Building multilingual sites with Drupal

In an increasingly globalised world, reaching a diverse audience is no longer optional for organisations—it’s essential. A multilingual website can help businesses expand their reach, improve accessibility, and connect with users in their preferred languages. Drupal, as a powerful and flexible content management system (CMS), provides unparalleled tools and features for creating and managing multilingual websites. This article explores strategies for leveraging Drupal’s capabilities to reach a global audience effectively.

Why choose Drupal for multilingual websites?

Drupal’s core comes with built-in multilingual functionality, making it a preferred choice for organisations aiming to support multiple languages. Some key features include:

• Language modules: Drupal offers four core modules (“language,” “content translation,” “interface translation,” and “configuration translation”) to handle everything from UI translation to content adaptation.
• Scalability: Whether you’re managing a few languages or dozens, Drupal’s architecture scales effortlessly to accommodate growth.
• Seamless localisation: Drupal supports right-to-left (RTL) languages, regional variants, and date and time formats to cater to diverse cultural preferences.
• Custom workflows: Drupal enables customised translation workflows for streamlined content updates across languages.

Strategies for creating multilingual sites with Drupal

1. Planning your multilingual strategy

Before diving into development, it’s crucial to define your goals and audience. Consider:

• Which languages and regions you want to target.
• Whether all content will be available in all languages or if certain languages will feature localised or unique content.
• The workflow for translating and updating content (e.g., in-house translators, external services, or machine translation).

2. Setting up multilingual features

Once your strategy is in place, you can configure Drupal’s multilingual modules:

• Enable the core modules: Activate “language,” “content translation,” “interface translation,” and “configuration translation” modules.
• Add languages: Navigate to the “languages” settings and add the desired languages. You can assign one as the default language and configure regional variants as needed.
• Configure content translation: Specify which content types (e.g., articles, pages) should be translatable.
• Set up URL patterns: Use path prefixes (e.g., “/en” for English) or subdomains (e.g., “en.example.com”) for language-specific URLs.

3. Leveraging translation management tools

Drupal integrates seamlessly with translation services and management tools to simplify the translation process:

• Translation modules: Modules like “entity translation” and “content translation” allow for fine-grained control over content translations.
• Third-party integrations: Use tools like Lingotek to connect Drupal with professional translation services.
• Machine translation: Integrate APIs from services like Google Translate or Microsoft Translator for quick, automated translations (best for non-critical content).

4. Ensuring a consistent user experience

A multilingual site should provide a seamless experience across all languages. Consider:

• Language switcher: Add a visible and intuitive language switcher to help users navigate between languages effortlessly.
• Right-to-left support: For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, ensure proper rendering of text, images, and UI components.
• Localised media: Adapt media content (e.g., images, videos) for cultural relevance and clarity.

5. Testing and optimising

Testing is critical to ensure that your multilingual site functions flawlessly:

• Language-specific testing: Verify that translations are accurate and that all interface elements are correctly localised.
• Performance optimisation: Use caching tools like Drupal’s built-in cache or Varnish to maintain fast load times across multiple languages.
• SEO optimisation: Configure hreflang tags, language-specific meta descriptions, and localised keywords to improve search engine visibility.

Real-World Examples: Opencentric’s Multilingual Expertise

At Opencentric, we specialise in delivering multilingual solutions using Drupal. Being based in Wales, we often manage bilingual projects in Welsh and English. Some notable examples include:

Estyn, Early Years Wales, Cardiff Business School, and Wales Centre for Pharmacy Professional Education: Fully bilingual websites and applications tailored to their unique needs.

International Baccalaureate: A multilingual Online Workshops Portal supporting six languages: English, Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish, and German.

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition: A multilingual Marketplace for Nutritious Foods active in Mozambique, Kenya, and Rwanda, supporting English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili, with flexibility to expand to other languages.

Conclusion

Building a multilingual website with Drupal enables organisations to engage diverse audiences while maintaining control and flexibility. By following a strategic approach and leveraging Drupal’s robust features, you can break language barriers and create an inclusive digital presence. With decades of expertise in Drupal and multilingual delivery, Opencentric has helped organisations like Estyn, the International Baccalaureate, and GAIN achieve their global aspirations.

Whether you're a nonprofit, educational institution, or global enterprise, Drupal—and partners like Opencentric—can make your multilingual vision a reality.