Multilingual websites
Design, build and branding in 15+ languages
Established 2002
One UK team, all in-house
Websites designed to work in every language you sell in
We design and build sites that hold several languages properly – structure, search, layout and editing included. Our developers and designers sit with the marketing team, so language versions are planned around how each market finds and buys, not bolted on at the end.
100+ Arabic pages for The British Museum. See the project for The British Museum Arabic website
- 15+ languages, including right‑to‑left Arabic
- WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce and CS‑Cart
- Hreflang and international site structure
- In‑house UK design and development
Built for real content
What a multilingual build involves
The design decisions are the ones most often skipped. German copy can run a third longer than English and breaks fixed‑width navigation. Arabic reverses the entire layout. Asian scripts change line height and font stacks. A template that only ever held English text will look wrong the day real content arrives.
Underneath, the site needs a structure search engines can read: language versions declared properly, no two versions competing for the same market, URLs and metadata handled per language, and forms, addresses and currencies that make sense locally.
We handle both sides, and we plan the build with whoever is running the campaigns so that landing pages, tracking and conversion paths exist in every language from launch.
Why ExtraDigital
What we handle
Design for real content
Layouts tested against long German strings, right‑to‑left Arabic and non‑Latin scripts before anything is signed off.
International structure
Hreflang, canonical handling, language URLs and metadata set so each market sees the right page.
Localisation, not just translation
Imagery, colour, proof points, contact details and legal content adapted to what the market expects.
Platform builds
WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce and CS‑Cart, plus custom development where a site needs it.
Editing in every language
Content models and admin screens your team can use without a developer for each language update.
Tracking per language
Analytics and conversion tracking configured so performance can be read by market from day one.
01
Market and content planning
Which languages launch first, what each needs, and how the URL and navigation structure will hold them.
02
Design against real strings
Templates reviewed with sample content in each language, including right‑to‑left where relevant.
03
Build and localise
Development, native‑speaker content, forms, currency and regional details completed in parallel.
04
Launch and check by market
Indexation, hreflang, speed and tracking verified per language after go‑live, not assumed.
Client results
What we built for The British Museum in Arabic
The British Museum · Arabic website
- pages in Arabic, built from a range of templates
100+
- page-speed rating on both common metrics
A
The museum's CMS could not handle Arabic well, so we built the Arabic site and kept its colour coding by section. Much of the layout was reversed for right‑to‑left reading, and the type was resized for longer Arabic words. When the main site was redesigned, we upgraded the Arabic version to match and kept it fast.
Outcomes
What you get
- One site your team can run across every market
- Layouts that hold up in long and right‑to‑left languages
- Language versions that rank in their own markets
- Conversion paths localised, not translated
- Clean per‑market analytics from launch
- Room to add languages without rebuilding
Selected work
Multilingual websites we have designed and built
Energy supplier
UGI German Website
A German site for UGI's brand Antargaz, designed after new market research: personas, German users and culture, domain names and competitors.
German · Market research · UX design
Humanitarian charity
MAG
Four WordPress sites for the Mines Advisory Group, aimed at Iraq, Lebanon, Vietnam and Somalia, with images, videos and domains chosen for each country.
WordPress · Four country sites
Events and workshops
Quilliam Foundation
Branding and an Arabic–English website for workshops across North Africa, with a bilingual CMS and editor access by country.
Arabic and English · Branding · Design
Literary prize
IPAF
A new design for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, with right-to-left viewing and a smooth switch between Arabic and English, front end and admin.
Arabic and English · Design · UX
Healthcare
First DataBank
An Arabic version of the company's site on WordPress, set up for right-to-left reading, with the dashboard kept in English for the team.
Arabic · WordPress · Build
Tourism
Lake District Tours
Japanese and Chinese websites alongside the English one, with interactive tour maps and links to a booking system. Visitor numbers and bookings grew.
Japanese and Chinese · Booking system
Selected clients
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Which platforms can you build multilingual sites on?
WordPress, Shopify, WooCommerce and CS‑Cart, plus custom PHP and Laravel builds where a site needs to do something the platforms do not.
Can you handle right‑to‑left languages?
Yes. Arabic work means mirroring the layout, not flipping the text: navigation, forms, icons, tables and imagery all need reworking, and we build it into the design stage rather than patching it afterwards.
Do you supply the translation?
We can. Copy is produced or reviewed by native speakers, and for technical sectors we work from your terminology rather than inventing it.
Should each language sit on its own domain?
Usually not. A single platform with correctly configured language versions is easier to maintain and consolidates search authority. We will explain the trade‑off for your markets before you decide.
Can marketing teams update the language versions themselves?
Yes. We set up the editing experience so a non‑technical team can publish in each language without needing a developer for routine changes.
Still have a question?
Next step
Planning a site in more than one language? Tell us the markets and we will scope it properly.
- Google Premier Partner
- Microsoft Advertising Partner
- Since 2002 · 300+ clients