Website translation for agencies: design, quotes and handoff

When a client asks for their site in a second language, an agency takes on three jobs at once: a design that holds more than one language, a quote for translation work that keeps going after launch, and a review process the client can take part in without seeing every other client's work. All three are easier to settle before the build starts than after launch. For the parts a tool can handle, the sections below use what LangRelay ships today.

Design for every language from the first wireframe#

Multilingual web design starts with text length. The W3C's article on text size in translation reproduces IBM's guidance on how much English text grows when translated into European languages: a source string of up to 10 characters can grow by 200 to 300 percent, while text over 70 characters grows by about 130 percent. Short strings grow the most, and short strings are exactly what navigation, buttons and labels are made of. The same article shows Flickr's "views" label becoming "visualizzazioni" in Italian, three times the English length.

So in the wireframe:

• Give buttons and navigation items room to grow, or let them wrap without breaking the layout.
• Keep words out of images. A hero banner with text baked into the image becomes a design task in every language.
• Place the language switcher where people look for it, in the header or the footer, on every page, and link it to the same page in each language. Our article on language switcher best practices covers placement and markup.
• Design one page per language in the URL structure. Google recommends a separate URL for each language version and advises against redirecting visitors to a language automatically, so the switcher is how people move between them.

Test the layout with real translated copy before sign-off. Placeholder text will not show you where German and Italian labels break a pricing table.

Choose the build so upkeep stays cheap#

The build decision that most affects your margin later is where translations live. If the CMS stores a separate page per language, every content change becomes several changes, and the client will call you for each. If a tool translates the rendered page, the client edits one page and the change reaches every language's queue.

LangRelay works the second way on WordPress: the plugin serves translated HTML from the client's own server at subdirectories such as /de/, with hreflang, a canonical per language and translated titles and meta descriptions, and WordPress keeps one post per page. On other platforms it can translate in the browser through a script tag, which makes no SEO claim, so for a client who needs indexed translations on Shopify, Webflow or a custom stack, choose a tool built for that platform. The multilingual website guide goes through the decisions in order.

Quote the work in parts#

Translation does not fit a fixed project price well, because most of the cost arrives after launch. Splitting the quote makes that visible to the client:

1. Setup: plugin or tool installation, language and URL configuration, switcher design, and the SEO checks. A fixed fee.
2. First translation: the site's word count times the number of languages. With machine translation this is mostly the software cost; with human translation it is a per-word rate.
3. Review: hours per language for someone fluent to read the important pages in context. This is usually the largest line, and the one clients forget.
4. Upkeep: a monthly line for new and changed content, review of it, and checks after site updates.

Our article on website translation cost shows the word arithmetic with real vendor prices. On LangRelay, words are counted when they are translated, once per language, and text that has not changed costs nothing the next month. The monthly words are pooled across all the Sites on one plan: Starter covers 3 Sites, Growth 10 and Business an unlimited number, so several small client sites can share one allowance. Paid plans have an overage cap that defaults to the plan's price, which keeps one busy client from surprising you with a bill. The pricing page lists the plans.

Let clients review their own site, and nothing else#

A client reviewer is often the person who knows the product terms best in their language. They should be able to read and approve their own site's translations without seeing your other clients.

In LangRelay, access is granted per Site. Belonging to an organization does not give anyone access to its Sites; each person gets access to the Sites they are assigned to, with one or more presets: View, Suggest changes, Approve translations, Publish translations and Configure Site. You invite a client reviewer by email from the Site's access settings. If they have no account, they get an invitation that expires after seven days; if they already have one, they are assigned straight away. You can change or revoke their access later.

A typical split: your team has Configure Site and Publish translations; the client's marketing lead has Suggest changes and Approve translations; a colleague who only checks wording has Suggest changes. The presets add up, so one person can hold several. By default a translation goes live as soon as it is ready, and free checks hold a page with untranslated text, the wrong language or a changed price; choose Ask me first, and nothing goes live until someone with approval rights approves it, so the client signs off on their own German pages.

Reviewers work best on the rendered page. In LangRelay's Visual editor, a reviewer clicks text on the rendered page, at desktop, tablet and mobile widths, and edits it in a side editor with a live preview. Relay, our agent, can draft a change described in a sentence, which still waits for approval.

Decide who owns what after launch#

Before launch, write down three things with the client: whose account the translation tool runs in, who reviews new content, and who pays for words beyond the plan.

There are two common setups. In the first, the agency runs the Site in its own account, invites the client's reviewers, and bills the client a monthly fee that covers the plan and the upkeep. In the second, the client creates the account and invites your team with the access you need. The first keeps several clients on one plan; the second makes the client's ownership clear from the start. LangRelay supports both with Site access as it works today. It does not yet have a dedicated agency workspace for grouping client organizations, or a way to move a Site from the agency's account to the client's later, so pick the setup you want to keep.

On WordPress, the plugin picks up a client's saved edit within about a minute and only the new text is translated, so upkeep is mostly review. On other platforms, a Change hook lets the client's CMS or deploy pipeline tell LangRelay when content changed.

What about white-label translation?#

Some agencies want to present the translation tool under their own brand. LangRelay does not offer a white-label dashboard. If a contract requires one, ask each vendor directly what they offer and in which plan.

Questions agencies ask about website translation#

How should an agency charge for website translation?#

Charge setup as a fixed fee and translation as words times languages, with review hours quoted separately. Then add a monthly retainer for changes, because a multilingual site keeps needing work after launch.

Should the agency or the client own the translation account?#

If you will run the site for the long term, your own account keeps billing simple and lets several clients share a plan. If the client might move to another agency, set it up in their account and have them invite you.

Can the client approve translations without our team?#

Yes. Give the client reviewer the Approve translations preset on their Site, and Suggest changes as well if they should propose edits. They work on that Site alone, without access to any other client's.

The web agencies page summarizes how LangRelay fits agency work. To walk through a client setup on your own WordPress site, book a demo.