How to make a site in more than one language

Add languages to a Mount Olympus site, translate pages, the header and footer yourself or with Zeus, add a Language Selector, and put each language live when it's ready.

You build the site once, in its main language. Each extra language gets its own copy of every page at its own address (for Spanish, yoursite.com/es/…), with the same design. You only translate the words.

In this article: add a language in Settings → Languages, translate in the editor or with Zeus, give one language its own layout or pictures, translate collection items, blog posts and Business Text, set page addresses per language, publish, right-to-left languages, limits, credits, who can use it, and troubleshooting.

How to add a language

In the editor, open Settings → Languages.
Check Main language: the language you build the site in.
Under Other languages, click Add a language. Search, then pick one from Fully supported or Beta.
Set the language's options (see below).
Click Save. You see "Saved. Publish the site to put it live."
Click Add a Language Selector to the header so visitors can switch language on every page.

Settings → Languages

In the order the panel shows them:

Main language: the language you build the site in. It tells browsers, screen readers and search engines what language the site is in, and text the site adds by itself (the cookie notice, the 404 page starter) uses it. A language that's also in Other languages can't be the main language: remove it there first.
Other languages: each added language has a card with its name, Beta if it's still being tested, arrows to change the order, and a bin to remove it. Removing asks first. After the next publish its pages are no longer on the site, but its translations are kept and come back if you add it again.
Address: the short code after your domain, for example yoursite.com/es/. Use 2–3 lowercase letters, optionally a dash and a region (es, es-mx). It can't be an address an existing page starts with.
Show on the site: Draft (only in previews and share links, so you can check it first) or Live (visitors can open it after the next publish). New languages start as Draft.
How to address visitors: Match the site's tone, Formal (polite "you") or Informal (friendly "you"). Zeus follows it when he translates.
Numbers (Arabic, Hindi and similar languages only): Western digits (1 2 3) or the language's own digits.
Mirror the layout for right-to-left reading (Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hebrew only): on by default. Its pages start on the right.
Font warnings: if a theme font has no letters for a language (for example Hindi), the card tells you which font visitors see instead.
Add a language: opens the search. Fully supported languages are tested end to end; Beta languages work, but are still being tested on every kind of page.
Language Selector: how a new Language Selector looks. Show languages as Own name (Español), English name (Spanish) or Code (ES); Style Dropdown or List; Show flags. Each selector can still be changed in its own design panel.
Visitors' language → Send visitors to their language automatically: off by default, because Google advises against it. When it's on, only a visitor's first visit is sent, once, to the Live language that matches their browser. A language a visitor picks in the selector always wins. Search engines are never sent anywhere.
Save and Discard changes (shown when you've changed something).
Add a Language Selector to the header: shown once the site has a saved language.

Translate in the editor

Click the language button next to the page switcher at the top of the editor and pick a language. Each language shows how much is translated, a dot when some translations are out of date, and Draft if it isn't live yet.
The language bar shows the language and "% translated". Change text, image descriptions, button and menu labels and links, the same way you would in the main language. It saves as you go, and Undo works.
Layout and design are shared with the main language. If you try to move, add, delete or restyle something, it's put back and you're told to switch to the main language.
Turn on Show translation status to outline what still needs work: text still in the main language, text that's out of date (the main text changed after it was translated), and Zeus drafts not reviewed yet.
Click Switch to main language (for example Switch to English) to go back.

The header, footer and mobile menu are translated the same way, on the canvas. So are forms: labels, placeholders, choices, button text, the thank-you message and the visitor's auto-reply email. Anything you leave untranslated shows in the main language.

Translate with Zeus

While editing a language, click Translate with Zeus in the language bar:

Translate this page with Zeus: 1 credit (popups and the 404 page are free).
Translate the whole site with Zeus: 1 credit per page. The header, footer, forms and popups are free with it, and so are the menu, Business Text and your cookie banner text.
Translate header, footer and forms: free (your cookie banner text too).
Update out-of-date text: free. Translates again only the text whose main-language words changed since.

It shows the cost and asks first. Zeus works in the background, so you can keep editing or close the editor. Credits are only taken for pages Zeus actually translated. He never replaces a translation a person wrote, keeps links, phone numbers, email addresses, numbers and the business name exactly as they are, and checks every translation. Add your own Words Zeus keeps as they are, one per line (product names, slogans). Legal pages are marked "Have a local lawyer review this page".

Zeus's words are Zeus drafts. Click Review Zeus drafts to see each one next to the original and click Mark reviewed (or Mark all reviewed).

Zeus chat in another language

While you edit a language, the Zeus button opens a chat for that language. Ask him to change wording and he changes it in that language only (one Undo takes it back). Ask him to translate the whole page and he shows the cost first. If you ask for a layout or design change, he tells you to switch to the main language or unlink the section.

A different layout or picture in one language

Unlink a section: hover a section while editing a language and click Unlink for language (for example Unlink for Spanish). It's marked Own layout in Spanish, and inside it you can add, move, delete and restyle in Spanish only. Changes to that section in the main language no longer reach it. Relink asks first, then drops the Spanish layout and brings back the Spanish words it had before.
Unlink the header, footer or menu: in the language bar, click Header & footer and unlink the part you want. It works like a section. Settings like a sticky header stay shared.
Replace a picture: on an image, click Replace for Spanish only; Use the English image goes back. In a gallery, slider, hero slider or card carousel, click Pictures in Spanish in its toolbar. Section and column background pictures are shared by every language.

When a design change rebuilds part of a page

Applying a header or section preset, Redo with Zeus, a Zeus chat change, pasting a section or widget, or a legal page update keeps the translations: they move with the text. Text that changed shows as out of date. A translation that no longer matches any text is never thrown away: it waits under Review Zeus drafts → Translations to check. Select the text on the page it belongs to and click Restore here, or Dismiss it. The publish heads-up counts them.

Collection items (service and area pages)

Open an item in a collection and pick a language under Edit in to translate its text and give it its own address. Items count in each language's "% translated". With the dynamic page's address translated too, the item lives at yoursite.com/es/servicios/plomeria (the main address keeps working). Menus, lists, repeaters, SEO and the sitemap use the translated words and addresses. Translate every item with Zeus costs 1 credit for every 5 items per language and asks first.

Blog posts in other languages

Each language gets its own post, linked to the original. In Blog → Posts, open a post's ⋯ menu and click Translate post, pick the language, then Translate with Zeus (1 credit) or Copy to translate myself. The translation is a draft post with its own address and its own publish status. yoursite.com/es/blog lists the Spanish posts (tags, search and the feed /es/blog/feed.xml too), and the Language Selector and search engines link each post to its translations. Blog layouts are translated like pages.

Page names, addresses and SEO per language

In Pages, open a page's settings and choose the Languages tab. For each language set the page's name in menus, its address (yoursite.com/es/…), SEO title and SEO description. Hide in language leaves the page out of that language's menus, and its address shows "page not found".

When Zeus translates a page into a language written in Latin letters (Spanish, French, German …), he also gives it an address in that language, for example /es/sobre-nosotros, unless it already has one. He never changes an address you set or one another page uses. For other scripts (Japanese, Arabic, Hindi …) the page keeps its main address.

Business Text and cookie banner text

In CMS → Business Text, use Edit in to pick a language and translate each Business Text block, the tagline, payment methods, awards and hours text.
If you wrote your own cookie banner text in Settings → Privacy, translate it under Banner text in other languages. Anything you leave empty shows the standard banner words in that language.

Publishing

Only Live languages go on the site. When you publish and a Live language isn't fully translated, Some text isn't translated yet tells you, for example "Spanish is 80% translated — 3 pages still have English text". Click Publish anyway or Cancel to finish translating.

What visitors and search engines get:

Each language has its own addresses. Search engines are told about every language version of a page, and the sitemap lists them all. Draft languages never show up in search.
The Language Selector lists the languages the current page exists in.
Words the site writes itself come in the page's language: the cookie banner, the built-in 404 page, breadcrumbs, copyright, business hours, form messages, Countdown labels, blog dates and buttons.
Pages in Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and other scripts load matching fonts, taller lines and the right line breaking.
Form responses show which language the visitor wrote in.

Right-to-left languages (Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Hebrew)

Pages in a right-to-left language are mirrored automatically, on the site and in the editor:

Rows, columns, the menu, cards and lists start on the right. Spacing you set on the left is on the right.
Align left lines up on the right (it means "where reading starts").
Arrows point the way the page reads, sub-menus open toward the left, and a button pinned to a corner moves to the mirrored corner.
Phone numbers, email addresses and prices stay readable inside right-to-left text.

To keep one section's layout (for example a photo of someone looking toward the text), select it in the main language, open its design panel and under Layout turn off Mirror for right-to-left. Its words still read right to left. To keep every page's layout in one language, turn off Mirror the layout for right-to-left reading in Settings → Languages.

Importing a site that has other languages

When you import a site with pages in other languages, tick them under Languages found. Each comes in as a Draft language, its pages as the translations of their main-language pages. See How to import an existing site.

Examples

A plumber with Spanish-speaking customers: add Spanish, run Translate the whole site with Zeus, review the drafts, then set Spanish to Live and publish.
A restaurant with a different Spanish hero photo: on the hero image, click Replace for Spanish only.
A clinic in Dubai: add Arabic, keep Mirror the layout for right-to-left reading on, and turn off Mirror for right-to-left on the one section whose photo should stay as it is.

Limits and what it can't do

Up to 50 languages per site.
Only agency people can add, remove or change languages and use Translate with Zeus.
Layout and design are shared unless you unlink a section, the header or the footer.
Section and column background pictures can't be changed per language.
Duplicating a site, saving it as a template or restoring a backup keeps the languages and every translation.

Credits

Translate this page with Zeus: 1 credit per page per language. Translate the whole site with Zeus: 1 credit per page.
Translate every item with Zeus: 1 credit for every 5 collection items per language.
Translate post → Translate with Zeus: 1 credit per blog post.
Free: the header, footer, forms, popups, the 404 page, cookie banner text, Update out-of-date text, and anything you translate yourself.
Pages Zeus couldn't translate aren't charged. The help page and each confirmation show the current price.

Who can use it

Agency people with the Mount Olympus tool can do everything here.
Client people with Editor, Widget content, Content Library, Blog or SEO settings can edit the other languages: they change in another language what they may change in the main one. A client with Editor sees Settings → Languages, but only the list of languages ("Only the agency can add or change the site's languages").
Clients never get Translate with Zeus or Zeus drafts.

Troubleshooting

"A language URL prefix is 2–3 lowercase letters, optionally followed by a dash and a region (es, es-mx)": change the Address code, for example to es.
"Two languages use the URL prefix /es": give one of them another code.
"The page /es already uses /es. Rename that page first, or choose a different URL prefix.": a page's address starts with that code. Rename the page in Pages, or pick another code.
"Spanish is added twice": remove the extra card.
"English is the site's main language": the main language can't also be an added language.
"Spanish is one of the site's added languages. Remove it from the added languages first, then make it the main language.": remove it from Other languages, save, then change Main language.
"Up to 50 languages": remove a language you don't use.
"Only the agency can change the site's languages" or "Only the agency can translate with Zeus": ask the agency to make the change.
"Zeus is already translating this language. Wait for it to finish, or cancel it.": one Zeus translation runs per language at a time. Wait, or cancel it in the Translate with Zeus menu.
"Label needs N credits — you have M. Buy credits to continue.": buy credits, or translate one page at a time.
The language doesn't show on the live site: set Show on the site to Live, save and publish.
My translation disappeared after a design change: open Review Zeus drafts → Translations to check, select the text on the page and click Restore here.
Something I move in Spanish jumps back: layout is shared. Switch to the main language, or Unlink for Spanish first.