Multilingual Website Guide for Businesses in Ghent
A practical language playbook for Ghent businesses: who your visitors are, which languages reach them, and how to ship them on WordPress.
Why do Ghent businesses go multilingual?
Ghent's economy runs on education, tech. Visitors, expats and international clients search in their own languages — and a website that answers in Dutch, French, English captures bookings and orders that an English-or-local-only site silently loses.
The languages that pay off in Ghent
Sector notes for Ghent
- Education: Education: international students compare programs in their native language first.
- Tech: Tech & startups: localized landing pages are the cheapest international growth experiment you can run.
Shipping it on WordPress
- 1
Install Transxlate
Download the plugin from your transxlate.com account (free plan available) and activate it — the setup wizard opens automatically.
- 2
Add Dutch as a target language
Pick your default language and select Dutch in the wizard. The language URL is created instantly.
- 3
Connect your API key
Paste a Google Cloud Translation or DeepL key and switch on automatic translation. You pay the provider directly at wholesale rates.
- 4
Refine visually
Open any translated page with ?trx-edit=1 and click any sentence to perfect it. Human edits permanently override the machine.
Frequently asked questions
Which website languages matter most for a business in Ghent?
Beyond Dutch, the highest-value additions in Ghent are Dutch, French, English — reflecting the city's visitor and resident mix. Each language runs on its own indexable URL, so local searches in those languages can actually find you.
Does a multilingual website help local SEO in Ghent?
Yes. Searches like “restaurant near me” or service queries happen in the searcher's language. A Ghent page in Dutch ranks for Dutch-language searches that a monolingual site is invisible to — with very little competition in most cities.
What does it cost a Ghent business to add these languages?
A typical small-business site (5,000–10,000 words) machine-translates for roughly $1–2 per language at wholesale API rates — usually free within Google's monthly 500K-character tier. The plugin license is the only fixed cost.
Keep exploring
Put your Ghent business in front of every visitor
Add the languages your customers actually speak — in an afternoon, with your own API key.