Short answer: To translate your website into Spanish, give each Spanish page its own address and translate everything on it, from the text to the menus, buttons and forms. Then link each pair with hreflang. Let visitors switch languages with a visible link: Google advises against redirecting people based on the language you think they use.
What Google needs from a translated site
Google calls a site with content in more than one language a multilingual website. It uses the visible content of each page to determine its language, not code-level information such as lang attributes, or the URL.
So each page should use a single language for its content and navigation, without side-by-side translations. Google warns that translating only the boilerplate, while the bulk of a page stays in one language, can create a bad experience.
Google also recommends a different URL for each language version, rather than cookies or browser settings that change the language on the same address.
What to translate on each page
| Part of the page | Why it matters | On our site |
|---|---|---|
| Text and headings | Google reads the visible text to know the language | Each Spanish page is fully in Spanish |
| Menus, buttons and forms | Google recommends one language in content and navigation | On Spanish pages, the header and menu are in Spanish |
| The address | Each language needs its own URL, not a cookie | /es/guias/enlaces-rotos/ for /guides/broken-links/ |
| The lang attribute | Screen readers use it; Google doesn’t use it to detect the language | lang="es-US" and lang="en-US" |
| hreflang | Helps Google’s results link to the right language version | en-US, es-US and x-default on every pair |
| The language switch | Lets people choose instead of being redirected | Goes to the same page in the other language |
From Google Search Central, “Managing Multi-Regional and Multilingual Sites”, and the W3C’s “Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.1: Language of Page”, read November 3, 2026. The last column is our own site that day.
How to translate your website into Spanish
- Start with the pages that bring you customers: home, services, contact and booking.
- Give each Spanish page its own address, for example in a /es/ folder, with a Spanish slug.
- Translate the whole page: text, headings, menus, buttons, form labels, image alt text, title and description.
- Have someone fluent review each page, above all prices, terms and calls to action.
- Set the lang attribute and add hreflang annotations to every pair of pages.
- Add a language switch that leads to the same page in the other language, and don’t redirect by browser language.
- List every language version in your sitemap, where you can also declare hreflang, and check them in Search Console.
Our guides to hreflang and the XML sitemap cover steps 5 and 7. Translate the meaning, not word for word, and check which words people search in Spanish, as our keyword research guide shows. Our study of Spanish searches in Miami shows why the Spanish version matters there.
How our own site works in two languages
On November 3, 2026, our page sitemap listed 322 pages: 161 in English and 161 in Spanish. Each of our 110 guides has a Spanish version at its own address, such as /es/guias/enlaces-rotos/ for /guides/broken-links/.
Each pair carries hreflang annotations for en-US and es-US, plus x-default pointing to the English page, and declares its language as en-US or es-US. On Spanish pages, the header and menu are in Spanish, and the language switch leads to the same page in English.
We don’t redirect by language. That day, our home page answered with a 200 to a browser set to Spanish and to one set to English. We write the Spanish versions for Latin American readers, with the informal “tú”.
Before you call your Spanish site done
- Every Spanish page has its own address.
- Menus, buttons and forms are in Spanish too.
- Someone fluent reviewed each page.
- Each pair has hreflang and the right lang attribute.
- The language switch leads to the same page in the other language.
- Nobody gets redirected because of their browser language.
RememberOne language per page, one address per language, and a visible switch between them. Translate the menus, forms, alt text, title and description too.
If you want your site built in English and Spanish, see our web design service.
Quick answers about translating a website
Is Google Translate good enough for my website?
Google’s spam policies count scraping content and turning it into many pages through automated transformations, translation included, as abuse when it adds little value. For your own pages, have someone fluent review any automatic translation before you publish it.
Should my Spanish pages go in a folder or a subdomain?
Both work on a generic domain like .com. Google lists a subdirectory such as example.com/es/ as easy to set up and low maintenance on the same host, and a subdomain as easy to separate. It doesn’t recommend URL parameters like ?lang=es.
Does Google read the lang attribute?
No. Google says it uses the visible content of a page to determine its language, not code-level information such as lang attributes or the URL. Accessibility guidelines still ask for the page language to be declared, so screen readers present it correctly.
Should I send Spanish speakers to the Spanish site automatically?
Google advises against it. Don’t redirect people based on what you think their language may be: let them switch with a visible link. Googlebot usually crawls from the United States without a language header, so it might miss versions served that way.
Do I need hreflang for a bilingual site?
If each language has its own address, Google recommends hreflang annotations so its results link to the right version. You can add them in the page code or in your sitemap.
Sources
Read on November 3, 2026. Google Search Central: Managing Multi-Regional and Multilingual Sites and Spam Policies for Google Web Search. W3C: Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.1: Language of Page. Our own case: our page sitemap and a pair of our guides, read as a visitor on November 3, 2026.