Multilingual websites

What it does

When a client's website is in more than one language, Nexus gives every site page one language and knows which pages are translations of each other. It reads this from the site itself: the hreflang tags in the sitemap and on the pages, language prefixes in the URLs (/es/, /fr-ca/), language subdomains (es.acme.com), country domains (acme.mx) and each page's declared language.

Internal links follow the language: an English article links only to English pages, a Spanish article only to Spanish pages. The knowledge base reads the site's pages in every language the client works in.

A language is what a page is written in. A market is a country plus a language that keyword research targets. Spanish content can serve several markets (Mexico, Spanish speakers in the US).

Set it up

1. List the client's languages in the client configuration, primary first: "Set Acme's languages to English and Spanish."
2. Nexus reads the sitemap and detects the layout. Check it: "Which languages is Acme's site in?" The answer gives the layout, the number of pages per language, and any language the site has that isn't in the client's list.
3. Confirm it once: "Confirm Acme's site languages." Nexus shows what it will save, then saves it when you confirm.

If the site marks a language in a way Nexus didn't recognise, say how: "Acme's Spanish pages are under /es-mx/."

Check and curate

• A path that looks like a language but isn't one (/it/ for IT services, /ca/ for Canada) is not taken as a language unless the site backs it up. The check lists these as rejected prefixes. If Nexus got it wrong: "/it/ is not Italian for Acme."
• Set a page's language by hand: "/contacto is Spanish." Nexus won't change a language you set. "Let Nexus detect the language of /contacto again." hands it back.
• Pair two pages as translations when the site has no hreflang for them: "The Spanish version of /services/consulting is /es/servicios/consultoria." Pages whose translations come from the site's hreflang can only be changed on the site.
• "Which pages aren't translated into Spanish?" lists the primary-language pages with no Spanish version, service and product pages first.
• On the Site pages board, the Language column and filter show each page's language, and the Translations column shows its versions in other languages.

Write content in another language

A piece is either written in a language or a translation of another piece.

• A piece written in Spanish is its own calendar item, with a Spanish keyword, Spanish internal links, that language's house rules and the Spanish pillar page. Plan one: "Add a Spanish piece on cloud migration to Acme's calendar." Or change a piece's language: "Make the cloud migration piece Spanish." On the content calendar, multilingual clients get a Language column and filter.
• A translation stays with the piece it came from. Translations run into the client's other languages automatically; the calendar's Translations column shows which are drafts and which are live. A piece written in Spanish is translated into the primary language.

A piece written in another language publishes to WordPress. With Polylang, the post is created in that language and linked to its counterpart once both are published (a piece and the version written alongside it: "The Spanish cloud piece is the Spanish version of the English cloud piece."). With WPML or no multilingual plugin, the post is created and Nexus says to set its language in wp-admin. Webflow, Vercel sites, Wix and Shopify can't take a piece in another language on its own yet: Nexus refuses and says why, instead of publishing it as an English post. Translations publish everywhere as before.

On the Organic search report, a multilingual site has a Group by switch that sums search clicks and impressions per language.

Checks follow the piece's language. Readability uses that language's formula (Fernández-Huerta for Spanish, Kandel–Moles for French, Flesch for English). The English AI-writing and banned-phrase checks are skipped for other languages until the team adds a banned-phrase list for that language.

Troubleshooting

• A Spanish page shows as English. The page has no language prefix and no hreflang, and its page hasn't been read yet. Set it by hand, or wait for the next sitemap read.
• The board shows a language conflict on a page. The URL, the hreflang and the page's own language disagree, often a site template bug. The URL or hreflang wins; tell the client.
• Nexus says the translations come from hreflang. Fix the hreflang tags on the site. Nexus reads them again on the next sitemap reconcile.

Prompts

• "Set Acme's languages to English and Spanish."
• "Which languages is Acme's site in?"
• "/it/ is not Italian for Acme."
• "Let Nexus detect the language of /contacto again."
• "How many Spanish pages do we have?"
• "Confirm Acme's site languages."
• "Acme's Spanish pages are under /es-mx/."
• "/contacto is Spanish."
• "Mark these pages as French: /fr/contact, /fr/a-propos."
• "The Spanish version of /services/consulting is /es/servicios/consultoria."
• "Which pages aren't translated into Spanish?"
• "Add a Spanish piece on cloud migration to Acme's calendar."
• "Make the cloud migration piece Spanish."
• "The Spanish cloud piece is the Spanish version of the English cloud piece."

Machine twins: /help/site-languages.json · /help/site-languages.md · /help.json · /llms.txt

Reviewed 2026-11-01. In Slack, ask Nexus how do I … and it answers from this guide, with where your company stands.