Translating a website: All you need to know

Translating a website is more than just converting words from one language to another; it’s about adapting content to resonate with diverse audiences while preserving your brand's identity. Done right, website translation introduces your brand to new markets, enhances user experience, and shows respect for your audience's language and cultural nuances, all of which help build credibility and customer trust across regions.

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.

How to translate a webpage with Google Translate

Google Translate ranks among the most accurate online translation tools, thanks to its Google Neural Machine Translation (GNMT) framework. 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 use Safari on an iPhone to translate a webpage into English:

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

Google Chrome integrates Google Translate as its built-in translation engine, allowing users to easily translate web content without needing additional extensions—a feature that sets it apart from competitors like Firefox.

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

The Microsoft Edge browser has built-in translation functionality.

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 to translate a web page using Smartling

Smartling is a cloud-based translation management system (TMS) that enables you to combine AI translation tools with traditional translation methods to boost your organization’s global reach. Users can rely on Smartling’s LanguageAI™ translation software to translate their web content quickly and easily and leverage Smartling’s network of linguists with first-language proficiency for added cultural nuance and accuracy.

The fastest, most cost effective way to deploy any web experience, everywhere is to use Smartling’s website proxy, the Global Delivery Network (GDN). 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.

Expand your global reach without extra costs

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.