A Czech and English website, done properly
- Multilingual
- SEO
Prague is a bilingual city for business. Your customers include people who search in Czech, people who search in English from a hotel room or an expat flat, and visitors who start in one and wish they could switch. A site that serves both well is not much harder to build, but it has to be planned.
Give each language its own address
The cleanest set-up is for each language to have its own address, for example the English pages at the main address and the Czech ones under a folder called cs. Do not use a single address that changes language depending on a cookie. Google cannot see that, and neither can someone you send a link to.
Translate, do not just convert
Machine translation is fine as a first draft and poor as a final copy. Czech sentences run longer, honorifics matter, and some English marketing phrases do not travel. Have a native speaker adapt the key pages: the home page, services, prices and contact.
Also check the design with the longer language. A button that fits in English may break in Czech.
Tell Google how the pages relate
A small piece of code called hreflang tells search engines that the English and Czech versions of a page are the same page for different audiences. It stops them competing against each other and helps each visitor land on the right one. Every page needs to point to its counterpart, and each pair must reference each other.
Let people switch easily
Put a visible language switch in the header that takes the visitor to the same page in the other language, not back to the home page. Do not redirect people automatically based on their browser; suggest, but let them choose.
- Translate page titles and descriptions too, not only the body text
- Use local formats for dates, phone numbers and currency
- Make forms, error messages and emails bilingual as well
- Keep the legal pages in both languages
Keep both versions alive
The common failure is a Czech site that was updated last month and an English one that is two years behind. Decide who updates what, and treat both versions as real. A site that is half out of date in one language tells visitors you are not paying attention.