3 Best Practices for Multi-Language Support in Frontend Development
by @eleanorhecks@x.com (@designerlymag@x.com) on , tagged guest-posts, internationalization, localization, automation, ai (share on Mastodon or on Bluesky)
Many of your frontend development projects likely reflect the global nature of our world. Catering to that reality through user-facing features and decisions that enhance visitors’ experiences can increase site traffic and satisfaction.
1. Send Users to the Most Appropriate Website Version
Design your site to automatically detect a user’s location and send them to website content that matches it. Then, people do not need to choose between different versions themselves. If everything happens quickly and in the background, visitors are less likely to become frustrated and potentially leave the site before converting.
One good tip is to have this functionality based on their browser language. That is a much better option than a person’s region, which could have many languages spoken within it. However, you will occasionally encounter situations where your website does not support the person’s browser language. In that case, the best alternative is to send them to an English-language version.
Data from February 2025 showed that English appears on 49.4% of websites. Spanish was in a very distant second place at 6%.
That finding shows that you should match a person’s website experience with their browser language when possible, and that you can treat English as a suitable default when that is not possible. Fortunately, things are changing, and someone is increasingly likely to stay on your site even if it doesn’t show content in their preferred language. Although it takes extra time, someone could use a translation app on their phone and aim it at parts of their computer screen to translate specific sections.
2. Take Internationalization Beyond Text Translation
Remember that internationalization strategies for frontend development encompass more than translating the text. That is a start, and you should always use language (lang) attributes on HTML elements to declare the respective language. However, a good internationalization strategy also extends to the aspects you may initially overlook, such as images and spelling variations.
You must also ensure that any forms are compatible with how people write or understand dates and parts of addresses. Although ZIP codes in the United States only have numbers, some international counterparts include letters, too.
Similarly, if the website includes a date picker, it must account for how people in various parts of the world start each week on either Sundays or Mondays. Adding this personalization to check out processes or similarly critical areas of the website increases satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat purchases.
3. Use Automation and Artificial Intelligence Strategically
The rise of automated tools and AI-based translators may make frontend developers assume they can eliminate many steps. Although these products may make teams more productive, they must not become too dependent on these options at the expense of quality.
One of the main things to remember is that even the most advanced technologies can still get things wrong, and a product’s algorithms and training process may not account for the cultural variations of languages. At best, shortcomings cause people to get mildly frustrated or perhaps even amused. However, they could also upset site visitors by reinforcing that developers did not take enough time to get the language specifics correct. A quarter of companies lose business due to a lack of foreign language skills, leading to mistakes such as this and making the need for accuracy all the more crucial.
You will still need human editors and fact checkers who speak the relevant language and can verify whether the technology gave error-free results. The same applies to automated programming products that can change the HTML to support multiple languages as needed. Developers must check for accuracy rather than make assumptions.
Welcome Worldwide Visitors
Multi-language support for websites is increasingly important or appealing to those who find them. Carefully chosen frontend functionality can increase overall traffic levels while giving people good experiences. Following these best practices will help you create sites that meet modern needs.
(Frontend Dogma accepts guest posts as long as they aren’t predominantly AI-generated or promotional. Although guest posts are being reviewed, Frontend Dogma cannot and does not vouch for their accuracy, and does not necessarily endorse recommendations made in them.)