The Multilingual Launch Checklist: 27 Points Before You Ship a New Language

Adding a language takes minutes; launching one properly takes a checklist. Here is ours, grouped by discipline.

Content (8 checks)

Homepage, top products/services, pricing, contact, legal pages reviewed by a human. Formality chosen per market. Brand and product names on the DNT list. Currency and date formats localized.

SEO (9 checks)

Language URLs return 200 and render server-side. Each version self-canonicalizes. hreflang cluster reciprocal, x-default present. Translated titles/descriptions spot-checked for length. Sitemap includes the language; submitted in GSC. Internal links stay within the language tree. No accidental noindex. Switcher links crawlable.

UX + legal (7 checks)

Fonts cover the script (test CJK/RTL). Layout survives expansion. Forms tested through validation failure. Consent/cookie text reviewed. Policies legally sane for the market.

Measurement (3 checks)

GA4 segments per path; GSC per-sitemap coverage watched; a 30-day calendar reminder to review the language’s first metrics. Then ship the next one — the list gets faster every time.