Internationalization

Internationalization

Add languages and regions in a way that works for users, search engines, and the team maintaining the content. Stack-agnostic.

When to use

• Adding the first non-English (or non-default) language
• Adding additional locales to an existing internationalized site
• Choosing URL structure for languages
• Implementing hreflang tags
• Designing translation workflow
• Handling currency, date, time, and number formats
• Designing or fixing layout for RTL languages
• Auditing an internationalization rollout that's underperforming

When NOT to use

• Single-language site (use other skills)
• Domain strategy that's not language-driven (use domain-strategy)
• Content strategy independent of locale (use content-strategy)
• Marketing copy production (use content-and-copy)

Required inputs

• The locales in scope (language + region, e.g., en-US, de-DE, fr-CA)
• Business reason per locale (priority, audience size)
• Existing site architecture
• Translation resources (in-house, agency, AI-assisted, community)
• Content volume and update frequency

The framework: 5 layers

Internationalization touches everything. Five layers, each with their own decisions.