WordPress freelancer in Hamburg for company websites in several languages

Where multilingual WordPress sites break

A multilingual WordPress site usually runs on a translation plugin, and the plugin decides the addresses of each language, the language switch and what search engines get to see. When that plugin changes or is no longer maintained, the problem reaches each language version at once.

Some setups switch the language by cookie, by browser setting or by a parameter in the address. Google does not recommend parameters for language versions, and it warns that it might not find and crawl the variations when a site changes content by the visitor’s language settings (Google Search Central, updated 2025-12-10).

Language versions also drift apart. The German page gets the new rates or a new service, the English one keeps last year’s text, and a customer abroad reads the old offer.

Each version has to name its twins, and both sides have to do it. If two pages don’t point to each other, Google ignores the tags (Google Search Central, updated 2026-09-21).

What the new site does per language

Each language version gets its own addresses, and each page names its twins in the other languages. The language switch leads to the same page in the other language.

The text of each version is in the HTML when the page loads, so an AI assistant can quote your offer in the language the customer asked in. Forms send the visitor’s language with each request, so the colleague who reads that language answers it.

The target system depends on what the site does. Pages and posts in several languages become a static site in Astro. A customer portal, shipment tracking or price lists from your own systems run on Symfony, Laravel or Node.js with a database.

This site runs in English and German, and each page names its twin in the other language.

Three ways to put languages into your addresses

Google supports three setups for language and country versions and advises against a fourth. The table sums up Google’s own arguments for and against each; the assessment decides which fits your markets.

Setup	Example	For it	Against it
Country domain	example.de, example.pl	Clear country signal; server location does not matter	Costs more; needs more infrastructure
Subdomain	de.example.com	Easy to set up; servers can differ per country	Visitors may not see the country from the address alone
Folder	example.com/de/	Easy to set up; one host to maintain	One server location; harder to split into separate sites later
Parameter	example.com?loc=de	None	Google does not recommend it

Source: Google Search Central, managing multi-regional and multilingual sites, updated 2025-12-10.

Before the switch I check five things per language:

1. Each page names itself and its twins in the other languages.
2. The language switch lands on the same page in the other language.
3. Visitors whose language the site does not offer get a fallback page.
4. Dates, numbers and currencies follow the format of the language.
5. Forms and confirmation emails use the visitor’s language.

Who I am

I am Michael Wutzke, an IT architect for data platforms in Frankfurt with more than twenty years in IT and media. At Policen Direkt I planned and built the web portals of the group, hosted them on AWS in the regions Frankfurt and London and managed its top-level domains. I have run multilingual WordPress sites and multisites, and I moved this site off WordPress with Claude as coding agent. Details: Background.