Translating a website: All you need to know

You can translate a website in two ways. As a visitor, you can translate a page on screen for free with Google Translate or the built-in translation in Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox.

As a site owner, you publish translated versions of your site with a translation proxy, CMS integration, or translation management system (TMS), so each language has its own page that search engines can index. Browser tools are ideal for reading a foreign-language page.

Publishing your own site in new languages takes more, and done right, it adapts content for each audience while preserving your brand identity.

In this guide, we’ll explore the best ways to translate sites into English, Spanish, Chinese, German, and beyond—from browser-based solutions to specialized online platforms—to help you find the most effective approach for expanding your brand globally.

Which website translation method should you use?

How to translate a webpage with Google Translate

To translate a webpage with Google Translate, open translate.google.com, choose Websites, pick the target language, paste the URL, and click the arrow. The translated page opens in a new tab, and you can toggle back to the original.

Using machine learning and artificial intelligence, GNMT translates by analyzing sentence structure and context, creating text that mirrors natural language patterns instead of translating word for word.

Here’s how to translate a webpage with Google.

1. Head to the Google Translate website.
2. Choose “Website” at the top of the page.
3. Select the target language. Defaults include English, Spanish, and Arabic, with additional options available via the dropdown menu.
4. Paste the URL of the page you’d like to translate and click the arrow icon.
5. The translated website will open in a new browser window.
6. Click the “Translation” toggle in the upper right corner to switch between the original language and the translation.

How to translate a website on iPhone or Android

A smartphone and its default browser can be an ideal setup for translating pages on the go. 

Here’s how to translate a webpage into English using Safari for iPhone.

1. Open Safari.
2. Tap the “aA” icon on the left of the address bar.
3. Select “Translate to English.”
4. If prompted, tap “Enable Translation.”
5. To switch between the English translation and the original language, tap the address bar options.

To translate the page to another language:

1. Go to “Settings > General > Language & Region.”
2. Tap “Add Language” and choose from the list.
3. Set your chosen language as the default.

Safari will now offer translation options when you revisit the page. (Note that Safari has a limited selection of languages.)

The translation process is similar for Android users:

1. Open Google Chrome and navigate to a non-English website.
2. Chrome will prompt a translation notification. Tap “English” or your desired language.

To change the default settings:

1. Go to “Settings” and “More languages.”
2. Choose a language as the default.
3. If you want Chrome to always translate pages in a specific language, return to “Settings” and choose “Always translate pages in [selected language].”

How to translate a website in Google Chrome

To translate a website in Chrome, click the Google Translate icon in the address bar and choose your language. Chrome can also translate pages in a selected language automatically. 

To translate a website from your desktop:

1. Open a foreign-language website.
2. Click the Google Translate icon on the right of the address bar.
3. Choose your preferred language, and Chrome will translate the website’s content.
4. Save these settings for future page visits.

If you want Chrome to translate foreign-language content automatically:

1. Click the three dots in the top right of the browser, then select “Settings.”
2. Navigate to “Languages” and scroll to Google Translate.
3. Toggle “Use Google Translate” to the “On” position.
4. Choose your language under “Translate into this language.”
5. Select “Add language” to tell Chrome which languages to target.

If you’d rather Chrome never translate certain languages, add them under “Never offer to translate these languages.”

How to translate a website in Microsoft Edge

1. A pop-up will appear when you open a website in a language different from your browser’s default.
2. Choose your preferred translation language from the options.
3. The word “Translating” will briefly appear in the address bar while the text converts, changing to “Translated” once complete.
4. If you want Microsoft Edge to always translate this language, click the “More” button in the pop-up and select “Always translate…” from the dropdown. Microsoft Edge will convert the text to this language whenever it appears.

If the pop-up doesn’t appear, select the “Translate” icon in the address bar to activate translation manually.

For more control, you can download the Google Translate extension for Edge if you prefer its translation quality.

How do you translate a website in Firefox?

Firefox translates websites with a built-in, on-device feature, so the page text isn't sent to cloud servers. To translate a page:

1. Open a page in another language. The translation panel usually opens automatically; if not, click the translation icon in the toolbar, or right-click the page and choose Translate page.
2. Check the source language in the top dropdown.
3. Choose your target language in the bottom dropdown.
4. Click Translate. To switch back, click the translation icon and select Show original.

Firefox also translates selected text: highlight it, right-click, and choose the translate option.

How to translate a web page using Smartling

To publish a translated version of your website, use a translation proxy such as Smartling's Global Delivery Network (GDN), a CMS integration, or a translation management system. These tools capture your site's content, route it for machine or human translation, and serve each language on its own URL so search engines can index it.

For SEO, add hreflang tags so search engines show each visitor the right language version.

Once the GDN is configured on your site, the translation process is quick and straightforward:

1. Capture website content

The first step is to gather website text and content for translation.

1. In the TMS dashboard, click the “Settings” tab.
2. Select “Domains” from the left-hand menu.
3. Click the domain title of the content you want to translate.
4. If this is your first time crawling this website, click the “>” icon on the source domain.
5. Select “Capture Content.”
6. Browse every web page to capture the content, including dropdown menus, pop-ups, forms, etc.

Smartling bundles captured text into strings that must receive authorization from the user before the translation process begins.

2. Create a translation job

Once you capture all the GDN project content, add the text strings to a job for workflow management.

1. From the GDN project, select the “Strings” tab.
2. Locate and select the strings to send to translation.
3. Click “Actions > Request Translation” and include the job’s name, due date, and target languages.

Smartling generates a success message confirming the number of strings added to a job.

3. Authorize translation

Translation begins once Smartling receives job approval from the account owner or project manager.

1. Click on the “Jobs” tab from the GDN dashboard.
2. Locate the name of the job for authorization.
3. Double-check the work order parameters, such as name, due date, and target languages.
4. Click “View Estimate Details” to review time estimates according to language.
5. Click “Upload Context” to provide translators with the visual context of the website.
6. To include an attachment, select “Job attachments” to upload documents to the platform.
7. Include additional information on the job by adding content to custom fields.
8. Once you’ve verified everything, click “Authorize.”
9. Click the dropdown under “Workflow” to select the string's translation workflow for all languages. To specify a workflow for each language, click “Show Details” and choose an option to the right of each language on the dropdown.
10. Click “Confirm” to initiate translation.

Depending on your workflow settings, Smartling's dashboard automatically displays the pre-published or published translation on the localized page. To review it, check every page of the finalized translations.

Translate your website for global customers 

If your goal is to improve the efficiency of your translations while maximizing their impact, download our eBook “10 Strategies to Boost Translation Efficiency.” This free handbook explains how to translate a website and offers insights to help stretch your translation budget and enhance localization results.