would also serve as x-default.
  • Switcher: Deutsch, Français, Italiano and English in the header; on pages that exist only in German and French, the Italian option would lead to the Italian product index with a short note. 
example.ch/            language chooser (x-default)
  /de/                 full site, source language
  /fr/                 full site
  /it/prodotti/        products and ordering only
  /en/                 one-page summary

What would need checking

The order form would need every label, hint and error message in three languages, plus confirmation emails in the language of the order. Prices for private customers would be shown in CHF with VAT included, following the Confederation's price display summary 1. The partial Italian version would need honest wording in the switcher, so nobody expects a full site.

Example two: a physiotherapy practice in Biel

The situation

Picture a practice in Biel, a bilingual city, whose patients speak German, French or both, along with English-speaking patients who work for international employers in the region. Suppose its old site mixed German and French on the same pages, each paragraph followed by its translation.

The language plan

  • Languages: German, French and English, all in full; with a small practice, every page could exist in every language.
  • Structure: language folders, with German at /de/, French at /fr/ and English at /en/, and a chooser at the root.
  • Content: the side-by-side paragraphs would be separated into single-language pages. Google recommends using a single language for content and navigation on each page and avoiding side-by-side translations 2.

What would need checking

Booking links would lead to an external booking system whose interface language should follow the page the patient came from. Opening hours and holiday closures would have to change in three languages at once, so the practice might agree a rule: changes to hours go out in all languages on the same day, everything else in a weekly batch.

Example three: an olive oil importer in Lugano

The situation

Consider an importer in Lugano selling Italian olive oil to shops and private buyers across Switzerland. Its site is in Italian, and it would want to reach German-speaking buyers, the largest language group in Federal Statistical Office figures 3.

The language plan

  • Languages: Italian and German in full; French added in a second stage once the German version had settled.
  • Structure: language folders, with Italian at /it/ and German at /de/; French would be built but kept out of the switcher, hreflang and the sitemap until its review was complete.
  • Shop: product data, checkout and emails in each language, with the order language stored so later emails would match.

What would need checking

German product descriptions could run longer than the Italian originals, so card layouts on category pages would need to let text wrap instead of truncating it. Number formats in prices would be generated from data with the it-CH and de-CH tags, then confirmed by fluent reviewers, because locale data does not always agree with house style, as our formats guide shows.

What the three would have in common

None of them would start with a design. Each would start with a list of languages, a scope for each, an owner for each and an address structure. That list would drive the switcher, the hreflang annotations and the sitemaps, and it would tell the translators exactly what to deliver.

Each would also make at least one deliberate compromise: a partial Italian version, a weekly translation batch, a staged French launch. A multilingual site does not need every language to be equal from day one; it needs every reader to be told honestly what exists in their language.

Why these are fictional

Lingravelix does not publish client stories, results or testimonials on this site. Inventing examples lets us show the reasoning without implying outcomes we cannot verify.

Sources

  1. Price labelling rules SME portal of the Swiss Confederation, primary source
  2. Multi-regional and multilingual sites Google Search Central, primary source
  3. Sprachliche Praktiken in der Schweiz (2025), with 2023 Structural Survey shares Federal Statistical Office (FSO), primary source

Guides behind the examples

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