Create a multilingual website: best practices for Switzerland
Create a multilingual site: best practices for Switzerland
Creating a multilingual site in Switzerland is not just a matter of translation. With its four official languages (German, French, Italian, Romansh) and regional particularities, it is essential to structure your site well to meet local expectations. Here are the key steps to succeed:
- Identify your target languages: Analyze your data to understand the language preferences of your visitors (e.g.: Google Analytics).
- Choose an appropriate structure: Subdirectories (monsite.ch/fr/), subdomains (fr.monsite.ch), or specific domains (monsite.fr).
- Implement hreflang tags: They guide search engines to the correct language version.
- Offer an intuitive language switch: Visible and accessible menu, without forcing users with automatic detection.
- Adapt content and formats: Respect local differences (dates: 15.12.2025, currencies: CHF 1,250.50).
- Monitor and update regularly: Synchronize content and analyze performance by language.
By following these steps, you will ensure a smooth experience for all your visitors, whether they are in French-speaking Switzerland, German-speaking Switzerland, Italian-speaking Switzerland, or elsewhere.
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Step 1: Define your target languages and your audience
Start by identifying your users and the languages they speak to maximize multilingualism. This step is essential to ensure the success of your strategy and optimize your investments.
Analyze the data to understand the language preferences of your visitors
Your analytical data can provide valuable insights into the preferred languages of your users. For example, tools like Google Analytics allow you to examine the geographical distribution of your traffic and the language settings of browsers.
For a clear view, analyze a representative period that reflects stable trends. Check the "Audience > Demographics > Language" section in Google Analytics and cross-reference this information with your geographical data. This will help you better understand where your visitors come from and what languages they use. Customer feedback can also complement this data.
Also, consider examining search queries that drive traffic to your site. If keywords in a particular language appear regularly, it may indicate an opportunity to exploit.
Match your language choices with your resources
Once this data is collected, select languages based on your business goals and your ability to produce quality content. If you do not have expertise in a language internally, it may be necessary to collaborate with professional translators to avoid errors that could harm the credibility of your site.
Native speakers quickly notice poorly translated content, which can affect their trust in your brand [1]. Ensure that your team or partners translate accurately and adapt the tone to the target audience.
Also, consider your future ambitions. For example, if you plan to expand your activities in French-speaking Switzerland, it would be wise to integrate French from the start, even if your initial content is limited.
A concrete example illustrates the importance of linguistic adjustment: when Nike localized its site in Spanish, the word "calzado" was initially used to refer to shoes. However, keyword analysis revealed that "zapatos" generated five times more monthly searches, and "zapatillas" nine times more for sports shoes in Spain. This change significantly improved their in Spain and Latin America [2].
Consider competition and local preferences
Studying the languages used by your competitors can help you spot untapped opportunities. It also confirms the importance of certain languages in your sector.
The numbers speak for themselves: 72.1% of consumers spend most of their time on sites in their own language, and 56.2% believe that access to information in their native language is more important than price [4].
In Switzerland, it is often recommended to start with German and French if your resources are limited. Italian can be added later, depending on your goals, especially to target Ticino. As for Romansh, it is a highly specialized language, usually relevant in public or specific contexts.
Once your target languages are defined, it will be time to technically structure your site to integrate these languages effectively.
Step 2: Configure the structure of your website for multiple languages
The multilingual structure plays a key role in SEO and user experience. Each solution has advantages and limitations, depending on your goals and available resources.
Compare domain options: TLD, subdomains, and subdirectories
Google recommends assigning a separate URL to each language version of a page, rather than relying on cookies or browser settings to adjust the language [7]. This allows for better indexing and facilitates sharing links in the appropriate language.
Top-level domains (ccTLD), such as monsite.ch, monsite.fr, or monsite.de, reinforce geographical localization. This option is ideal for companies targeting specific national markets with tailored strategies. However, it requires a significant investment to manage multiple domains and build the SEO authority of each.
Subdomains (fr.monsite.ch, de.monsite.ch) offer an intermediate solution, particularly relevant for Switzerland. They allow you to retain the .ch extension while distinguishing between language versions. This facilitates technical management while maintaining a strong Swiss identity. The .ch, which stands for "Confoederatio Helvetica," reflects linguistic neutrality [6].
Subdirectories (monsite.ch/fr/, monsite.ch/de/) concentrate SEO authority on a single main domain. This structure simplifies technical maintenance and reduces hosting costs. It is well suited for companies starting in multilingualism or with limited resources.
| Structure | Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|---|
| ccTLD (monsite.ch, monsite.fr) | Strong geographical signal, great technical flexibility | High costs, to be built separately |
| Subdomains (fr.monsite.ch) | Good balance between local identity and centralized management | More complex technical configuration |
| Subdirectories (monsite.ch/fr/) | Consolidated SEO authority, simplified maintenance | Less pronounced geographical signal |
For Switzerland, a combination can be particularly effective [5]. For example, using the .ch ccTLD with subdirectories for languages (monsite.ch/fr/, monsite.ch/de/, monsite.ch/it/) combines a strong Swiss identity with simplified technical management.
The chosen structure should lay the foundation for clear and optimized URLs.
Create multilingual URLs optimized for SEO
Your URLs should be clear and consistent in all languages. Avoid complex language codes like "/lang=de," which add no SEO value and complicate navigation.
For subdirectories, prefer ISO codes (/fr/, /de/, /it/) to simplify the use of hreflang tags. The main version (often German in Switzerland) can remain without a language prefix for a simpler architecture.
Translate slugs while maintaining a consistent structure. For example:
- French version: monsite.ch/fr/services/conseil-juridique
- German version: monsite.ch/de/dienstleistungen/rechtsberatung
- Italian version: monsite.ch/it/servizi/consulenza-legale
Ensure an identical hierarchy between language versions. If a French page is three levels deep, its German version should follow the same logic. This consistency improves navigation for multilingual users and simplifies technical management.
Your URL structure choice should consider your business priorities, resources, and user expectations [5]. Once this foundation is in place, you can integrate hreflang tags to strengthen your multilingual SEO.
Step 3: Install hreflang tags for search engine optimization
Once your multilingual structure is in place, hreflang tags become a key element in guiding search engines to the correct language version of your pages. These HTML attributes help avoid duplicate content issues and improve visitor experience.
Why are hreflang tags important?
Hreflang tags are HTML attributes used by search engines to identify the language and geographical region targeted by a web page [8]. They ensure that users see the version of the page that best suits them, while consolidating your . By signaling that similar pages are targeting different audiences, you avoid SEO issues [12, 13].
Each hreflang tag has three essential elements:
rel="alternate": indicates an alternative version of the page.hreflang="language-region": specifies the targeted language and region.href="URL": points to the corresponding URL.
It is crucial to adhere to the bidirectional linking rule. For example, if a French page links to its German version, the latter must also link back to the French version. Search engines may ignore your tags if this reciprocity is not respected [12, 13].
How to integrate hreflang tags on your site
There are three main ways to add hreflang tags to your site.
-
Through HTML code: insert the tags directly into the
<head>section of each page. Here is an example for a Swiss site with versions in French, German, and Italian:
The<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr-CH" href="https://monsite.ch/fr/services/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-CH" href="https://monsite.ch/de/dienstleistungen/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="it-CH" href="https://monsite.ch/it/servizi/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://monsite.ch/fr/services/" />x-defaulttag serves as the default page for users whose language is not specifically targeted [2]. - HTTP headers: this method is ideal for non-HTML files, such as multilingual PDFs [12, 14].
- XML sitemap: group all your hreflang tags in a centralized file [12, 14].
To target Switzerland, use the correct ISO codes: fr-CH, de-CH, and it-CH. This ensures that your content is correctly identified for the Swiss market [5, 17].
Check and correct your hreflang tags
Poor implementation can penalize your SEO. Google Search Console is the ideal tool to monitor and diagnose your hreflang tags [10]. The "Coverage" section can flag errors like non-indexed pages or implementation issues.
Ensure that each page links to itself and to all its variants. For example, if you use subdirectories like /fr/, /de/, and /it/, make sure each URL follows this structure.
To test your hreflang tags, use specialized tools to verify that each URL correctly points to its language versions. The result: search engines will display the version adapted to the user's location.
Once your hreflang tags are correctly configured, you can focus on improving the user experience, especially by offering an intuitive language selector on your site.
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Step 4: Create a user-friendly language switch
Simplify navigation on your site by offering an intuitive language switch system. Effective implementation improves and can reduce the bounce rate, especially on a multilingual site.
Configure automatic language detection
Automatic language detection can make the user experience smoother, but it must be used judiciously. To do this, leverage the Accept-Language header server-side and navigator.languages client-side to identify visitors' language preferences [11].
Avoid using geolocation to determine the language. In Switzerland, a multilingual country, this method is often unsuitable as it does not always reflect users' language preferences. For example, a person may move between different language regions or use a VPN, making geolocation unreliable [11].
To meet the specific needs of the Swiss market, opt for tools capable of identifying dialects like Swiss German (de-CH). These systems can analyze multilingual texts and provide a percentage breakdown of detected languages, which is particularly useful in regions where mixed content is common