Development·7 min·
Multilingual Website: Architecture and Pitfalls
How to build language versions, hreflang and URL structure correctly.
A multilingual website opens new markets but needs the right technical base, otherwise Google mixes versions.
Key rules
- A separate URL per language (/uk, /en)
- Correct hreflang between versions
- Unique meta tags per language
- A language switcher that keeps the page
The most common mistake is language versions on one URL via JavaScript. To a crawler that is one page, and hreflang does not work.
The right architecture from the start saves months and avoids duplicates in search.