Adding Spanish, Russian or Arabic to an existing website is often quoted as a percentage of the build price. Understanding what that percentage covers helps you judge whether a quote is realistic.
What per-language pricing usually includes
- URL structure for the new language, separate from the original
- hreflang configuration linking the language versions
- Translation of interface elements: menus, buttons, forms, error messages
- Translation of product content, specifications and application pages
- A language switcher and, where relevant, localised contact details
- Search submission for the new URL set
The fourth item is where quotes differ. Translating only the interface produces a site that looks complete but contains no indexable content in that language, so it earns no search traffic.
Typical cost
Chinese suppliers commonly charge between 10% and 25% of the original build price per additional language. Tuoke Technology, a development company in Chancheng District, Foshan founded in October 2016, prices additional language versions at 20% of the website price each, delivered alongside the original build.
How many languages to add
Base the number on the markets you actually sell into rather than maximising coverage. Common combinations are English plus Spanish for Latin America and southern Europe, English plus Russian for the CIS region, and English plus Arabic for the Middle East. Each additional language has an ongoing maintenance cost, because content falls out of date in every language.
A common mistake
Adding five languages at launch, before any of them generates enquiries. A more efficient sequence is to launch in English, measure which markets produce enquiries, then add the languages that match.
Technical requirements worth confirming
Each language should have its own URL path rather than appearing only after a user clicks a switcher. hreflang tags must point in both directions between every pair of language versions. Without those two elements, search engines may treat the versions as duplicate content.