The fastest way to stay invisible in French-speaking Switzerland: run your German website through the machine and hit “publish”. Google increasingly rates unedited machine translations as low-quality content – and customers who land on a clunky page buy elsewhere. UniTranslate localises websites, online shops and landing pages for marketing managers and SMEs that take a new market seriously.
Nobody in Lausanne googles your keywords – we find the right ones
SEO keywords cannot be translated one to one. Someone searching for “Treuhänder” in Zurich googles “fiduciaire” in Geneva – but whether your target audience actually types “agence fiduciaire” or “expert-comptable” only becomes clear through research in the target market. That research is a core part of our website localisation: we research the search terms in the target language, prioritise by search intent and work them into titles, meta descriptions, headings and body copy. That way the French page ranks for French search queries – not for literally translated German ones.
XLIFF in, XLIFF out: no copy-paste marathon for your team
Nobody should have to copy 400 shop texts out of the CMS by hand. Export your content as XLIFF, JSON, CSV, PO or XML – from WordPress, Shopify, Typo3 or your headless CMS – and we translate directly within the structure. Placeholders, variables and HTML tags remain untouched, the file comes back in the same format and can be re-imported straight away. Your development team notices exactly one thing about the translation: that it is done.
Projects we regularly localise
- Online shop localisation German → French/Italian for expansion into French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino – product texts, categories, checkout, transactional emails
- Multilingual company websites for SMEs selling internationally – in more than 100 languages
- Campaign landing pages where the message and conversion elements have to land in the target market – ideally in combination with our marketing translation
- Post-editing of machine-translated pages that demonstrably underperform – more under Proofreading & MTPE
What we actually deliver
- Translated page texts, ready for re-import (XLIFF, JSON, CSV, PO, XML)
- Meta titles and meta descriptions with the researched keywords
- Suggestions for H1/H2, URL slugs and alt texts in the target language
- Glossary and translation memory for all future expansions
- Short variants for buttons, navigation and teasers with character limits
SEO, SEA and landing pages
Companies that have their website translated usually also run ads in the new market. We translate and localise landing pages, Google Ads copy, sitelinks and callouts so that search intent, ad text and page content fit together – because a French ad that leads to a German page only burns budget. We factor in keywords, the character limits of the ad formats and conversion elements from the very start.
So your layout doesn’t break
Compared with German, French and Italian quickly run 10–25 per cent longer. For buttons, menu items and teasers with a fixed width, we respect character limits or supply short variants; on request, we check the imported texts directly in the browser after go-live. We also take care of small details such as the target market’s date, price and salutation conventions along the way.
The Swiss special case: three language markets behind one national border
For Swiss SMEs, the most obvious expansion is often within their own country: French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino are affluent markets that many German-speaking Swiss shops simply do not serve. One thing matters here: customers in western Switzerland expect French that avoids stock phrases exported from France and knows Swiss particularities – from the “Natel” to price formats to cantonal designations. Our translators for French-speaking Switzerland and Ticino live in these markets and write for them, not for Paris or Milan.
From export to multilingual website in four steps
- You send us the CMS export or the URL list – quote within 30 minutes.
- Keyword research and terminology alignment for the target market.
- Translation by native speakers in the target market, SEO elements included.
- Delivery back in the CMS format, ready for re-import; urgent landing pages by express within 12–24 hours.
More than 6000 satisfied clients have made their digital presence multilingual with our team in Küsnacht ZH – from two-language shops to corporate websites. And because websites are never finished, we stay on the case: we translate new products, blog posts and campaign pages on an ongoing basis, in the same tone and with the same translation memory as the initial project.
Upload your CMS export directly to our quote request – within 30 minutes you will know what the localisation costs and when it can go live.
FAQ
In which formats can I deliver my website content?＋
Ideally as a CMS export: XLIFF, JSON, CSV, PO or XML – for example from WordPress (WPML), Shopify, Typo3 or a headless CMS. We translate directly in the file and return it in the same format, so you can re-import it without any copy-paste.
Why isn't machine translation enough for our website?＋
Search engines increasingly flag unedited machine translations as low-quality content, and visitors bounce when the copy reads awkwardly. We translate with native speakers; alternatively, we can bring existing machine-translated versions up to standard through post-editing.
What exactly does keyword localisation mean?＋
Your German search terms are not translated word for word but researched afresh for the target market: what your customers in French-speaking Switzerland actually google is often a different term from the dictionary translation. The keywords we find flow into titles, meta descriptions, H1s and body copy.
What happens if the translation is longer than the German text?＋
French or Italian texts typically run 10 to 25 per cent longer. Where buttons, navigation items or teasers have fixed lengths, we respect character limits or supply short variants – so your layout doesn't break.
Do you also translate individual landing pages or shop categories?＋
Yes. Many clients start with the home page, offer page, contact page and their most important landing pages, then expand step by step. The translation memory ensures that later additions connect seamlessly in terms of terminology.
What does a website translation cost?＋
That depends on word count, repetitions, CMS format, the SEO research you want and the number of target languages – thanks to the translation memory, we charge repetitions at a reduced rate. Upload your export via the quote request and you will receive a fixed-price quote within 30 minutes. More on this: /en/website-translation-costs/
