Manually translate your website into multiple languages while keeping it search engine-friendly.

If you're on version 7.1, we recommend using our built-in Weglot integration to create a multilingual site. However, if you're using version 7.0, or if the Weglot integration doesn't work for your needs, you can set up a multilingual site manually in Squarespace.

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Limitations

To manually create a multilingual site, you'll need to manually translate content for every page on your site. There are also other limitations to keep in mind:

• Squarespace sites can only display built-in text, like on the checkout page, in one language. This also affects certain metadata throughout the site, like dates on blog pages.
• Squarespace sites can only sell products for one currency at a time.
• You can't have different domains or subdomains for different languages.

Keep in mind, if you use the Weglot integration you can create language subdomains, which optimizes your site for search in multiple languages. You can also translate error messages and your checkout page, and add a language switcher to your header.

Basic structure

While your site's structure can vary depending on your content, manually built multilingual Squarespace sites generally follow this formula:

• A homepage that links to each version of the site, so visitors can go directly to their preferred language.
• A set of pages, or a single scrolling page of multiple sections, for each language.
• A drop-down menu of links for each language, to help visitors navigate through the content.

To review what this might look like in practice, visit this example site with a long scrolling index page, or this example site with on-page navigation bars.

Structure your pages

To set up a multilingual site, open the Pages panel, then:

1. Set a homepage and move it to the Not linked section of the Pages panel. We recommend starting with a blank page, then customizing it later. You'll come back to your homepage at the end of these steps.
2. In your main navigation, add two dropdowns. Each dropdown name should be the name of one language, like English or Español. These drop-down menus appear on every page to help your visitors navigate each page in their language. If you just created your site, delete any demo pages.
3. In the first dropdown, click + Add Page to add all the pages in one language. The first page in the dropdown should be the landing page for that language.
4. In the second dropdown, add a second version of each page in the second language, copying the same order as the first dropdown. To speed up the process, you can duplicate pages from your first language, then update the text.
5. Return to your homepage in the Not linked section and click Edit. Add text or buttons that link to the first page in each language's dropdown.
6. Finish styling your homepage.
7. When you're ready, publish your site. If your site is new, you can go through our site launch checklist to ensure that every part of your site is ready for visitors.

Here's an example of how your navigation and homepage might look after taking these steps.

How navigation displays

If you structure your site using dropdowns as described above, the navigation menus display on every page of your site. 

If you only want one language's navigation links to display at a time, there are a couple options:

• Add all your pages to the Not linked section, then use content links on each page to create a navigation.
• Create multiple sites, and add external links to the main navigation. Keep in mind, each site will be billed separately, but this is a good option to offer a different currency for each store or use different subdomains for each language.

Other options for 7.0 sites

If your site is on version 7.0, there are different ways to customize your multilingual site:

• To create a single scrolling page for each language, use index pages.
• Use a cover page as your homepage to guide visitors to pick their language.
• Review the guide for your template to learn about other unique features.

Multilingual site SEO

Presenting your content in multiple languages can affect your site’s SEO. For example, even if the content on your site appears in multiple languages, your content won't necessarily be searchable in the translated languages without optimizing your site.

Specific SEO strategy falls outside the scope of Squarespace support, but Google Search Console and Moz have tips on keeping your multilingual site search engine-friendly. If you need more help, you can hire a Squarespace Expert to set up SEO for your site.

Tip: With Weglot you can create language subdomains, which automatically adds hreflang tags to make your site searchable in multiple languages, and helps ensure translated pages won't be flagged as duplicate content.