Google: Your Multilingual Pages Shouldn't Be Word For Word Translation

Oct 31, 2017 - 8:00 am 3 by

Google Translation

Some folks might think that Google requires that when you use hreflang and make a multilingual web site, that each page that is translated from one language to another must be done word-for-word. That is absolutely not the case. In fact, it is best to translate the page normally and not do word for word translation. Have someone fluent in both languages look at the page and translate it into a fluent and natural way to read the page. That means some words might not be on the page at all.

Google said this on Twitter this morning. Google said that "equivalent across languages / regions doesn't require word-for-word translation."

Here are the tweets:

So just be normal, have someone naturally translate the page, but not word-by-word.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 15, 2025

Sep 15, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console Reporting Change Since 100 Results Broke

Sep 15, 2025 - 7:51 am
Bing Search

Bing Places Update Coming Soon: Navigation, Experience & More

Sep 15, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

PSA: Most Third Party Google Search Tracking Tools Are Broken

Sep 15, 2025 - 7:31 am
Search Engine Optimization

Structured Data Does Not Help With Visibility In AI Search

Sep 15, 2025 - 7:21 am
Google News

FTC Investigating Google Over Ad Pricing & Terms On Websites

Sep 15, 2025 - 7:11 am
 
Previous Story: Majestic Uses Google Search Console API, Google Is Happy