# The same pages in your customers' other language, as pages of their own

> Your pages in a second language, written in that language and linked with hreflang, so search engines show each searcher the version in their language.

Many of your customers search in a language other than English: Swahili in Kenya, French in Canada, Welsh in Wales, Spanish across much of the US. We publish a full set of pages in that language on its own subdomain, written in the language rather than run through a translator, and tell search engines the two versions are the same page, so each searcher is shown theirs.

## How it works

Each language is its own site: its own subdomain (for example afya.yourdomain.co.ke alongside guides.yourdomain.co.ke), its own language and region code, its own sitemap and its own pages. Your English pages are untouched.

Each row of the second language's data names the English page it corresponds to. From that, every page carries hreflang links to its twin, with the original marked as the default for any other language. Search engines then treat the pair as one page in two languages, instead of two copies competing with each other.

## Written in the language, not word for word

A word-for-word translation reads badly and often misses how people actually search. “Blood pressure check cost” and its Swahili equivalent are not phrased the same way, and the questions people ask differ too. So the second language gets its own rows: its own answers, questions and titles, using the terms people type.

Not every page needs a twin. Where a page has no natural equivalent in the other language, it stands alone, and a page in the second language can exist without an English one. We recommend someone fluent on your side reads the sample pages before they publish.

## What carries over, and what doesn't

|  | Matched to your English pages | Separate for each language |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Brand | Logo, colours, contact numbers | Button wording, the confirmation line sent to visitors |
| Content | The facts and prices | Every sentence, title, answer and question |
| Rules | The quality check, sources, expert review where required | Its own review request |
| Search | The same Search Console domain property | Its own sitemap, submitted separately |

## What you provide

- Which language and which market (Swahili in Kenya, French in Canada), so the pages carry the right language and region code.
- One more DNS record for the language's subdomain.
- Someone who can read the language to check sample pages, or approval for us to proceed on our own drafts.
- In regulated industries, a reviewer able to approve content in that language.

## Limits, and how it is measured

Each English page can have one translation. hreflang tells search engines which version to show; it doesn't create demand, so a second language is worth it where people really search in it. The monthly report covers each language's pages, so you can see what the second language brings in on its own.

## Questions

### What is hreflang?

A tag on each page naming its versions in other languages. It lets Google show a French speaker the French page and an English speaker the English one, instead of treating them as duplicates.

### Why a separate subdomain for each language?

Each language gets its own sitemap, its own pages and its own reporting, and nothing on your English pages changes. It takes one extra DNS record.

### Do you use machine translation?

Pages are written in the language from the facts, not converted sentence by sentence from English. We still recommend a fluent reader on your side checks samples before anything publishes.

### Which languages can you do?

Any language your customers search in. What matters is whether there is real search demand in it, and someone who can confirm the pages read naturally.

## Related

- [hreflang for bilingual sites](https://www.searchlode.com/insights/hreflang-for-bilingual-sites)
- [Programmatic SEO](https://www.searchlode.com/services/programmatic-seo)
- [Clinics and healthcare](https://www.searchlode.com/industries/clinics-healthcare)
- [Hotels and hospitality](https://www.searchlode.com/industries/hotels-hospitality)

See sample pages in both languages: Tell us your second language and we'll build a few free sample pages, in English and in that language, from your public website. [Contact Searchlode](https://www.searchlode.com/contact)

Canonical: https://www.searchlode.com/services/multilingual-seo