Multilingual web design built for SEO and conversion
WordPress by default (Divi, Gutenberg, Elementor or Bricks depending on your case), Webflow or Shopify when the project calls for it. Multilingual planned from the brief, not bolted on later. Technical SEO baked into the design.
25 years
building and ranking multilingual sites across Europe and the Americas
WordPress
core stack on 80% of projects, other CMSes when the context warrants it
4 languages
FR, EN, ES, NL native or fluent + B1 DE. Plus a translator network for everything else via BeTranslated.
SEO + GEO
technical foundation set so AI search engines also pick up the site, not just Google
Where most multilingual websites fail before launch
Three recurring problems on the sites I audit:
Multilingual added after the fact
The site was designed for a single language, then a translation plugin was bolted on six months later. URLs are inconsistent, hreflang is missing or wrong, sitemaps are not split by language, and Search Console reports a mess. Every fix afterwards costs three times more than designing it right from day one.
Pretty design, weak SEO foundation
The design is beautiful in Figma, then live the H1 is hidden in an image, the schema is missing, Core Web Vitals are red, and important pages have no internal links pointing to them. SEO and design have to be planned together, not in sequence. Otherwise the redesign that was supposed to drive growth ends up tanking organic traffic for nine months.
Generic lead form that filters nothing
“Name, email, message” with no qualifying questions. You spend hours each week filtering students looking for internships, students hoping to learn, and tyre-kickers from countries you do not serve. A lead form is a qualification tool, not a contact widget. It either filters at the door or wastes your time downstream.
My approach: SEO, multilingual structure, and design planned together before the first wireframe. The site you launch is the site you can grow with, in the languages you actually need. Read more on the multilingual SEO approach that informs every design I deliver.
What I include in a web design engagement
SEO-led wireframing
Keyword research and intent mapping before mocking up a single page. The structure follows the search demand, not the other way around. URL hierarchy and internal linking planned from the start.
Multilingual from the brief
WPML by default on WordPress, Polylang or TranslatePress depending on your case. Clean hreflang, translated slugs, schema localised by language. No English version patched together six months later.
Maintainable design system
Reusable components (cards, hero, CTA, FAQ, tables) regardless of the builder. You can add a page without breaking visual consistency. The site stays maintainable by your team.
Performance and Core Web Vitals
LiteSpeed or equivalent caching, self-hosted Google Fonts, WebP images with srcset, lazy loading on non-critical modules. Green CWV at delivery, not “we will see later”.
Schema and structured data
Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, Product, Article, FAQ, BreadcrumbList. Custom JSON-LD where the plugin defaults are not enough. Validated on Google Rich Results and Schema.org before going live.
Lead form that qualifies
Three to five qualifying questions (sector, budget range, timeline, languages, country), conditional logic, immediate confirmation email, CRM or spreadsheet sync. Filtered leads, not noise in your inbox.
My process in 5 steps, named deliverables
No design before SEO scope and multilingual architecture are validated together with you.
1. Discovery and scope (week 1)
Deliverable: kick-off document covering audience by language, commercial priorities, competitor map, technical constraints (existing systems, CRM, marketing tools), recommendation on CMS, builder, hosting and multilingual plugin. Validated together before any wireframe.
2. SEO research and architecture (weeks 2-3)
Deliverable: keyword research per language and per market, mapped onto the site structure. URL plan, hierarchy of templates, internal linking strategy, content brief for each page. The structure follows demand, not opinion.
3. Design and prototyping (weeks 4-7)
Deliverable: wireframes and high-fidelity mockups of key templates (home, service hub, service detail, blog, case study, contact). Design system documented: typography, colour, components, spacing scale. Validated with you before any code.
4. CMS integration (weeks 8-10)
Deliverable: full site on staging in the chosen CMS and builder (WordPress + Divi/Gutenberg/Elementor/Bricks in most cases), multilingual configured, schema in place, SEO plugin set, GA4 + GTM live, lead form tested, Core Web Vitals audit passed. Preview accessible for your feedback before go-live.
5. Launch and handover
Deliverable: DNS migration, redirect plan, Search Console submission across all language variants, performance audit at D+7 and D+30. Handover documentation for your team (admin guide, content publication workflow, multilingual workflow).
Recent multilingual builds
Three projects where multilingual + SEO + design were planned together from the brief.
Bemelman Spuiterij (NL)
Context: ISO 9001-certified paint shop in Hillegom, Bollenstreek region (Zuid-Holland). Mixed B2C (car bodywork, kitchens, garden furniture, wheels) and B2B (industrial powder coating, cabinets, fencing). Dutch-only market.
Build: WordPress + Divi, single language NL with structured pages per service, LocalBusiness schema with full NAP, Google Business Profile integration, lead form with mandatory project type and surface area to qualify quote requests.
Outcome: qualified quotes received daily through the form rather than phone, GBP visibility built across the Bollenstreek and surrounding cities, internal pages ranking for service + city queries in NL.
TX International Freight (US)
Context: Houston-based freight forwarder serving B2B clients across the Americas. Bilingual EN + ES requirement to reach both US prospects and Latin American partners. Quote requests are the primary KPI.
Build: WordPress + Divi with proper EN / ES hreflang setup, FreightForwarder schema, sector pages by mode of transport (ocean, air, road, customs), case studies, lead form with cargo type, origin and destination preselected.
Outcome: daily quote requests doubled over 18 months, recurring citations in ChatGPT and Claude responses for “international freight forwarder Houston” queries, organic traffic compounding monthly.
Law firm in Valencia (ES)
Context: Valencia-based law firm specialised in business law and franchising, targeting Spanish, French and English-speaking clients. Trust signals and clear practice area pages are critical for legal SEO.
Build: WordPress + Divi + WPML across ES / FR / EN, LegalService schema per practice area, structured practice pages with attorney bios, secure contact form (no public phone, no scrape-friendly mail), trust elements (ICAV mention, sector association).
Outcome: recurring leads from Spanish, French and English speakers seeking business law counsel in Valencia, visibility built on commercial intent keywords across three languages.
What is included, what is not
| Service | Included | Not included |
|---|---|---|
| SEO-led wireframing and architecture | ✓ | |
| Keyword research per language and per market | ✓ | |
| High-fidelity design system and mockups | ✓ | |
| WordPress integration (Divi, Gutenberg, Elementor or Bricks of your choice) + WPML | ✓ | |
| Schema markup, hreflang, SEO plugin setup | ✓ | |
| GA4 + GTM + lead form with conditional logic | ✓ | |
| Core Web Vitals optimisation at launch | ✓ | |
| Handover documentation and training | ✓ | |
| Native multilingual copywriting | ⨯ covered by multilingual SEO copywriting | |
| Ongoing SEO and link building post-launch | ⨯ covered by multilingual SEO | |
| Hosting, domain registration, ongoing maintenance | ⨯ recommended providers, your contract |
Why this team for multilingual web design
Michael Bastin: 25 years in SEO and translation, based in Valencia (Spain) since 2016. Multilingual builds across Europe (BE, FR, ES, NL, UK, DE, IT, PT) and the Americas (US, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico). Fluent in French, English, Spanish and Dutch, B1 in German.
Full stack mastery end to end: WordPress (Divi, Gutenberg, Elementor, Bricks depending on the case), WPML / Polylang, Rank Math / Yoast, GA4, GTM, Cloudflare, LiteSpeed, managed hosting. Webflow and Shopify for specific contexts. Plus a native copywriter and translator network for any other language via BeTranslated.
One interlocutor, one invoice, one accountable consultant rather than an agency where briefs get diluted across three layers of project managers.
Which CMS, which builder, which stack?
WordPress by default. 80% of the multilingual builds I deliver run on WordPress because the ecosystem (WPML, Rank Math, Yoast, Polylang, schema plugins, managed hosting) has no real rival for ranking a site in multiple languages. Within WordPress the builder is chosen for your context: Gutenberg / FSE for editorial sites, Divi for business flexibility, Elementor for teams already trained on it, Bricks for performance.
Other CMSes when justified. Shopify for heavy ecommerce. Webflow for marketing-first sites with strong visual demand and no heavy multilingual constraints. Astro or Next.js headless when raw performance and developer experience are critical. Not WordPress by dogma.
If you already have a stack that holds up, we keep it and improve it. No forced migration for the sake of it.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a multilingual web design project take?
Typical timeline: 10 to 14 weeks from kick-off to launch for a 15-30 page site in 2-3 languages. Discovery and SEO scope take 3 weeks. Design and prototyping take 4 weeks. CMS integration and multilingual configuration take 3 to 4 weeks. Launch, redirects and Search Console submission take the final week. Faster is possible if scope is tight. Slower if content has to be produced in three languages from scratch.
Do you work with my existing hosting provider, or do you impose one?
Both work. Recommended hosts for multilingual WordPress: WP Engine, Cloudways, Kinsta, or a managed VPS at Hetzner or OVH with LiteSpeed stack. For a Webflow or Shopify build, hosting is part of the platform. Cheap shared hosting often causes problems on WordPress: slow PHP, badly configured caching, no staging environment. If your current host works well, we keep it. If not, I recommend a justified migration.
Can we keep our existing brand identity, or do you redesign it?
Both options. If you have an existing brand identity (logo, colours, typography, voice), I work within it and bring SEO and multilingual structure to the build. If your brand is unclear or feels generic, a brand refresh can be part of the discovery phase. The site has to look like your business, not like a generic Divi template.
How do you handle content translation during the build?
Three options depending on your situation: (1) you provide content in all required languages, I handle integration; (2) you provide content in one language, I coordinate translation through the BeTranslated network of native copywriters; (3) full multilingual content production from scratch, briefed in your strategic language (FR or EN typically), translated and adapted by natives for each market. The lift differs in budget but the outcome is always native-quality copy, not machine translation.
What happens to my existing SEO during a redesign?
The biggest risk in a redesign is killing organic traffic for 6-12 months because old URLs were not redirected and the new site architecture confused Google. My process includes: full inventory of current URLs by traffic before launch, redirect map (301) for every URL that moves, monitoring of Search Console for 90 days post-launch, immediate response if any high-traffic page loses ranking. The redesign protects existing traffic and adds new opportunities, it does not reset everything.
Do you offer ongoing maintenance after launch?
Maintenance contracts on request for the sites I build. Includes WordPress core, theme and plugin updates, security monitoring, daily backups, uptime monitoring, performance audits quarterly. Separate from SEO retainers (which are covered under multilingual SEO). Pricing on quote, based on site complexity and update frequency.
How much does a multilingual web design project cost?
Quoted. The price depends on number of pages, number of languages, complexity of CMS configuration, level of design polish, and whether content production is included. Free first call: 30 minutes to understand your context and give an honest range. No generic proposal sent by email without a conversation first.
Ready to scope your multilingual build?
I start by understanding your audience, your commercial priorities and your technical context. Free first call, no commitment.
Related services: multilingual SEO · global SEO · multilingual copywriting · local SEO