For businesses operating in Wales, deciding whether to provide a website in both Welsh and English isn\u2019t always straightforward. For some organisations, bilingual communication is already part of everyday business. Customers speak Welsh with the team, marketing materials are produced in both languages and offering the same choice online feels completely natural. For others, the question only comes up when they\u2019re planning a new website or looking to reach a wider audience across Wales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bilingual website<\/a> can provide a better experience for Welsh-speaking customers, strengthen your connection with audiences across Wales and create additional opportunities through search. However, simply translating an English website into Welsh doesn\u2019t necessarily create a good bilingual experience. The structure, design, content and SEO all need to be considered if both languages are going to work properly together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, does your business actually need a Welsh and English website? There isn\u2019t one answer that applies to every organisation, but there are some important questions worth considering before you decide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A bilingual website allows visitors to access your content in two languages. In Wales, this will typically mean providing Welsh and English versions of your key pages, with a clear language selector allowing visitors to choose which they prefer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good bilingual website should feel as though both languages were considered from the beginning. Someone reading about a service in English should be able to switch directly to the Welsh version of that same page rather than being sent back to the homepage. Navigation, calls to action, forms and other important elements should also remain consistent as visitors move through the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why bilingual web design involves much more than translation. You\u2019re creating one website that needs to work properly for two language audiences while maintaining the same brand, messaging and overall user experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not necessarily. Being based in Wales doesn\u2019t automatically mean your entire website needs to be available in Welsh and English. The decision should be based on your audience, objectives and the role language plays in how customers interact with your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Start by looking at your existing customers. Do people already communicate with your team in Welsh? Are you targeting areas where Welsh is widely spoken? Do you work throughout Wales rather than predominantly within one local market? If the answer to several of these questions is yes, there may be a strong argument for providing customers with a choice of language online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your future plans matter too. A business might currently generate most of its work from one part of Wales but have ambitions to expand into new areas. Your website should support where the business is going, not simply reflect where its customers happen to be today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some organisations may also have specific Welsh-language responsibilities or requirements. These should be considered separately from the commercial and marketing reasons discussed here, with businesses checking the requirements that apply to their particular organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before thinking about technology or translation, consider the people who will actually use your website. A better question than \u201cShould a Welsh business have a bilingual website?\u201d is \u201cWould some of our customers prefer to interact with us in Welsh?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about the complete journey a potential customer takes. They might discover your business through Google, visit a service page, read about your experience, look through previous projects and eventually make an enquiry. If they would prefer to do that in Welsh, giving them the option to remain in their chosen language can create a more considered and relevant experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look at what already happens elsewhere in your business too. If customers regularly speak Welsh with your team or you already use Welsh across signage, brochures, social media or other communications, an English-only website can feel disconnected from the rest of the organisation. Bringing your digital presence into line with those other touchpoints can create a more consistent experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also worth considering where you want the business to grow. A company based in one part of Wales may increasingly target customers across the whole country. For businesses looking to grow across the region, investing in professional web design in North Wales<\/a> can help them reach customers locally and further afield. One of the most common mistakes with web design<\/a> for bilingual websites is building the complete English website first and only thinking about Welsh once everything else has been finished. While it\u2019s possible to add another language later, it can create unnecessary complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welsh and English content won\u2019t always occupy the same amount of space. A short English heading or button might require more room when written naturally in Welsh. Navigation menus, service cards, banners and mobile layouts can all be affected, meaning a design created exclusively around English copy may not work as well once Welsh content is introduced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Planning both languages from the beginning allows the designer to create layouts flexible enough to accommodate genuine content in either language. It also means decisions around navigation, URL structure, language switching and content management can be made before development rather than retrofitted afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The finished website should feel equally natural in Welsh and English. Visitors shouldn\u2019t feel as though one language is the original website and the other is simply a translated version added later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Language switching sounds simple, but getting the details right makes a significant difference to the user experience. Visitors should be able to see which language they\u2019re currently using and change language without losing their position on the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If someone is reading a particular service page in English and selects Welsh, they should ideally arrive on the Welsh version of that same service page. Sending visitors back to the homepage every time they change language forces them to find the information again, which becomes particularly frustrating on larger websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The smaller details matter too. Buttons, navigation, forms, error messages and important instructions all contribute to the experience. Translating the main paragraphs while leaving large parts of the website interface in English doesn\u2019t create a particularly convincing bilingual website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, and search visibility is one of the most interesting opportunities created by a properly structured bilingual website. A Welsh and English website gives search engines content that can potentially appear when people search in either language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Welsh SEO<\/a> shouldn\u2019t simply involve translating English keywords word for word. People may use different terminology and phrases depending on the language they\u2019re searching in, so keyword research should consider actual Welsh search behaviour. The same principle applies to page titles, headings, meta descriptions and the content itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The technical SEO foundations<\/a> are important too. Welsh and English pages should have a clear URL structure, while search engines need appropriate signals to understand which language each version is intended for. Internal links and other SEO elements should also reflect the bilingual structure of the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Welsh-language searches will often have lower overall search volumes than their English equivalents, but lower volume doesn\u2019t automatically mean lower value. A smaller number of highly relevant visitors looking for exactly what your business provides can still represent valuable opportunities. The aim should be useful, high-quality content in both languages rather than creating Welsh pages simply because you think they\u2019ll be easier to rank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a new small or medium-sized business website, creating Welsh and English versions of the main customer-facing pages will often provide the most consistent experience. Your homepage, core services, about information, contact journey and other important pages are obvious priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Larger websites can be more complicated. An established organisation may already have hundreds of articles, products or resources, and translating everything immediately might not be practical. In these situations, content can be prioritised according to its importance to customers, organic search performance and role within the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s important is having a clear plan. You should also decide how new content will be handled after launch so the Welsh version doesn\u2019t gradually fall behind the English website. If you\u2019re regularly publishing news, case studies or new services, bilingual content needs to become part of that ongoing process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AI and automated translation tools have improved significantly, but that doesn\u2019t mean important customer-facing content should automatically be published without appropriate review. Your website isn\u2019t simply a collection of factual sentences; it\u2019s an important part of how your business communicates and presents itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marketing language can be particularly difficult to translate literally. Headlines, calls to action and brand messaging need to preserve the meaning and personality of the original content while still sounding natural in Welsh. Technical or industry-specific terminology can add another layer of complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professional Welsh translation or appropriate human review can therefore be an important part of a bilingual website project. Technology may help with the process, particularly on larger websites, but the finished content should be checked for accuracy, tone and context before it\u2019s published. The Welsh version should represent your business just as professionally as the English one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s easy to concentrate on the main website pages and overlook what happens once somebody decides to make an enquiry or purchase. Someone might browse your website entirely in Welsh, only to reach the enquiry form and suddenly find everything has switched back to English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Forms, confirmation messages, booking systems, ecommerce checkouts and automated emails can all form part of the bilingual experience. Some websites also rely on third-party platforms that may have limitations around Welsh-language support, so these should be identified during the planning stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not every external system necessarily needs to be replaced, but understanding where language changes occur allows you to make informed decisions. The aim is to make the customer\u2019s journey feel as consistent as possible from the first page they visit through to making contact or completing a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is one of the most important questions to ask before launching a bilingual website. Websites continually change as services evolve, team members join, case studies are published and new content is added. Both language versions need to remain accurate as those changes happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the English website is regularly updated while the Welsh version is left untouched, customers can quickly encounter outdated or inconsistent information. Decide who will be responsible for translations and updates before launch, and make sure your content management system makes it straightforward to manage corresponding Welsh and English pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A good bilingual website isn\u2019t simply one that works well on launch day. Ongoing website management<\/a> can help ensure both versions remain maintained, accurate and working properly as the website develops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The decision ultimately comes back to your audience and objectives. If Welsh-speaking customers already form part of your market, you\u2019re looking to grow across Wales or bilingual communication fits naturally with your organisation, there\u2019s a strong case for considering Welsh and English when planning your next website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key is to treat bilingual functionality as part of the overall website strategy rather than a translation exercise at the end. Both languages should be considered across design, navigation, content, SEO and the wider customer journey, with a realistic process in place for keeping everything accurate once the website is live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When those elements are handled properly, a bilingual website can give Welsh and English-speaking customers an equally professional experience. More importantly, it can create a digital presence that better reflects the audience your business serves and the market you want to grow within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At Rowe & Bear, we design and build bilingual Welsh and English websites for businesses and organisations across Wales, with both languages considered from the beginning of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our approach combines website strategy, bespoke web design, WordPress development and SEO to create a consistent experience for Welsh and English-speaking audiences. We can also arrange professional Welsh translation as part of the project, helping you bring design, development, content and translation together through one team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re considering a new bilingual website, explore our Bilingual Web Design services<\/a> or book a discovery call<\/a> with our team to discuss what you\u2019re planning.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For businesses operating in Wales, deciding whether to provide a website in both Welsh and English isn\u2019t always straightforward. For some organisations, bilingual communication is already part of everyday business. Customers speak Welsh with the team, marketing materials are produced in both languages and offering the same choice online feels completely natural. For others, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":42775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_joinchat":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-web-design"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42851,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42729\/revisions\/42851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roweandbear.co.uk\/cy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is a bilingual website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Does every business in Wales need a bilingual website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Start with your customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nBilingual web design should be planned from the beginning<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How should switching between Welsh and English work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can a bilingual website help with SEO?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Do you need to translate every page?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Should you use professional Welsh translation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Don\u2019t forget the rest of the customer journey<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Can you maintain both languages?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
So, is a bilingual website right for your business?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Planning a bilingual Welsh and English website?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n