Website internationalisation
Language, locale, direction, and translated content. Curated from the Website Specification — Internationalisation (CC BY 4.0).
Required
- Mark passages and inline elements that differ from the document language with their own
langattribute (WCAG 3.1.2).
Recommended
- Pick one URL pattern for locales (ccTLD, subdomain, or subdirectory) and keep it consistent.
hreflangannotations using BCP 47 codes, reciprocal across all alternates.- Localise every visible string in the head and structured data, not just the body.
- Language switcher listing each locale in its own language ('Deutsch', '日本語'); no flags.
- RTL support: set
dir="rtl"and use CSS logical properties for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Urdu. - Locale-aware dates, numbers, currency, and plural rules via
IntlAPIs.
Avoid
- Automatic IP-based or Accept-Language language redirects — let users choose.
Full item list and rationale: https://specification.website/checklist/