⇄Multiple languages

Because your site has only one language. The area stays empty for as long as that is the case.

First add another language in the site settings — after that, the texts appear there, section by section.

In the site settings. That is where you define which languages exist — which is what gives the Translations area anything to do in the first place.

Think beforehand about whether you will really maintain the second language. An out-of-date English version does more harm than good: visitors read prices and opening hours that are long out of date.

The Translations area places every text on your website next to its translation, section by section. That way nothing is left untranslated.

How to go about it: take the home page and work through it completely. A half-translated page looks less finished than one that exists only in German.

It can produce a suggestion, and that is all it is: the suggestion is a draft. You proofread it, correct it and approve it — only then does it appear on the website.

What to look out for in particular: proper names, legal forms, your industry’s technical terms and anything that matters legally. A machine-translated legal notice (Impressum) is not a good idea.

AI runs are charged; the amount of text determines the price.

For German-language offerings, the German versions are sufficient. If your site is clearly aimed at an audience in another language, the required details should be understandable there too — otherwise they do not serve their purpose.

Do not have such texts machine-translated and then leave them unread. They are short enough to have them translated properly once.

The website then appears only in the remaining languages; the language switcher disappears.

Bear in mind that visitors may have saved or linked to addresses in the removed language — those links will then lead nowhere. If a language has been online for a while, switching it off is not just tidying up but a change with visible effects outside.

The one your customers actually ask in — not the one that sounds international.

For most businesses in Germany, that is either none or English. For associations and institutions with a particular audience, it may be a completely different one; in one project of ours, it is Amharic.

The question before deciding is not “which would be nice” but: who will maintain it in two years’ time?

Roughly double for every change to the content — and that is exactly where most bilingual websites fail.

What helps: translate a few pages rather than all of them. A good English home page with contact details is worth more than twenty half-translated subpages.

The coloured statuses in the Translations area show you what is still open — use them as a work list.

The default language sits under the main address; further languages sit under their own prefix in the path.

This is important to know when you send someone a link: the address decides which language the page appears in. And if you remove a language later, exactly these links lead nowhere.

Ideally someone who speaks the language — even when a suggestion is available. An AI suggestion is a rough draft, not a result.

For regular translating there is a suitable kind of access: Aurora Hive Live in translator mode — text only, structure protected. This lets someone translate without having access to the admin area and without being able to rebuild the page.

In this order:

1. Home page — completely.
2. Contact — address, phone, form labels.
3. The one page that describes the most common reason people get in touch.

Everything else as needed. A half-translated page looks less finished than one that exists only in German — so better a few pages in full than many by halves.