Most small business websites get a second language the same way: a customer writes in Portuguese, a booking comes from Germany, and suddenly "we should have the site in German too" is on the list. There are three ways to do it, and the choice decides what you pay as you write more, whether Google ever sees the new language, and how much upkeep you take on. This guide walks through all three, the questions that tell them apart, and a checklist that applies whichever one you pick.
1. A translation overlay on your current site
You keep the site you have and add a script or a connected service that translates it. The appeal is speed: nothing to rebuild, and the second language can appear the same afternoon.
The things to check are how it's priced and how it's served. Overlay services usually price by the number of words multiplied by the number of languages, so every new blog post or service page moves you towards the next tier. And some setups swap the text in the visitor's browser on the same URL, which means a search engine indexes one language and never sees the other. Better plans give each language its own address; check which one you're actually buying.
2. Your CMS plus a translation plugin
If your site runs on WordPress or something similar, a multilingual plugin adds language versions inside the system you already use. You get more control than with an overlay, and each language can have its own URL.
The cost is spread across several bills and several moving parts: hosting, the plugin licence, often translation credits on top, and a theme and a plugin that have to stay compatible through every update. Translations usually live on separate screens from the page you're editing, so "is the French version of this page up to date?" becomes a question you have to go and check.
3. A site builder with languages built in
The third option is a builder where every page is multilingual from the start: the page, its translations, its addresses and its search tags are one thing rather than a site with something added on top. FolioPress works this way, and it's what I build, so read this section with that in mind.
The trade-off is that you move your site rather than extend it. If your current site does a lot that has nothing to do with languages, that move is the real cost, not the subscription.