Bilingual Welsh and English websites for small businesses, £47 a month

Lots of small businesses in Wales already use some Welsh. It might be on the shop sign or the side of the van. The website is often the one place it’s missing, usually because nobody’s sure how to go about it. We build the site, look after it and make the changes for £47 a month. You bring the Welsh.

Do I need a Welsh version of my website?

For most private businesses it’s your choice. Lots of customers in Wales like seeing Welsh on a business’s website. It can help you stand out from competitors whose sites are English only, especially if you work in a town where you hear Welsh every day.

You don’t have to do the whole site at once, either. A café in Llandrindod Wells might decide the home page, the menu and the opening times are worth having in both languages, and leave the longer “about us” story in English for now. That’s fine. We’ll just make it clear to visitors which pages are in which language.

If you’re a community or town council, the rules are different. Have a look at our Powys council websites page.

Who does the translation?

You do, or someone you pay to do it. We don’t translate, and we’d rather say that plainly now than surprise you later. Bad Welsh on a website is easy for Welsh speakers to spot, and it reflects on you, not on us, so it’s worth getting someone who knows what they’re doing.

Some people have a fluent member of staff or family. Others use a professional translator. The Welsh Government also runs Helo Blod, a free service that helps small businesses with Welsh, including translating short pieces of text. Check what they offer now before you plan around it, as services like this change. It can be a good fit for things like a strapline, a few headings or the opening lines of each page.

Does Welsh help with Google?

A bit, but we won’t oversell it. Your Welsh pages are separate pages, so Google can find and show them to people who search in Welsh. Plenty of Welsh speakers still search in English, though, so don’t expect the Welsh pages to bring in a flood of new visitors on their own. We set up page titles, descriptions and headings properly in both languages, which gives each page a fair chance. Nobody can promise a ranking, and we won’t.

The bigger benefit is usually what happens once someone lands on the site. If a customer would rather read Welsh and your site lets them, that counts for something.

Can I start in English and add Welsh later?

Yes, and a lot of people do it that way. Getting the English site live first means you can start taking enquiries while your translator works on the Welsh. When the Welsh text is ready, email it over and we’ll add the pages and the language switch. Talk to us about how many pages you want to add, so we can tell you how it fits with your 10 changes a month.

If you’ve already got a website somewhere else, we can move it over first. Our switch your website page explains how that works.

Where we work

We’re on the Shropshire and Powys border and work by email and support ticket with businesses across Wales and the borders, including Newtown, Welshpool, Llandrindod Wells, Knighton and Wrexham. You don’t need to come to a meeting. Everything included in the £47 is on our managed website page.