Guides
Guides to multilingual websites
Ten guides for people planning, building or fixing a website in more than one language, written with Swiss organisations in mind. Each one starts with the answer, explains the reasoning, and cites the primary source behind every technical rule, so you can check it yourself.
Where to begin
If you are planning a new multilingual site, read in this order: which languages to offer, then URL structure, then what drives the cost. Those three settle the decisions that are expensive to change later.
If you are fixing an existing site, start with the symptom:
| Symptom | Guide |
|---|---|
| Search results show readers the wrong language version | Hreflang explained |
| Readers cannot find or use the language switcher | Language switcher design |
| Visitors are sent to a language they did not choose | Automatic redirects |
| German or French text breaks the layout | Text expansion |
| Prices or dates look wrong in some languages | Swiss locale formats |
| Translations arrive late, inconsistent or incomplete | Translation handover |
| An Arabic or Hebrew version is needed | Right-to-left basics |
How the guides are written
Every guide opens with a direct answer in its first paragraph, then explains it. Technical rules are tied to the documentation that defines them: Google Search Central for how search handles language versions 1, the W3C Internationalization pages for language tags and text direction 2, WCAG 2.2 for accessibility requirements 3, and official Swiss sources where Swiss rules apply 4. Where a guide relies on a secondary or commercial source, the source list labels it as one.
Some statements are our own recommendations rather than rules, such as preferring language folders for a site serving one country in several languages. The guides say so when that is the case, and give the reasoning so you can disagree with it.
Each guide was last reviewed on the date shown under its title. Source selection and the handling of corrections are covered in the editorial policy.
What the guides do not cover
- How to translate. The guides cover how to prepare text for translators and how to review the result in a site, not translation itself.
- Legal advice. Where Swiss rules on prices, e-commerce or data protection are mentioned, the guides quote official summaries and point you to an adviser for your own case.
- Search rankings. The guides explain how search engines match readers to language versions, not how to rank higher.
Using the guides with the tools
Several guides have a matching tool. The hreflang planner applies the rules in the hreflang guide; the locale QA checklist collects checks from five guides; the project planner turns the language and cost guides into a written plan; the language demo shows text expansion, direction and formats on a live example.
Who writes them
Every guide carries the byline Victoria James, a pen name used by the editor of Lingravelix. Her author page describes what she covers and lists every guide with a one-line summary.
Sources
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