Multi-language websites: selling beyond your country

A multi language website costs from USD 200 per language with me, on top of the base site, and it is the cheapest way to sell into new markets: no office, no distributor, just your pages ranking in another language. The catch is that doing it right means localization, not translation. I know because I built and run an international site in 5 languages and 544 pages for SOMOS DER, an events production company with more than 150,000 attendees.

Translation is not localization

Running your pages through a translator produces grammatically correct pages that sell nothing. Real localization means:

• Content written for the market. A pricing page for the US mentions Stripe and dollars, one for Brazil mentions Pix and reais. The topics themselves change: what convinces a German buyer differs from what convinces a Mexican one.
• SEO per language. People do not search literal translations of your keywords. Each language needs its own keyword reality checked against what people actually type.
• Technical structure. Each language lives at its own URL (like /en/ and /pt/), with hreflang tags telling Google which version to show in which country, and every page in the sitemap. Get this wrong and languages compete against each other or never get indexed.

What it looks like when it works

For SOMOS DER I split the structure by market: one domain serves the international versions in English, Portuguese, French and Italian, while the Argentine domain serves Spanish. Google indexes all 544 pages and shows each visitor the right language for their search. Inquiries arrive in four languages from markets the company never advertised in.

That is the endgame. The starting point can be much smaller: a presence site (USD 400) plus one extra language (from USD 200) already puts you in front of a second market for under USD 700. Full pricing here.

When a second language pays off

Three signals tell you it is time:

1. You already get occasional inquiries in another language.
2. Your service is deliverable remotely or you are in a tourist area.
3. Your competitors are monolingual, which means the other language’s search results are half empty.

The third one is the quiet opportunity: ranking in Spanish or Portuguese for your niche is often 10 times easier than ranking in English, because the content supply is thinner. And a page that ranks needs visitors it can convert, which depends on the same rules I describe in how many visits your site really needs to sell.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use Google Translate or a browser plugin?

For a menu or an internal document, fine. For pages meant to rank and sell, no: automatic translation is not indexed as quality content, reads foreign to native buyers, and mangles anything commercial. Machine assisted, human reviewed content is the working standard.

How many languages should I start with?

One extra, chosen by data: look at where your current inquiries or site visitors come from. Adding four languages at once multiplies maintenance before you have proof any of them sells.

Does each language need its own domain?

No. Subfolders on one domain (yoursite.com/en/, yoursite.com/pt/) are the standard and concentrate your SEO authority. Separate country domains only make sense with real presence in each country.

What about keeping languages updated when content changes?

That is the honest cost of multi language: every change happens N times. I build sites so shared elements update once, and my maintenance plans (USD 30 to 60 monthly) cover keeping versions in sync.

Thinking about a second market? Message me on WhatsApp and within 48 hours you get a written price and delivery date for your languages.