Multilingual website in Switzerland: which languages do you really need?
Updated September 30, 2026 · 2 min read
In Switzerland, a single-language website loses customers. But translating everything into four languages isn’t always worth it. Here’s how to choose, region by region.
Start from your customers
What matters is not the canton’s language but your customers’:
- German-speaking Switzerland: German, plus English in cities (Zurich, Basel, Zug)
- Romandy: French, plus English in Geneva and Lausanne
- Ticino: Italian, plus German for Swiss-German visitors and clients
- Bilingual areas (Biel/Bienne, Fribourg, Valais): German and French
- Specific communities: Turkish, Kurdish, Portuguese or Albanian can make the difference
The problem with automatic translation
A plugin that translates pages on the fly beats nothing, but Google often doesn’t index those versions and customers notice the mistakes. Pages that bring in customers (home, services, contact) need text written for that language.
Setting up SEO per language
- A separate URL per language (e.g. /en, /de, /fr)
- hreflang tags linking the versions together
- Titles and descriptions written per language, not translated word for word
- Local keywords: “electrician Lugano” is not “elettricista Lugano”
How many languages at Atelier Lago
Every site is ready for six languages — English, German, French, Italian, Turkish and Kurdish — each with its own pages and SEO. We switch on the ones you need, at no extra cost per language.