Website Translator

Website Translation in Smartcat allows teams to translate and publish multilingual versions of their websites directly from a visual interface. Website Translation in Smartcat requires no connector; simply upload the URL of the website you want to translate and it’s instantly translated with AI. Reviewers can review the translation with a visual editor to see how the translation will render before it’s live in production.

Translations are powered by AI translation, supported by Smartcat’s Intelligent Fabric that stores translation memories (TMs), glossaries, and continually learn from your experts. Once translations are ready, they can be published using a lightweight JavaScript snippet that displays translated versions of each page through a language selector widget.

Smartcat Website Translation includes SEO settings which allow search engines to access localized versions of the translated website. By exposing translated pages through language-specific URLs, Smartcat helps ensure that titles, descriptions, and search snippets appear in the correct language for each market.

This approach helps global teams maintain consistent messaging, reduce manual website localization work, and launch multilingual websites that reach new business faster using Smartcat’s unified workflows and expert-enabled AI agents.

Website Translation Projects are useful when you want to:

1. Launch a multilingual version of an existing website, and review translations directly in context to how it will render on the website

2. Maintain terminology consistency across translated website text using glossaries and translation memories

3. Ensure translated pages remain visible to search engines

1. Open your Smartcat Workspace.

2. Select Website Translator Agent or click the Translate a website shortcut. You may see either of the following screens, depending on your workspace settings:

1. Enter a Project Name to describe your website translation project

2. Set a Deadline (optional)

3. Set the Source Language in the I'll translate from field

4. Select one or more Target Languages in the I'll translate to field

5. Choose an AI Translation Profile. The Standard profile automatically connects all applicable Translation Memories and Glossaries to your projects and uses Smartcat AI Routing to select the best engines for each language pair. The profile defines which resources the agent uses, including:

   • Translation Memories (TMs)

   • Glossaries

   • Translation engine settings

6. Paste the Website URL you want to translate

7. Open the What Else? dropdown and use the I will work according to this template field to select the AI Translation and Review workflow, which consists of two steps:

   • AI Translation : Translates content automatically using Smartcat’s AI routing to select the best translation engine for the language pair.

   • Translation Review : Allows human review and editing before publishing translations

8. Click Create Project.

The Visual Editor loads automatically.

The visual editor integrates with your website, with full navigation and in real-time, with editable translation fields.

Key features

1. Automatic text detection – Smartcat identifies translatable content automatically

2. In-context editing – Click a text box to edit the translation directly within the page preview

3. Live updates – Edits appear instantly in the preview

4. Segment confirmation – Click Confirm to save the translation and add it to the translation memory

1. Hover over a text block and click the pencil button

2. Click the checkmark to confirm the translation

3. (Optional) Navigate to the next text translated element by clicking the arrows

Large text blocks :

1. Long paragraphs are automatically divided into smaller segments

2. Confirm each segment individually for better quality control

Dropdown menus and interactive elements

1. Hover over the element.

2. Click the pencil button

⚠️ Keep edited text in dropdowns close to the original length to avoid breaking the page layout.

Click the settings button in the upper right corner to adjust

1. Translation mode – How translated pages are displayed to visitors

2. Language selector configuration – Placement and style of the language switcher

3. Preview settings – How translated pages appear during editing Publish settings – Select which languages to publish. This is useful when translating multiple languages but publishing them at different times.

4. SEO Proxy

Click Publish at the top of the visual editor.

1. Smartcat generates a JavaScript snippet

2. Click Copy code

3. Add the snippet to your website’s header section

4. After the code is installed, return to Smartcat and click Validate and continue

5. Smartcat verifies the snippet and publishes your translated pages

1. Click Publish

2. Smartcat updates the translated pages automatically

Visitors now see the Language Selector Widget on your website to switch between available languages

1. Your website must allow inserting a JavaScript snippet in the header

2. Translation profiles must exist at the workspace level to appear during project setup

3. Linguistic assets (TMs and glossaries) must be configured in the workspace

4. Previously translated pages keep their original translation profile settings unless retranslated

Smartcat supports RTL languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. When translating into RTL languages:

1. Text direction automatically switches

2. Page layout may change to match RTL reading patterns

3. Navigation and UI elements adjust accordingly

Review the page layout after translation to ensure the design renders correctly. Some websites may require manual layout adjustments to fully support RTL languages.

Can I control which translation engines are used? Yes. You can configure specific engines within the AI Translation Profile or override AI routing in project settings.

Website Translation projects in Smartcat use AI translation profiles to determine which translation memories, glossaries, and translation engines are applied during translation.

By default, Smartcat automatically selects the most effective translation agent using AI routing, which evaluates multiple large language models (LLMs) to choose the most appropriate translation engine.

If a project requires specific terminology or previously approved translations, users can modify the project’s translation profile from the Linguistic Assets page. This allows teams to select specific glossaries, translation memories, and translation engines so that new website content is translated according to those preferences.

You may want to adjust linguistic assets when:

1. A project requires specific terminology from a glossary

2. You want to reuse approved translations from a translation memory

3. Different projects require different translation engines

4. You want more control over translation consistency and quality

1. Open your Website Translation project in Smartcat.

2. In the left sidebar, click Linguistic Assets

3. Click Change Profile

4. Choose one of the following: 1. Select an existing translation profile 1. Create a new translation profile from this screen

5. Configure the profile by selecting:

   • The glossaries you want to apply

   • The translation memories you want to use

   • The translation engines used for translation

6. Click Save Settings.

7. Click Apply to activate the selected translation profile.

Once applied, all newly translated pages follow the updated linguistic asset settings.

• Linguistic assets are controlled through the translation profile assigned to the project.

• Changes apply only to newly translated pages.

• Previously translated pages will not be retranslated automatically after changing the translation profile.

The SEO Reverse Proxy allows you to configure how search engines access and index the localized versions of your website. By exposing translated pages through language-specific URLs, Smartcat helps ensure that titles, descriptions, and search snippets appear in the correct language for each market.

Instead of relying on language parameters or client-side rendering, the SEO Reverse Proxy serves localized static content to search engine crawlers, improving the consistency and visibility of multilingual pages in search results.

You can configure the proxy using one of two methods:

• Subdomains

• Subdirectories

Both options allow search engines to properly discover and index localized content while maintaining the same language selection experience for users.

Use the SEO Reverse Proxy when you want search engines to:

• Index language-specific versions of your website

• Display localized titles and descriptions in search results

• Access translated content through structured URLs instead of parameters

• Improve SEO performance of multilingual websites

Choose the configuration method that best matches your website infrastructure:

• Subdomains if you can modify DNS records.

• Subdirectories if you prefer configuring routing on your web server.

1. In Website Preview, click Settings

2. Open SEO Proxy

3. Select Subdomains

4. Copy the generated CNAME record

5. Add the record to your website’s DNS settings

6. Return to Smartcat and click Activate

DNS changes may take several minutes to propagate, and in some cases up to a few hours. Once validation succeeds, search engines will see localized content on language-specific subdomains.

Example structure:

en.yourwebsite.com

fr.yourwebsite.com

de.yourwebsite.com

1. In Website Preview, click Settings

2. Open SEO Proxy

3. Select Subdirectories

4. Copy the generated proxy endpoints

5. Add the endpoints to your website server configuration

6. Configure your server to request the translated static content and serve it to search engine crawlers.

After configuration, search engines will see translated pages organized in language-specific directories.

Example structure:

yourwebsite.com/en/

yourwebsite.com/fr/

yourwebsite.com/de/

Users will continue selecting their preferred language normally on the website.

• Access to Smartcat SEO settings

• DNS access for subdomain configuration

• Server configuration access for subdirectory setup

• DNS propagation may take a few minutes to several hours

• Server configuration requirements depend on your website infrastructure

Does this change how users view the website? No. Visitors continue to select languages normally. The proxy configuration only affects how search engines access localized pages.

Which option should I choose: subdomains or subdirectories? Both methods support SEO-friendly indexing. The best choice depends on your infrastructure:

1. Use subdomains if you prefer DNS configuration.

2. Use subdirectories if you prefer server-based routing.

Will search engines index titles and descriptions in the correct language? Yes. The SEO Reverse Proxy ensures that localized pages expose the correct titles, descriptions, and snippets to search engine crawlers.