Translations Settings
The Translations settings page is where you add extra languages to your website. With translations enabled, the same website you have already built can also be shown in another language. Visitors see your content in English, German, French, and more, while you keep managing a single design.
This page is the starting point for the whole feature: you buy the languages you want here, decide how translated pages appear in the address bar, and (optionally) connect an automatic-translation service. Once a language is active, you translate the actual text on the Content → Translations page.
SitePack translations are deliberately simple: your master design stays in one place and you only translate the text, headings, page details, and web addresses. You never rebuild a page per language, so every translation automatically stays consistent with your original design. The full walkthrough lives in the Translating Your Website guide.
What it costs
Your website's main language is already included in your subscription. You are never charged for it. Each additional language is a small separate subscription:
- € 7.50 per language, per month, billed once per year.
- You can add as many languages as you need; each one is its own line so you can cancel them individually.
Because translations are billed like your other add-ons, any language you add is charged automatically to the payment method already on file. If you have one or more unpaid invoices, you will be asked to settle them before you can add a new language.
Adding a language
- Go to Settings → Translations.
- Under Languages, you will see your main language listed first. It is marked as the main language and has no buttons. It is your original site and is always included.
- Under Add a language, choose a language from the dropdown. Every language is listed by its English name followed by its own name (Dutch - Nederlands, German - Deutsch) in alphabetical order, so a language and its country variants sit together: Dutch - Nederlands, Dutch (Belgium) - Nederlands (België), Dutch (Netherlands) - Nederlands (Nederland). The difference is explained below.
- Click Add translation. The language is activated immediately and appears in the Languages list as Active.
That is all it takes to make a language available. Nothing on your live site changes yet. A new language starts out empty, and you decide what to translate next on the Content → Translations page.
A language, or a language for one country
Every language can be added in two ways, and the choice decides what you tell search engines:
- The language on its own: Dutch - Nederlands, served from
/nl/. This targets everyone who reads that language, wherever they live. It is the right choice for almost every website. - The language for one country: Dutch (Netherlands) - Nederlands (Nederland), served from
/nl-nl/. This targets readers in that country specifically. Choose it when the content really is country-specific, different prices, shipping, opening hours or legal text.
Both are the same price and work exactly the same way; only the web address and the search-engine signal differ. If you are not sure, pick the language on its own.
Selling to Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the same German text? Add German once. Do the three countries need different text? Add German (Germany), German (Austria) and German (Switzerland) as three separate languages. Each gets its own pages, its own address and its own search-engine signal.
Languages you can add
You can add any European language, including the United Kingdom, Ireland and all of Switzerland's language regions. Each one is available on its own and for each country it is spoken in, and is served under a short prefix in the web address (with the default subfolder setting):
| Language | On its own | For one country |
|---|---|---|
| Albanian - Shqip | /sq/ | Albania /sq-al/ |
| Basque - Euskara | /eu/ | Spain /eu-es/ |
| Bosnian - Bosanski | /bs/ | Bosnia and Herzegovina /bs-ba/ |
| Bulgarian - Български | /bg/ | Bulgaria /bg-bg/ |
| Catalan - Català | /ca/ | Spain /ca-es/ |
| Croatian - Hrvatski | /hr/ | Croatia /hr-hr/ |
| Czech - Čeština | /cs/ | Czechia /cs-cz/ |
| Danish - Dansk | /da/ | Denmark /da-dk/ |
| Dutch - Nederlands | /nl/ | Netherlands /nl-nl/ · Belgium /nl-be/ |
| English | /en/ | United Kingdom /en-gb/ · Ireland /en-ie/ |
| Estonian - Eesti | /et/ | Estonia /et-ee/ |
| Finnish - Suomi | /fi/ | Finland /fi-fi/ |
| French - Français | /fr/ | France /fr-fr/ · Belgium /fr-be/ · Switzerland /fr-ch/ · Luxembourg /fr-lu/ |
| Galician - Galego | /gl/ | Spain /gl-es/ |
| German - Deutsch | /de/ | Germany /de-de/ · Austria /de-at/ · Switzerland /de-ch/ |
| Greek - Ελληνικά | /el/ | Greece /el-gr/ |
| Hungarian - Magyar | /hu/ | Hungary /hu-hu/ |
| Icelandic - Íslenska | /is/ | Iceland /is-is/ |
| Irish - Gaeilge | /ga/ | Ireland /ga-ie/ |
| Italian - Italiano | /it/ | Italy /it-it/ · Switzerland /it-ch/ |
| Latvian - Latviešu | /lv/ | Latvia /lv-lv/ |
| Lithuanian - Lietuvių | /lt/ | Lithuania /lt-lt/ |
| Luxembourgish - Lëtzebuergesch | /lb/ | Luxembourg /lb-lu/ |
| Macedonian - Македонски | /mk/ | North Macedonia /mk-mk/ |
| Maltese - Malti | /mt/ | Malta /mt-mt/ |
| Norwegian - Norsk bokmål | /nb/ | Norway /nb-no/ |
| Polish - Polski | /pl/ | Poland /pl-pl/ |
| Portuguese - Português | /pt/ | Portugal /pt-pt/ |
| Romanian - Română | /ro/ | Romania /ro-ro/ |
| Serbian - Српски | /sr/ | Serbia /sr-rs/ |
| Slovak - Slovenčina | /sk/ | Slovakia /sk-sk/ |
| Slovenian - Slovenščina | /sl/ | Slovenia /sl-si/ |
| Spanish - Español | /es/ | Spain /es-es/ |
| Swedish - Svenska | /sv/ | Sweden /sv-se/ |
| Turkish - Türkçe | /tr/ | Türkiye /tr-tr/ |
| Ukrainian - Українська | /uk/ | Ukraine /uk-ua/ |
Your website's main language is not listed twice. It is already included and served without a prefix, so neither it nor the plain language it is written in appears in the dropdown. Languages you have already added disappear from the dropdown as well.
Choosing how a language appears in the web address
Each language starts at the prefix that matches how you added it (/de/ for German, /de-ch/ for German (Switzerland)) and every active language has a Web address prefix you can edit in the Languages list. Type a new prefix and press Enter (or click outside the field) to save it; leave the field empty to go back to the default.
This is what lets you decide how specific each language should be, whichever way you added it:
| You want | Set the prefix to | Visitors see |
|---|---|---|
| Just the language | de | yourdomain.com/de/angebote |
| Language and country | de-de | yourdomain.com/de-de/angebote |
| A second region of the same language | de-ch | yourdomain.com/de-ch/angebote |
The prefix is also what search engines are told: /de/ is published as hreflang="de" and /de-ch/ as hreflang="de-CH". The value shown under each language name in the list is exactly what search engines will see, so you can check it at a glance.
If you sell to both Germany and Switzerland, add German (Germany) and German (Switzerland) as two separate languages. SitePack keeps their web addresses apart automatically (/de-de/ and /de-ch/), so each region gets its own pages and its own search-engine signal. Two languages can never share a prefix, if you try, you will be asked to pick a different one.
Because the prefix is exactly what search engines are told the page's language is, it has to be a real language code rather than a word of your choosing:
- A two-letter language code on its own (
de) or a language and country joined by a hyphen, such asde-ch. - It must start with that language's own code. German can be
de,de-de,de-atorde-ch, but notfrorat. - The part after the hyphen must be a real country code (
ch,at,be).
So deutschland, custom-de and de-custom are not accepted. They would advertise a language that does not exist, which search engines discard. If you want a page to live at a completely custom address, give that page a translated slug instead; the slug is entirely yours to choose.
Removing a language
To stop offering a language. Click Cancel next to it in the Languages list. Cancelling has a deliberately gentle effect:
- The language is no longer published, so visitors can no longer reach the translated pages.
- Your translated content is kept. If you add the same language again later, your existing translations are still there.
How translated pages are served
Translated pages are served as a subfolder of your existing domain: they live under a short language prefix, for example yourdomain.com/en/become-a-member. This works on the domain you already have, with no extra setup, and keeps all your languages together, which is exactly what search engines prefer.
You choose the prefix itself per language; see Choosing how a language appears in the web address above.
Changing a language's prefix changes the web address of every page in that language. Any links or bookmarks pointing at the old address stop working, so it is best to settle on a prefix when you add a language rather than changing it once the pages are being visited.
Automatic translation (optional)
Translating is always possible by hand. You never need any extra tools. If you would like a head start, you can connect a machine-translation provider that pre-fills translations for you to review and adjust:
- Under Automatic translation, choose a Provider: DeepL or Google Translate.
- Paste your own API key from that provider.
- Click Save.
Once a provider and key are saved, an Auto-translate button appears in the translation editor. It fills in suggestions for the untranslated (or outdated) text; you always review and save them yourself, so you stay in full control of the final wording.
The API key is your own account with DeepL or Google. SitePack does not translate the text itself. It simply passes your content to the provider you chose, using your key. You can leave the provider empty to keep everything manual. Your saved key is never shown back to you; leave the field blank when saving to keep the existing key, or paste a new one to replace it.
What's next
Now that a language is active, head to Content → Translations to translate your pages, blog posts, products, and categories, and to learn how translated pages, hreflang tags, and a language switcher work on your live site.