Setting up a multilingual website

A multilingual website needs two things: enabled languages and reviewed content in each language. Use Settings → Site → Languages to configure the languages and their public URLs, then translate and publish the content visitors will use.

Enabling a language does not automatically translate your pages, navigation, images, forms, or third-party services. Start with one complete customer journey in each language, such as opening a service page and submitting its contact form.

Before you start

You need permission to edit site settings and the content you plan to translate. If a control is missing or read-only, see Why can’t I see or edit a feature?.

Prepare:

• The default language for your site's original content.
• The additional languages you can review and maintain.
• A list of essential pages, shared navigation, forms, and customer messages.
• A reviewer who understands each target language and your business terminology.

Language settings autosave and affect the live site. Enabling a language can make its URLs available before you have finished translating. Plan the change before sharing those URLs. For an unpublished launch or a restricted review period, choose an appropriate access mode using Controlling when your site is public. Turning off search visibility alone does not make the site private.

Public website languages are separate from the language you use in the admin interface. The site's regional locale for date, time, and number formatting is also a separate setting; changing it does not translate page copy.

Choose your website languages

1. Open the intended site's admin and go to Settings → Site → Languages.
2. Under Language mode, choose Multiple languages.
3. Set Default language to the language that should be the site's default and translation source. Choose this carefully if the site already has content.
4. Under Available languages, turn on each additional language you intend visitors to browse. The default language stays enabled and cannot be switched off.
5. Review URL routing using the next section, then allow the settings to finish saving.
6. Reload the Languages tab and confirm that the mode, default, and enabled languages were saved. Resolve any save error before beginning your visitor checks.

The built-in choices are English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Hebrew.

A site may also have additional language or regional variants already configured. If Cedros warns that interface copy is unavailable for a selected language, authored content can still be localized, but Cedros interface text falls back to English. A language being selectable does not mean every installed theme, extension, or external checkout supports it.

If the language you need is not listed, ask your site administrator or Cedros support about support for that language. Do not select an unrelated language simply to create a place to store its translation.

Single language exposes the default language as the site's public language. Use Multiple languages when visitors need access to additional versions; changing the mode alone does not create those translations.

Decide how language URLs should look

Under URL routing, Omit the default language prefix controls the URLs generated for your default language.

For example, with English as the default, French enabled, and an existing page at /about:

• With the switch on, the default-language link is /about, and the French link is /fr/about.
• With the switch off, the English link is /en/about, and the French link remains /fr/about.

A language prefix is the short language code at the beginning of the path. It does not require a separate domain or a DNS change.

Use the same content entry for supported translations. Do not create a duplicate page at /fr/about merely to reproduce the language prefix; Cedros uses the enabled language to resolve the original page's translated content. Translating the text also does not automatically translate the page's slug: /fr/about does not become /fr/a-propos by itself.

For an existing website, treat a change to the default language or prefix policy as a public URL change. Record the old addresses, review navigation and shared links, and ask your administrator to arrange any needed redirects before changing an established scheme. Check the old URLs afterward rather than assuming every link redirects automatically.

A prefixed URL identifies the requested language. Where no language is specified in the URL, a remembered visitor choice or browser language can influence the language shown. Use explicit language URLs when sharing or testing a particular version.

Translate page content

The page builder can provide a Translation section in its inspector. If your site's editor supports translation, it appears after you enable multiple languages. If it is missing after you enable languages and reload the editor, use If something is missing or in the wrong language below before editing shared source text.

For a page with translation controls:

1. Open Site → Pages and select the page you want to translate. Save a new page before using automatic translation.
2. Open the page builder and select a content block to show its inspector.
3. Expand Translation and choose the language you want to edit. The default language is marked Source.
4. Enter the translation in the block's supported text fields. Check the selected language before each edit.
5. Move through the other blocks and complete their translated text. Keep names, contact details, links, prices, and product claims accurate.
6. Save, review, and release the updated content using the page's normal workflow. Follow Understanding drafts, previews, and publishing for the difference between saved changes, previews, and the public revision.

A blank field in the translation editor can mean no value has been entered for that language. It does not necessarily mean visitors see a blank: the public page can fall back to source text or another available value.

The selected editing language applies to supported translated text fields. Layout, numeric settings, switches, dropdowns, and list controls are not automatically separate per language. Treat those as shared settings unless that particular editor explicitly provides language-specific controls. Changing a layout while translating can affect the other language versions too.

Use Auto-translate where available

After selecting a target language other than Source, choose Auto-translate if your page editor offers it.

This uses the site's configured AI service and can consume AI usage. The page must already be saved and you must have editing permission. If there are unsaved changes, the editor attempts to save them before starting.

Although the button appears in a block inspector, it translates supported fields across the saved page, not just the selected block. Review the whole page afterward.

Auto-translate fills missing translations without overwriting existing target-language values. Read its completion message:

• Translated … fields means it added translations for those fields; it does not certify the whole page.
• No untranslated fields found means it found no eligible missing values. It does not mean every visible part of the customer journey is translated.
• Save the page before translating means you need to save successfully before continuing.
• A failure message needs to be resolved before relying on the result. Ask your administrator to check AI availability or usage if the message points to those requirements.

Review the generated draft before publication. Check natural phrasing, formatting, business names, links, and any instructions that could change the customer's understanding. Do not assume a translated field is current just because it is populated: after changing source copy, review and update existing translations separately.

Understand translation status and fallback

The inspector can show Translated, Partially translated, or Not translated for the text it checks in the selected block and language. This is a coverage indicator, not a quality review or proof that the whole site is complete.

Missing translations can display source or fallback text on the public page. A working French URL can therefore contain English copy. Check what is actually rendered rather than treating a successful page load as a completed translation.

If you want text deliberately absent in one language, check the rendered result. Clearing a translation may cause fallback text to appear instead of hiding it.

Review the rest of the customer journey

A translated page body is only part of a multilingual experience. Review these separately:

• Navigation and shared content: header, footer, menus, button labels, and links between pages.
• Page identity: visible title, excerpt, browser title, and search description.
• Forms: field labels, placeholders, validation messages, consent text, and the confirmation after submission.
• Images and downloads: text embedded in images, captions, accessible descriptions, PDFs, and other downloadable files.
• Accounts, bookings, and purchases: sign-in screens, booking details, product information, checkout, receipts, and account messages.
• Embedded services: maps, videos, calendars, payment providers, and third-party widgets.

Use each content or service editor's own language controls where provided. Auto-translating one page does not translate a shared menu, an image's pixels, or a separate provider's interface. If a component has no translation control, ask whoever maintains it how to supply the translated version before advertising that journey as complete.

For Arabic or Hebrew, review right-to-left reading order, alignment, icons, forms, and mixed text such as phone numbers. Also check mobile layouts: translated labels can be longer than the originals.

Language selection does not change where you deliver services or sell products. Regional access restrictions are configured separately in Site Access.

Check how visitors choose a language

Open a normal public page and look for the site's Language selector or links to other language versions. Their presence and position depend on the site's theme or custom layout; enabling languages does not guarantee every layout includes a selector.

Where the standard Cedros language selector is present, it switches the current page's language URL, preserves its query and section link, and remembers the choice in that browser. It is not shown when only one public language is available.

Test switching both ways. Confirm the destination opens the equivalent page, the translated content is correct, and navigation continues in the intended language. A link inside the page may still point to the original language if it was entered that way.

If no selector appears, confirm that Multiple languages and at least two languages were saved. Then ask your theme administrator to expose language navigation, or provide checked links to the published language URLs in your site navigation. Do not assume visitors will discover translated URLs on their own.

Publish and check each language

Review each enabled language before sharing it:

1. Open the homepage and an important direct page URL in that language, using the expected prefix.
2. Read the page from top to bottom, including titles, navigation, buttons, footer, and any fallback text.
3. Switch to another language and back. Check a deep page and a link to a section within a page.
4. Complete the main customer action, such as a form submission or booking inquiry, with appropriate test details. Check the confirmation and any resulting message.
5. Repeat the layout check on a phone-sized screen. Check right-to-left languages separately.
6. Confirm the reviewed content revision is public. A preview showing a translation does not prove visitors have that revision.
7. Review site and page search visibility when you are ready for translated pages to be found.

Give each language version a usable public URL and a clear way for visitors to switch. Google recommends distinct URLs and visibly translated content for multilingual pages; changing only navigation or interface labels is not a substitute for translating the main content. See Google's multilingual-site guidance.

Do not promise search listings immediately after publication. First confirm the correct content is public and eligible for indexing.

Change or remove a language later

Before changing Default language, check the source content, fallback text, and URL examples above. Choosing a new default does not translate existing plain text into that language or rewrite every saved translation.

To stop offering an additional language, turn it off under Available languages and confirm the change saved. You cannot turn off the current default; choose a different default first if that is your intention.

Removing a language from availability does not erase its stored translations. Review existing external links and arrange any needed redirects, then check those old addresses. Switching to Single language is also a public availability change, not a translation-deletion command.

When you update source content, keep a list of affected languages and review their existing translations before releasing the change.

If something is missing or in the wrong language

Available languages or URL routing is missing. These controls appear in Multiple languages mode. Confirm that mode saved successfully.

The page builder has no Translation section, or the target language is missing. Reload after saving language settings, select a supported content block, and check your editing permission. If it is still absent, contact your administrator or Cedros support with the page and target language. Enabling a public language alone does not guarantee that your editor exposes translation controls.

A translated URL still shows source text. Confirm the requested language is enabled, then check the translated values and published revision. Look for untranslated shared components and fallback text.

The page says Translated, but some copy is unchanged. The badge covers the fields it checks in the selected block. Inspect other blocks, page metadata, navigation, and external services separately.

Visitors see a different language than you expect. Compare the exact URLs first, then test in a fresh browser session. A remembered choice or browser preference can explain differences on an address without a language prefix.

Auto-translate does not update wording you changed in the source. Existing target values are preserved. Review and edit those translations rather than repeatedly choosing Auto-translate.

A language URL returns “not found.” Verify the language is enabled, the base page is published at the expected route, and the site is in an access mode that permits it. Check for an accidentally duplicated prefix or a language that was recently removed.

For unresolved issues, use Getting help and reporting a problem. Include the exact public URL, default and target languages, relevant control or error message, and whether the issue appears in the editor, preview, or published page. Do not include private preview links or credentials.