Quick answer: An international school should translate its website when a meaningful share of the families it wants to reach make decisions in another language. Start with the pages that drive enrollment: home, admissions, tuition, contact and the inquiry form. Use professional or human-reviewed translation, give each language its own URL, and set a routine to keep every version up to date.
International schools serve families from many countries. Often the parent who makes the final decision is not the one who speaks English best. This article is part of our private school website guide, and it explains how to plan a multilingual school website that families trust and search engines can find.
I have led schools in Europe, China, Southeast Asia and Africa. In every one of them, language shaped how families first experienced the school. A clear page in a parent's own language says "you are welcome here" before anyone meets.
When should an international school translate its website?
Not every school needs a fully multilingual site. Translation costs time and money, and a poorly kept translation can do more harm than none. Ask these questions first:
- Who makes the decision? If parents or grandparents who choose the school read mainly in another language, translation helps.
- Where do your inquiries come from? Look at your admissions records and your website analytics by country and browser language.
- What language do families search in? Parents often search in their own language, even for an English-medium school.
- Is the host country language required or expected? Local families, authorities and partners may expect content in the national language.
- Can you respond in that language? Translating the website creates inquiries in that language. Someone on your team needs to answer them.
If you can answer most of these with a clear yes for one or two languages, a multilingual school website is likely worth it. If not, a strong English site with a short welcome page in key languages may be enough for now.
Which pages should you translate first?
You don't have to translate everything at once. Focus on the pages that move a family from interest to inquiry.
| Priority | Pages | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First | Home, admissions overview, tuition and fees, contact, inquiry form | These pages decide whether a family reaches out |
| Second | About and mission, curriculum overview, accreditation, safeguarding, leadership | These pages build trust and answer key questions |
| Third | Boarding or transport, calendar, FAQs, virtual tour | These pages help families plan |
| Later or never | News archive, staff-only resources, detailed policies | High effort, lower impact for new families |
The inquiry path matters most. If a parent reads your admissions page in Mandarin and then hits an English-only form, many will stop. Our guide on turning school website visitors into enrollment inquiries explains how to build that path in any language.
Use our private school website checklist to confirm the English site is complete before you translate it. Translating gaps only multiplies them.
Should you use human or machine translation?
Machine translation has improved a lot, and it is useful for drafts. But a school website is about trust. Awkward wording on a tuition or safeguarding page makes families doubt the school's care for detail.
Here is a practical way to choose:
| Approach | Best for | Risks |
|---|---|---|
| Professional human translation | Admissions, tuition, policies, accreditation, safeguarding | Higher cost and slower updates |
| Machine translation reviewed by a fluent staff member | News, events, general information | Needs a reliable reviewer and time |
| Raw machine translation with no review | Not recommended for public pages | Errors, wrong tone and possible search problems |
Raw automatic translation also carries a search risk. Google's spam policies list content produced at scale through automated transformations, including translating, as a form of scaled content abuse. A few reviewed pages are better than hundreds of unreviewed ones.
A browser's built-in translate button is not a substitute either. It helps individual visitors, but search engines don't index those translations, so families searching in their language won't find you.
How should a multilingual school website be structured?
Give each language version its own URL. Google's guidance on managing multi-regional and multilingual sites recommends separate URLs for each language rather than switching content with cookies or browser settings.
Common structures include:
- Subfolders: yourschool.edu/zh/ or yourschool.edu/fr/. This is the simplest option for most schools.
- Subdomains: zh.yourschool.edu. This works, but it is usually more effort to manage.
- Separate country domains: yourschool.cn or yourschool.fr. This is useful only when you run distinct operations in each country.
For most small and mid-sized international schools, subfolders on one site are the easiest to manage and keep together.
Keep each page in one language. Google determines a page's language from its visible content, so avoid side-by-side translations on the same page. Translate the navigation, buttons and footer too, not just the main text.
What is hreflang, and does your school need it?
Hreflang is a small piece of code that tells search engines which language version of a page to show to which users. It helps a parent searching in Spanish see your Spanish admissions page instead of the English one.
Google's hreflang guidance includes a few key rules:
- Each language version must list itself and every other version.
- The links must be reciprocal. If page A points to page B, page B must point back to page A, or the tags may be ignored.
- You can add an "x-default" version for visitors whose language you don't offer, such as your English page or a language selection page.
You rarely need to write this by hand. Most multilingual plugins and website platforms add hreflang automatically once each translation is linked to its original. On WordPress, plugins such as WPML and Polylang handle this. Ask your web team to confirm it is set up correctly.
How should the language switcher work?
The language switcher is the menu that lets visitors change language. Small details here make a big difference to families.
- Place it where people look. The top right of the header is common and easy to find on desktop and mobile.
- Write each language in its own language. Show "Español," "Français" and "中文," not "Spanish," "French" and "Chinese."
- Avoid flags. Flags represent countries, not languages. Spanish is spoken in many countries, and many countries have several languages.
- Link to the same page. A parent switching from the English tuition page should land on the translated tuition page, not the home page.
- Don't force redirects. Google advises against automatically redirecting visitors based on their assumed language. Suggest a language instead, and let families choose.
How do you keep translations accurate and up to date?
The biggest risk with a multilingual school website is drift. The English tuition page is updated, but the French one still shows last year's fees. That creates confusion and, sometimes, disputes.
Build a simple routine:
- Name an owner for each language. One person is responsible for keeping that version current.
- Flag pages that change often. Tuition, calendars, admissions dates and contact details need checking each term.
- Translate updates at the same time. Make translation part of publishing, not a later task.
- Keep a glossary. Agree on how to translate key terms such as grade names, program titles and accreditation names.
- Review the whole site once a year. Check every translated page against the English original.
- State which version prevails. For contracts, enrollment terms and policies, say which language version is the official one.
If you cannot keep a page current in a language, remove that translation and link to the English page instead. An outdated translation is worse than none.
How does a multilingual website fit your wider marketing?
Translation works best as part of a full plan for reaching families abroad. Your social media, email follow-up, open house events and agent materials should match the languages on your website.
Our article on digital marketing for international schools covers the wider channel mix. If you run an online program, marketing your online school to an international audience explores how to reach families across time zones and languages.
Also plan who answers inquiries in each language, and how fast. A translated website that leads to a slow English-only reply loses the family's trust you just earned.
Get a free website report card
We'll show you what helps and what blocks enrollment. For international schools, our free school website report card also looks at language options, the inquiry path for non-English speakers and how your site appears in search. Learn more about our school marketing and digital presence services or contact EduVision to request yours.
Frequently asked questions
How many languages should our school website offer?
Start with the one or two languages that matter most for your target families and your host country. Add more only when you can keep them current and answer inquiries in those languages.
Is Google Translate good enough for a school website?
It is a useful drafting tool, but raw output should not go live on key pages. Have a fluent person review everything, and use professional translation for admissions, tuition and policies.
Will a multilingual website help our search rankings?
It can help you appear in searches made in other languages, as long as each language has its own URL and hreflang is set up correctly. It does not improve your English rankings by itself.
Do we need to translate our policies?
Translate the policies families need to understand before enrolling, such as admissions, fees, refunds and safeguarding. State clearly which language version is the official one.
