How To Choose The Languages For Your Website Translation

Your website isn’t a luxury, it’s a strategic necessity. Regardless of your industry, in today’s global economy you have to make sure your web presence is working for you.

Whether you're an e-commerce store, SaaS provider, or a brick-and-mortar business expanding internationally, translating your website opens doors to new markets and improves your customer experience.

But with over 7,000 languages spoken globally, how do you decide which ones to prioritize?

As a Language Service Provider (LSP), we know this can be a tough question to answer. Especially when budgets aren’t unlimited, which means that regions have to be rolled out in stages that make sense to your business, determining the most strategic way of translating websites is something we’re commonly helping our clients with.

Here’s our step-by-step guide to help you determine the right languages to translate your website into, based on your data, strategy, and customer insights.

Analyze Your Existing Website Traffic

Start by looking at your current audience. Google Analytics and similar tools can show you:

• User location - Where are your visitors coming from?
• Browser language settings - What languages do they prefer?
• Engagement metrics - Are visitors from non-English-speaking regions leaving your site quickly or spending less time?

For instance, if you're based in the U.S. but see high traffic from Brazil, France, or Mexico, those are strong signals that localized versions of your site could significantly improve engagement and conversions.

Look at Your Customer Base

Beyond website visitors, analyze your paying customers or users looking at the following:

• Where do your most loyal or highest-spending customers live?
• Do you receive frequent support requests in specific languages?
• Have sales reps or support teams flagged language barriers during interactions?

A CRM or help-desk platform like HubSpot, Zendesk, or Salesforce often holds valuable information on regional sales activity or language-related support tickets.

Research Market Opportunity

Next, consider your business goals and where you want to grow. These are the type of questions to get the ball rolling:

• Are you planning to expand into Europe, Asia, or Latin America?
• What markets have growing demand for your products or services?
• How competitive is the local market, and are your competitors offering localized content?

Use public market reports, competitor research, and tools like Statista or SimilarWeb to understand where there’s untapped demand or underserved markets.

For example, if you’re in the SaaS space and aiming for Europe, translating your site into German, French, and Spanish might be a high-return move, as these markets are large, digitally mature, and tend to favor localized content.

Consider Language Demographics and Internet Usage

Focus on languages that are widely spoken and have a high amount of internet users. A few statistics to consider are:

• Mandarin Chinese - Has over 1 billion speakers—but keep in mind that China has strict web regulations and might require additional localization for culture and compliance.
• Spanish - Spoken across 20+ countries, with massive internet usage in Latin America.
• Arabic, Portuguese, and Hindi - Are rapidly rising in importance due to growing online populations.

If your product or service is digital, targeting regions with fast-growing internet access and mobile-first usage can help you be one of the early players in the market.

Think About Cultural and Regulatory Requirements

Language is as much about cultural context as it is about words. When considering languages, ask yourself:

• Can your product or service be used as-is in other regions, or will it need adjustment?
• Are there local laws that require websites to be available in the local language (for example, Quebec's French-language requirements)?
• Will cultural differences affect how your message is received?

Sometimes, localizing for a smaller market can give you better results than going for a larger audience.

Evaluate Operational Feasibility

Once you’ve identified the languages that make the most sense, check your ability to support them in areas like:

• Translation and localization resources - Do you have internal or external partners who can handle high-quality translation, including user interface (UI), error messages, and support materials?
• Customer support - Can your support team handle inquiries in those languages?
• SEO localization - Can you optimize for local search engines like Baidu in China or Yandex in Russia?

Poorly executed localization can damage your brand, so choose only as many languages as you can manage effectively.

Start Small, Execute and Adjust

You don’t need to translate your whole website into multiple languages overnight. A phased approach will allow you to test, amend, and gain knowledge of the process. We suggest:

• Start with a landing page or your top-selling products in one or two high-priority languages.
• Monitor metrics like bounce rate, time on site, and conversions.
• Use feedback to improve translations and expand gradually.

Localization is a long-term investment, but done right, it can deliver high ROI and lasting customer loyalty.

It’s in Your Hands

Deciding which languages to translate your website into isn’t just a linguistic decision, it’s a strategic business move.

By combining analytics, market research, and operational planning, you can prioritize languages that help you achieve your goals and offer the most return.

Start with the data you already have, check it against market insights, and be prepared to scale gradually. With the right strategy, multilingual content can help your company thrive in a global marketplace.

Are you looking for help with translating your website? If so, we’d love to talk to you.

Consultations are free and there’s no obligation. You’re in safe hands with us as we’re ISO 17100 and ISO 9001 compliant, have over twenty years of professional translation experience, and have earned the trust of organizations around the world.