Most website translations start in the wrong place. Someone exports every page, sends the file to a translator, and three weeks later a full copy of the site appears in a new language. It looks finished. Then traffic stays flat, because nobody checked what people in that country actually search for.
A new market is a new search market. The pages that matter, the words people use and the questions they ask can all differ from home. This guide walks through the order we follow, from choosing the first pages to the checks we run before a launch.
Step 1: choose the first pages
You rarely need the whole site on day one. Open your analytics and list the pages that bring in sales, demo requests or sign-ups. Add the pages that answer the questions buyers ask right before they buy, such as pricing, comparisons and key product pages.
Ten strong pages in a new language usually beat two hundred thin ones. They are easier to research properly, easier to review, and they give you real data from the new market within weeks.
- Money pages: product, service and pricing pages.
- Decision pages: comparisons, use cases and FAQs.
- One or two strong guides that already rank at home.
Step 2: research how the market searches
For each page, take its main keyword and the questions it answers, and find out how people in the target country phrase the same need. Look at real monthly search volumes in that country and language, not at the dictionary translation.
You will often find that the literal translation has little demand while a different word, a loanword or a longer phrase carries most of the searches. That finding changes the title, the headings and sometimes the angle of the whole page.
Step 3: check what already ranks
Search the main local keyword from inside the country, or with a tool that shows local results. Note the type of page that ranks: a guide, a shop category, a comparison table. Read the 'People also ask' questions and check whether Google shows an AI Overview.
This tells you what the market expects to find. If every top result is a practical comparison and your page is a brand story, a perfect translation still will not compete.
Step 4: rewrite, do not just translate
With the research in hand, write the page in the target language around the local keyword and the local questions. Keep the facts and the structure of the original, but let the wording follow how a native buyer thinks and searches.
We call this transcreation for search. It sits between translation and new writing: the meaning stays, the phrasing is rebuilt for the market.
Step 5: make each section quotable for AI assistants
AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity pull short passages from pages to build their answers. Open each section with a direct answer of one or two sentences. Name the product, place or standard explicitly instead of writing 'it' or 'this'.
Those habits also help readers who scan, so there is no conflict between writing for people and writing for answer engines.
Step 6: translate the parts people forget
Meta titles and descriptions, image alt text, button labels, form errors and structured data all need the same care as the body copy. A German page with an English title tag sends mixed signals to searchers and to search engines.
- Meta title and description in the local phrasing.
- Headings and FAQ questions rewritten, not mirrored.
- Alt text, button labels and form messages.
- Prices, units, dates and contact details in local format.
Step 7: set up the technical basics
Give each language its own URL, for example a subfolder such as /de/. Add hreflang tags that point every language version to the others, and keep a self-referencing canonical on each page. Add the new URLs to your sitemap.
Our international SEO checklist covers these settings in detail.
Step 8: review with a native speaker
Ask someone who lives in the market and knows the category to read the page. They catch tone problems, false friends and claims that do not fit local rules. Give them the keyword decisions too, so they do not 'correct' a deliberate search term back to the textbook word.
Step 9: measure and expand
After launch, track impressions and clicks per country in Google Search Console. Pages that gain impressions but few clicks usually need a better title. Pages with no impressions often target a phrase with no local demand. Fix those, then add the next batch of pages.
How Smart GSEO Translator fits in
Steps 2 to 6 are the slow part. Smart GSEO Translator does them in one run per market: it researches local keywords and questions with measured search volumes from DataForSEO, looks at the live Google results page, rewrites the copy for both Google and AI assistants, and gives you an English report that explains each choice. You stay in charge of the review and the launch.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages should I translate first?
Start with the pages that drive revenue or leads at home, often five to twenty. Research and review them properly, launch, and expand once you see data from the new market.
Can I use the same keywords in every language?
No. Each market phrases the same need differently. Research the local wording and its real search volume per country before you write.
Do I need a separate domain for each country?
Not necessarily. Subfolders such as /de/ or /fr/ on one domain are common and easy to manage. What matters most is one URL per language version, correct hreflang tags and good local content.
Written by Jasper Verelst
SEO consultant with 10+ years in search content and 3 years writing for generative engines. Creator of GSEO Editor and Smart GSEO Translator. About Jasper · LinkedIn · Full profile
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