Webflow Localization: how a multilingual Webflow site works

Your site runs on Webflow and you want to add a second or third language. Webflow has its own solution for that: Webflow Localization. It works differently from a translation tool you lay over your site, and that has advantages and disadvantages. In this article we explain how Webflow Localization works, what you can adjust per language, how SEO is handled and what to take into account in practice.

What is Webflow Localization?

Webflow Localization is Webflow's built-in feature for publishing a website in multiple languages or for multiple regions, without an external translation tool. You manage all language versions in the same Designer and the same CMS. You switch between languages the way you switch between screen sizes, and you see immediately what a translated page looks like.

Because everything sits in one platform, there are no separate subscriptions that need to sync with each other and no extra scripts slowing the site down.

How does the setup with locales work?

A multilingual Webflow site consists of a primary locale and one or more secondary locales. The primary locale is your base language: that is where you build the structure, the pages and the CMS collections. Then you add secondary locales. That can be a language, but also a regional variant, such as French for France and French for Belgium.

Each secondary locale initially inherits everything from the primary one. Per element, page or field you then override what needs to be different. Whatever you do not override stays the same as the base language. Important to know: a field you have overridden is then disconnected from the base language. If you later change the Dutch text, the German version does not change along with it.

How does the CMS work in multiple languages?

The CMS works in multiple languages with one shared structure and separate content per locale. When you add a locale, every collection and every item gets a version in that language. Fields and templates are the same for all languages, the content you translate per item and per field.

You also decide per locale which items are visible. A blog article that is only relevant to the Dutch market can be switched off in other languages. Conversely, you can create items that exist in only one language, such as a case study that is mainly interesting for German visitors. That way a multilingual site is not necessarily a copy in five languages, but exactly as extensive per market as needed.

What can you adjust per language?

Per language you can adjust much more than just text. You can replace images and alt texts, so visuals match the text or local recognition in each market. You can adjust styles per locale, for example when a German heading is longer and needs a smaller font size. And you can show or hide elements per language, such as a payment method or a quality mark that only applies in one country.

That makes Webflow Localization suitable for real localisation, not just translation. What that difference means in practice, you can read in our article on translating or localising your website.

How does Webflow Localization handle SEO?

Webflow Localization takes care of most of the technical basis of multilingual SEO for you. Each language gets its own subfolder, such as yoursite.com/de/, and Webflow adds the hreflang tags that tell search engines which page belongs to which language. You translate slugs, page titles, descriptions and Open Graph data per locale, so a German page also has a German URL and German metadata.

What Webflow does not do for you is keyword research per market. A literally translated search term is rarely the term people search for in that country. That research remains human work, and it makes the difference between a page that exists and a page that gets found. For that you can turn to us for SEO.

Can Webflow translate automatically?

Yes, Webflow Localization has built-in machine translation. You have pages and CMS items translated automatically and then refine them in the Designer or the CMS. That saves a lot of time when setting up a new language. Use it as a first version. Have important pages, such as your homepage, service pages and campaigns, reviewed by someone who knows the language and the market.

What should you take into account with Webflow Localization?

With Webflow Localization you take into account your plan, the size of your CMS and the discipline that multiple languages require.

Plan. The number of locales and the available features depend on the Localization plan you take on top of your site plan. Check in advance which plan fits the number of languages you want.

CMS size. Each language adds content to your collections. For large sites with many items and many languages it is wise to check in advance whether you stay within the limits of your plan.

Management. Because overridden fields are disconnected from the base language, every change has to be applied deliberately in every language. Without a process, versions drift apart.

Text length. German and French texts are often longer than Dutch ones. Check every language on all screen sizes.

Do you choose Webflow Localization or an external translation tool?

Webflow Localization is the best choice if you want control over every language version and want to manage everything in one platform. External translation tools that work on top of your site are quick to set up and automatically translate everything on the page. On the other hand, you have less control over the technical implementation, you depend on an extra party and the costs often grow with the number of visitors or words.

For most companies with a handful of languages and the wish to localise per market, we choose Webflow Localization. An external tool can make sense for a very large site where speed of translation matters more than fine-grained control.

How do you set up management properly?

You set up management properly by agreeing who maintains which language and when. Work in rounds: collect changes in the base language and process them periodically in the other languages. Keep a simple list of pages and items that still need updating in a language. And let your team manage the content themselves in the CMS, so translators and marketers do not wait for a developer. How that works, you can read in our article on managing your own website.

What do the costs of a multilingual Webflow site depend on?

The costs of a multilingual Webflow site depend on the number of languages, the Localization plan, the amount of content and how much you localise rather than translate. The translations themselves and ongoing management also count. An extra language is therefore never just a one-off investment.

We are a Webflow Premium Partner and set up multilingual sites for clients in Europe, the United States and beyond. On our page about multilingual websites you can read how we approach it, and on the page about Webflow development how we build.