Multilingual website in Ticino: structure, hreflang, translation and costs

A multilingual website works for a Ticino SME when every language has its own URLs (for example /de/ and /fr/), the texts are translated by people who know the market, the hreflang annotations are correct and a language switcher is visible on every page. In most cases a single .ch domain and one WordPress installation with a multilingual plugin are all you need. Hosting and domain cost almost the same as for a single-language site: what really counts is translation and keeping the texts up to date in every language.

Which languages does a Ticino business really need?

Ticino speaks Italian, but its customers often do not. Guests and clients from German-speaking Switzerland, companies from Romandy, customers from Lombardy and international firms in Lugano search in different languages. Choose your languages based on who brings you business, not on how many are technically possible.

• Hotel or holiday flat in Locarno or Ascona: Italian and German almost always, English often useful, French if you have many guests from Romandy.
• Tradesman in the Mendrisiotto who also works across the border: Italian covers a lot; for clients from German-speaking Switzerland a few German pages on the main services are often enough.
• Fiduciary office in Lugano with international clients: Italian, German and English.
• Supplier or service company active throughout Switzerland: Italian, German and French.

Tip: Two well-maintained languages are better than four half-translated ones. A German version with mistakes or missing pages costs you trust with exactly the customers you wanted to win.

Structure: subfolders, subdomains or separate domains

Each language needs its own address, otherwise Google cannot index it separately. There are four ways to do this:

For most SMEs subfolders are the simplest and most robust choice. A .ch domain suits all national languages; you do not need an extra domain for German-speaking customers. Translate the page addresses too: /de/dienstleistungen/ reads better than /de/servizi/ and contains the word German-speaking customers actually search for.

hreflang: how Google shows the right language

With hreflang you tell Google which pages are translations of each other. Google can then show the German page to people searching in German and the Italian page to those searching in Italian. The key rules:

• Every version lists all language versions, including itself.
• References must be reciprocal: if the Italian page points to the German one, the German page must point back to the Italian one, otherwise Google may ignore the annotations.
• Correct codes: language first, then optionally the region, e.g. «it», «de» or «it-CH», «de-CH». «ch-it» is wrong.
• «x-default» marks the page for all other languages, for example the English version or a language selection page.
• Each language has a canonical pointing to itself. If all versions point their canonical to the Italian page, Google indexes only Italian.

hreflang does not replace content: Google detects the language from the visible text. A German page with half the text still in Italian confuses visitors and search engines. Also avoid automatic redirects based on IP address or browser language: Google explicitly advises against them, and a customer from Zurich on holiday in Lugano does not want to land on the Italian version. A clearly visible language switcher that leads to the same page in the other language is better.

Tip: Open the source code of two or three pages and check that each version lists all the others and itself. If a return link is missing, the cause is almost always a page that has not been translated yet or is not linked in the plugin.

Translating: people, machines or both

Tools such as DeepL provide good drafts, but texts for Switzerland need adapting. Swiss German writes «Strasse» with a double s and asks for an «Offerte»; in Romandy people say «septante» and «nonante». Search terms should not be translated literally either: someone looking for a holiday flat types «Ferienwohnung Tessin» in German, not «Ferienwohnung Ticino». Google’s spam policies also mention machine-translated content published at scale without review. So have every text proofread by a native speaker.

Do not forget the less visible elements that still matter:

• titles and descriptions for Google (meta title and meta description);
• image alt texts and captions;
• forms, error messages and automatic confirmation emails;
• important PDFs such as price lists or terms;
• cookie banner, privacy policy and legal notice;
• text inside images, which has to be recreated for each language.

A small glossary with your company’s terms in every language helps translators and staff use the same words consistently, even years later.

Multilingual WordPress: the most common tools

Whatever the tool, check three things: every language has its own URLs in subfolders, hreflang is generated correctly, and the language switcher leads to the translated page rather than always to the home page. With an external service like Weglot your texts are stored by a third party: mention this in your privacy policy.

How much does a multilingual website cost?

With subfolders the technical costs barely change: one domain, one hosting plan, one SSL certificate. The additional costs are the plugin licence (if paid), the translation and, above all, the ongoing work of keeping every language up to date.

To estimate translation costs, count the words: a site with 10 pages of about 400 words each has 4000 words; with two additional languages that is 8000 words to translate. Ask for two or three quotes and clarify whether proofreading, meta texts and legal pages are included.

Tip: Set up the language structure from the start, even if you launch in Italian only. Adding it later to a live website takes more time than planning it straight away.

Common mistakes on multilingual websites

• Flags instead of languages: a flag stands for a country, not a language, and Switzerland has four. Use language names: Italiano, Deutsch, Français, English.
• The language switcher always leads to the home page instead of the translated page.
• Pages missing in one language without any notice to visitors.
• Forms and confirmation emails only in Italian, even on the German version.
• Enquiries in German or French that nobody in the business can answer: only offer languages you can also handle in customer contact.
• All versions with a canonical pointing to Italian, so the other languages disappear from Google.

Hosting and domain for a multilingual website

Technically, a multilingual website does not need special hosting. What matters is a current PHP version, enough memory and good caching, because multilingual plugins add database queries. With subfolders caching works without special settings, because each language has its own URLs.

At HostOn a multilingual site in subfolders counts as a single WordPress website: the WordPress Säntis plan costs CHF 10.90 per month, billed annually, and includes a free SSL certificate, daily backups and a staging environment where you can test the multilingual plugin before going live. If you prefer separate domains per language, WordPress Titlis at CHF 16.90 per month handles up to five websites. A .ch domain costs CHF 6.90 for the first year and CHF 14.90 on renewal. If your website is currently with another provider, migration to HostOn is free.