Website Localization Checklist: 12 Steps

Prepare website localization by externalizing strings, adding context, freezing source content, and defining a glossary before handoff. Then test text expansion and RTL layouts, use locale-aware formats, translate metadata, choose one URL strategy, implement hreflang with x-default, and research keywords natively in each market before launch.

Most website localization projects don't stumble on the translation itself. They stumble on everything around it: hardcoded strings, missing context, untranslated metadata, broken layouts in German, and URLs nobody thought about. Here's the checklist we wish every client ran before kickoff.

How should you prepare content and files?

1. Externalize your strings. UI copy buried in code can't be translated safely. Export to JSON, XLIFF, PO or CSV — any structured format beats copy-pasting from screenshots.
2. Include context for every string. "Book" the noun and "Book" the verb translate differently in most languages. A one-line comment per string prevents a hundred queries.
3. Freeze the source before handoff. Translating a moving target multiplies cost. Version your content and batch later edits.
4. Send your glossary and no-translate list. Product names, feature names, brand terms — decide upfront what stays in English.

How should design and engineering prepare?

5. Plan for text expansion. German and French run 20–35% longer than English; Finnish can double button labels. Test layouts with pseudo-localized strings.
6. Check RTL early if Arabic or Hebrew is on the roadmap. Retrofitting right-to-left support is far more expensive than building with logical CSS properties from day one.
7. Don't concatenate strings in code. Sentence fragments assembled at runtime break grammar in almost every target language.
8. Use locale-aware formatting for dates, numbers and currency — libraries handle this; hardcoding does not.

How should you prepare SEO and launch?

9. Translate metadata, not just body copy. Title tags, meta descriptions, Open Graph tags and image alt text drive discovery in every market.
10. Decide your URL strategy. Subdirectories (/fr/), subdomains (fr.) or ccTLDs — subdirectories are the pragmatic default for most sites.
11. Implement hreflang correctly, including x-default. Wrong hreflang silently splits your rankings between duplicate pages.
12. Localize your keywords, don't translate them. The literal translation of your head term is often not what people actually search. A native review of your keyword list costs little and redirects the entire SEO effort correctly.

The takeaway

An hour of preparation per item on this list routinely saves days of rework mid-project. Send us your files and your target markets, and we'll flag which of these twelve points need attention before a single word is translated.