Multilingual SEO in Switzerland: translating is not enough.

One market, several audiences

Switzerland is a small market made up of several audiences. According to the Federal Statistical Office, in 2023 61% of the population gave German or Swiss German as their main language, 23% French, 8% Italian and 0.5% Romansh. English reaches 6%, and is growing. For a company active nationally, ignoring a language often means ignoring an entire region.

Multilingual SEO is therefore not about “having the website in several languages”. It is about being found, understood and chosen by each of these audiences, with the words they actually use.

Choosing an architecture and sticking to it

There are three options: one domain per language or country, subdomains (fr.example.ch) or subdirectories (example.ch/fr/). For the vast majority of Swiss organisations targeting Switzerland in several languages, subdirectories on a single .ch domain are the most pragmatic option. The domain’s authority benefits every version, maintenance stays simple and the geographic signal is clear.

Separate domains are justified above all when an organisation targets different countries with different offers, for example Switzerland and Germany with their own prices, conditions and teams. In that case, language variants must also be distinguished: de-CH and de-DE do not address the same audience.

Whatever the choice, it commits the website for years. Changing it later means redirects, risks of temporary losses and a substantial migration effort.

hreflang, the most useful and most poorly configured tool

hreflang annotations tell Google which pages are equivalents in other languages or for other regions. They prevent a French version from being shown to a user in Zurich, or a German page from being considered a duplicate of its translation.

Three rules are often forgotten. Annotations must be reciprocal: if the French page points to the German one, the German page must point to the French one. Each page must reference itself. And an x-default version indicates the page to show when no language matches, often a language selector or the broadest version.

For a medium-sized or large website, declaring these relationships in the XML sitemap is generally more reliable than inserting them into each page, because errors are easier to spot and fix there.

Letting the visitor choose the language

Automatically redirecting a visitor based on their IP address or browser language seems convenient. It is rarely a good idea. A French speaker working in Zurich wants to read in French. An English-speaking visitor in Lausanne does not necessarily want the French version.

Google also advises against this practice for a technical reason: its crawler mainly crawls from addresses located in the United States. An automatic redirect can prevent it from discovering some language versions. It is better to offer a visible language selector, possibly with a discreet suggestion, and to keep each version accessible through its URL.

Localising rather than translating

Keyword research must be carried out in each language, for each audience. Intentions and terms differ. A French-speaking Swiss person says Natel where someone in France says portable. In French-speaking Switzerland people write septante and nonante. Swiss Standard German does not use the ß. Administrative terms such as AVS, LPP or AI have no direct equivalent abroad, and become AHV, BVG or IV in German.

Localisation goes beyond vocabulary: currencies, date formats, legal references, examples, visuals. These are the details that show readers that the website is speaking to them.

On machine translation, Google’s position has evolved. Its former guidelines invited sites to block automatically translated pages. That instruction has been withdrawn, and Google states that its policies do not define AI-translated content as spam in itself. What is targeted is the production of many pages with no value for the reader. In practice, machine translation can serve as a basis, provided a native speaker reviews, adapts and approves it.

AI answers, language by language

AI Overviews and AI Mode are available in Switzerland in German, French, Italian and English. Each assistant answers in the language of the question, relying on the sources available in that language. A thin or poorly translated language version therefore reduces the chances of being cited with that audience, even if the main version is excellent.

The fundamentals remain the same as for a single language: clear content, precise information, a readable structure. They simply have to be applied with the same care in each language. The lang attribute of the html tag, a consistent heading hierarchy and complete pages in each version all contribute.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need one domain per language in Switzerland?

Rarely. For an organisation targeting Switzerland in several languages, subdirectories (/fr/, /de/, /it/) on a single .ch domain are generally the most effective option and the simplest to maintain.

Does Google penalise machine translation?

Not in itself. Google states that its policies do not define AI-translated content as spam. What causes problems are pages produced at scale with no value for the reader. A review by a native speaker is still recommended.

Should visitors be redirected automatically to their language?

No. Google advises against this practice, notably because its crawler mainly crawls from the United States. A visible language selector is preferable.