Whether you’re serving customers in different countries or simply want non-English speakers to understand your site, there are several ways to handle multilingual content on Squarespace. The right approach depends on what problem you’re actually trying to solve: basic comprehension, multilingual SEO, or full user-controlled language switching.

A multilingual site is not just about translation. It affects SEO, site structure, user expectations, and long-term maintenance. This guide breaks down the three realistic ways Squarespace users handle multiple languages and explains when each makes sense.

Do You Actually Need a Multilingual Setup?

Before touching tools, page duplication, or navigation structure, it’s worth stepping back.

Modern browsers such as Chrome and Safari already offer built-in translation. That means your English-only Squarespace site is often readable to international visitors without any changes on your end. For many small businesses, that alone solves the problem they’re trying to address.

Browser-based translation is usually sufficient when the goal is comprehension rather than visibility. If you don’t need to rank in Google for non-English keywords, operate your business in a single language, and want to avoid additional maintenance entirely, doing nothing is often the most practical choice.

That approach falls short when language matters beyond basic understanding. If you want control over wording, need professional translations, or expect your site to appear in search results for other languages, browser translation won’t help. Search engines only index what you actually publish, not what a visitor’s browser translates on the fly. At that point, a real multilingual setup becomes necessary.

Do You Need a Language Switcher?

A language selector is optional—not a default requirement.

Many sites work better without one, especially when only a few pages are translated and users arrive directly on the correct language version via search. In those cases, hreflang can handle language targeting without adding user-facing controls.

Switchers make sense when language choice is intentional—such as ecommerce sites, content-heavy resources, or businesses that actively operate in multiple languages. Whether users actually need to switch languages often determines which technical approach makes sense.

Three Ways to Handle a Multilingual Squarespace Site

Squarespace doesn’t offer native multilingual functionality, so every solution falls into one of three categories. Each trades cost, control, and maintenance in different ways.

1. Third-Party Translation Tools (Fastest, Least Technical)

The most common approach for content-heavy or e-commerce sites is using a third-party service such as Weglot. These tools sit on top of your Squarespace site, automatically translate content, and generate crawlable language versions that search engines can index. A language switcher is included and hreflang tags are handled for you.

This option works well when speed and simplicity matter. It’s especially appealing if you need multiple languages quickly, want SEO coverage without managing technical details, or don’t want to manually duplicate and maintain pages.

The tradeoff is an ongoing subscription cost and reliance on an external service, with pricing usually tied to word count or usage.

For many small teams, this is the lowest-friction way to get a multilingual site live without creating long-term operational headaches.

2. Manual Multilingual Pages (DIY, No Tools, hreflang-only)

This is the sweet spot for many small businesses on Squarespace.

On Squarespace you can manually create and manage translated pages yourself. This involves duplicating pages for each language, using language-specific URLs such as /en/about and /es/about, and then using hreflang annotations to explicitly define how those pages relate to each other for search engines.

The upside is full control and no recurring fees. The biggest downside is maintenance—frequent content updates must be repeated across languages. Hreflang errors are easy to introduce if you’re not precise.

Manual hreflang-only setups work best for sites translating a limited number of key pages into one or two additional languages. As content volume or language count increases, the effort required grows quickly, which is when many teams move to a tool-based solution.

3. Custom-Coded Multilingual Solutions (Most Control, Most Risk)

Some teams take the manual approach above a step further, using custom JavaScript, CSS, and injected code to manage language display. These setups can hide or show language-specific content dynamically and support highly customized switching behavior.

While this approach offers maximum flexibility, it also carries the most risk. Custom solutions require ongoing technical expertise, are fragile during redesigns, and again, provide no SEO benefit if hreflang isn’t handled correctly.

For most Squarespace users, this approach is only appropriate when there are dedicated development resources. If you go this route, refer to this long-standing resource on how to implement a language switcher on Squarespace.

Manual Multilingual Squarespace Sites: Clearing Up Common Myths

Squarespace support documentation offers a “manual” approach to multilingual sites, but the guidance has always been a bit misleading. The result is that many site owners either overbuild, choose the wrong structure, or abandon a perfectly workable setup. Beyond outdated guidance around Squarespace versions and third-party language tools, several points worth clearing up:

Squarespace states that to manually create a multilingual site, you’ll need to translate content for every page. That isn’t how manual multilingual sites are typically built in practice.
A manual multilingual setup does not require duplicating your entire website. Many businesses translate only a subset of pages—such as About, Contact, Services, or key landing pages—while leaving the rest of the site in its primary language.
This approach works well when:
- you’re supporting one additional language,
- most traffic comes from search engines, and
- users don’t need to switch languages frequently.
Manual multilingual does not mean full duplication by default. It means intentional, scoped translation where it actually matters.
Squarespace’s documentation suggests that manually built multilingual sites should start with a homepage that forces users to choose a language. This pattern is unnecessary and counterproductive.
Language gateway pages add friction, break deep linking, and provide no benefit for search engines. Users generally don’t want to select a language before seeing content—especially when they arrive directly on a relevant page from Google.
A manual multilingual site can (and usually should):
- allow users to land directly on language-specific pages,
- rely on page structure and hreflang for targeting, and
- avoid a forced “pick your language” step entirely.
Language-selection homepages are optional. They are not best practice.
Squarespace implies that using subdomains is what “optimizes” a site for multilingual search. That’s misleading.
Search engines do not prefer subdomains over directories for multilingual content. Directory-based structures are fully supported and SEO-friendly:
- /en/about
- /es/about
What actually matters is:
- unique URLs for each language,
- clear relationships between equivalent pages, and
- correct hreflang implementation.
Manual Squarespace sites using directories are not second-class from an SEO standpoint.
Squarespace describes multilingual SEO in vague terms, noting that translated content “won’t necessarily be searchable” without optimization. The concern itself is valid—but the explanation stops short.
Duplicated content without defined relationships doesn’t give search engines clear signals. However, a manual multilingual Squarespace site can be fully search-friendly when:
- each language version has its own URL, and
- the relationship between equivalent pages is made explicit with hreflang.
There’s nothing inherently risky about a manual setup. The issue isn’t the method—it’s the lack of clarity around what “optimization” actually requires.

Bottom line: Manual multilingual Squarespace sites do not require translating every page, do not require a language-selection homepage, do not require subdomains, and do not inherently damage SEO. They just require clear structure and realistic expectations about maintenance.

Browser Translation vs. SEO-Optimized Multilingual Pages

At a high level, the difference comes down to whether you’re solving a reading problem or a search visibility problem. Browser-based translation helps visitors understand your content but isn’t indexed by search engines, so it won’t help you rank in other languages. SEO-optimized multilingual setups rely on publishing language-specific pages with unique URLs and clear signals that tell search engines which version to show.

Choosing the Right Approach Comes Down to Fit

Multilingual problems on Squarespace aren’t caused by technical limitations—they’re caused by choosing a setup that doesn’t match how your business actually operates. A solution that works well for a small, rarely updated site can quickly fall apart as content grows, languages multiply, or user expectations change.

The goal isn’t to use the most advanced tools or the “correct” method—it’s to choose the simplest approach that reliably supports your users, your SEO goals, and your ability to maintain it over time. When those factors are aligned, multilingual setups work predictably.

Key Takeaways

The best multilingual Squarespace setup is not the most advanced one—it’s the simplest system that reliably supports your users, your SEO goals, and your ability to maintain it over time.

If your goal is basic comprehension, browser-based translation is often enough and avoids unnecessary complexity.
Translating a small set of core pages does not require a language switcher, as long as search engines can understand which version to serve.
Manual multilingual setups on Squarespace are valid when scope is limited and structure is clear—but they don’t scale well without discipline.
Third-party tools trade money for operational simplicity and are often the safer choice as content grows.
Language switchers only add value when users genuinely need to switch languages intentionally.

More Resources