# How to plan a multilingual website to sell equipment across Europe Start with the languages of the markets where you already sell or can actually serve customers, give each language its own folder and connect the versions with hreflang. Fully localise the pages that sell, such as applications, products and contact, and keep in English only what your customers already read in English. Then make sure every enquiry reaches someone who can answer in that language. [Web version](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/guides/multilingual-website-sell-equipment-europe/) By David Monje, crida studio · Published 2026-11-01 · Updated 2026-11-01 ## Which languages to add first A new language on your website is a promise. If an engineer in Germany writes to you in German, they expect someone to reply in German, whether that is your own team or a distributor. So your first languages should be those of markets where you already sell or have someone who can serve customers. English acts as the base for everything else. Data helps too. Search Console shows which countries your impressions and clicks come from, Analytics shows visits by country and your CRM shows where quote requests originate. If a country keeps appearing and you already have someone to cover it, it is a strong candidate. If no data points to it, it may be too early. ## Folders, subdomains or one domain per country Google recommends a separate URL for each language version rather than switching the text with cookies or browser settings. There are three main structures. A country domain such as example.de, a subdomain such as de.example.com, or a folder such as example.com/de/. Google sets out the pros and cons of each in its guide to multi-regional sites. For an equipment manufacturer selling from a single company, folders are usually the most practical choice. Google lists them as easy to set up and low maintenance, since everything sits on the same host. A country domain sends a clear geographic signal, but it is more expensive, needs more infrastructure and targets only one country. If you sell in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a single /de/ folder can serve German speakers in all three. ### Do we need to translate the whole website into every language? Not all at once. Start with the pages that sell and leave the news archive or older articles for later. What you do need is for every published page to be complete in one language. A page with German navigation and English body text confuses both the customer and the search engine. ## Hreflang rules you cannot skip Hreflang tells Google which pages are the same content in another language, so each searcher gets the right one. You can declare it in the HTML, in HTTP headers or in your sitemap. To work out a page's language, Google looks at the visible content and does not use the lang attribute or the URL. So every page should be in a single language, navigation included. - Each version lists itself as well as every other version. - Links must be reciprocal, because if two pages do not point to each other Google ignores the tags. - URLs must be fully qualified, including https. - An x-default version for languages you do not cover, such as your language selector page. - For PDFs such as datasheets, hreflang can be sent in an HTTP header. ## Which pages to fully localise and which can wait Fully localise the pages that sell. The home page, product families, applications, case studies, the quote request and the local service or distributor page. A German process lead compares suppliers in German. Application notes and scientific publications can start in English, which is the usual language of research, and be translated when there is demand. Instruction manuals for equipment that counts as machinery are a different matter. Article 10(7) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, which applies from 20 January 2027, requires instructions and safety information to be in a language easily understood by users, as determined by each Member State. Here the language is not a marketing decision. David Monje, founder of crida studio, led marketing at TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions for four and a half years. He bridged engineering, product and sales to open markets such as Germany, Scandinavia and Asia. One page from that work, TECNIC's Spanish-language page explaining what a TFF system is, was the first organic result on Google Spain for “filtración tangencial” on 1 November 2026. ![Google results for filtración tangencial with the Spanish page of TECNIC Bioprocess Solutions as the first organic result](https://www.crida.studio/recursos/assets/google-filtracio-tangencial-tecnic-primer.fa3716bc9510.webp) TECNIC's Spanish-language page, the first organic result for “filtración tangencial” on Google Spain on 1 November 2026. Content in the searcher's own language. Google search, 1 November 2026. crida studio — https://www.google.com/search?q=filtraci%C3%B3n+tangencial&hl=es&gl=es ### Country domain or a /de/ folder? If you are one company selling in several countries, a folder is usually more practical. Google describes it as easy to set up and low maintenance. A country domain sends a clear signal, but it costs more, needs more infrastructure and targets a single country. It makes sense when you have a local subsidiary with its own offer. ## Make every enquiry reach someone who can answer it A site in five languages with a single form that goes to head office wastes the customer's time. The form should ask for the country and send the request to the right distributor or sales manager, in the customer's language. Each version can have a local contact page with real names, and the CRM should record the language and country of every contact. Google advises against automatically redirecting users based on the language you think they speak, because it can stop people and search engines from seeing all versions. A visible language switcher on every page, linking to the same page in the other language, works better. And if you pass contacts to distributors, your privacy policy needs to say so. ### Can we use machine translation for the other versions? As a first draft, yes, and it saves time. Before publishing, though, a native speaker who knows the field should review it, with your company glossary at hand. In bioprocessing, one badly translated term can change the meaning of a specification, and a local engineer will spot it straight away. ## How to keep language versions from drifting apart The risk with a multilingual site is that a datasheet changes in English while the German version keeps the old figures. You need a reference language, a glossary of approved technical terms and an owner for each language, which can be the local distributor. When a specification changes, it changes in every version at the same time. We set up the folder structure and hreflang from the start, because changing them later means moving URLs and putting existing rankings at risk. Then we use a crawler to check that every version points to the others and that no page mixes languages. ## References - [Google Search Central, managing multi-regional and multilingual sites](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/managing-multi-regional-sites) - [Google Search Central, localized versions of your pages](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/specialty/international/localized-versions) - [Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery, in the Spanish Official Journal (EU section)](https://www.boe.es/doue/2023/165/L00001-00102.pdf) - [Corrigendum to Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, in the Spanish Official Journal (EU section)](https://www.boe.es/doue/2023/169/L00035-00036.pdf) ## The crida perspective We are a marketing, brand and technology studio based in Girona. We bring identity, content and development together so a digital experience makes sense from beginning to end. crida studio, Caldes de Malavella (Girona, Spain). David Monje, founder and director. ## Ready to open your website to new European markets? Tell us which countries you sell in, which languages you can serve customers in and what your site looks like today. We will propose a language structure your team can actually maintain. [Tell us your case](https://www.crida.studio/en/#contact) ## More on web design - [Marketing for biotech, bioprocess and pharma companies](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/services/biotech-bioprocess-pharma-marketing/) - [Can AI translate technical bioprocess content for new markets?](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/guides/ai-translation-technical-bioprocess-content/) - [What a lab equipment distributor website needs to win local buyers](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/guides/lab-equipment-distributor-website/) - [Web design and development from Girona.](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/services/web-design-development/) - [SEO and search visibility](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/services/search-engine-optimisation/) - [How to check whether your business can be found and understood](https://www.crida.studio/en/insights/guides/review-google-and-ai-search-visibility/) - [Bespoke website or template. 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