Multilingual Ghost Build
A full multilingual website on Ghost CMS: linked translations, proper URLs and hreflang with no manual work.
Ghost is a great platform, but it has no built-in support for multiple languages. The usual workarounds are awkward: a separate Ghost instance per language with separate admin panels and databases, or filtering posts by tags, where translations have no connection to each other. The language switcher then takes visitors to the homepage instead of the translation of the page they were on, and hreflang for search engines has to be added by hand, or isn’t added at all.
We solved this for our own website, and we offer the same solution to clients.
What the build gives you
- One Ghost, one admin panel, all languages. Editors work in the familiar interface, and posts in every language live in the same database.
- Linked translations. Every translation is tied to its original. The language switcher takes visitors to the same page in another language.
- Automatic hreflang. Markup for search engines is generated from the translation links. Editors don’t have to add anything by hand.
- Language-specific URLs. An English page gets an English URL, not a transliteration of the Russian one. This matters both for visitors and for search.
- Translated interface. Buttons, menus, labels and other theme text switch along with the page language.
- Editable data in every language. Editors update contact details, company info and page blocks in Ghost separately for each language.
Why the build comes with a theme
Multilingual support in Ghost lives at the level of routing and theme templates. That’s why themes from the Ghost marketplace don’t work with the build as-is: their templates know nothing about languages.
The build is always delivered together with a theme. We either develop one from scratch around your design or adapt an existing theme. See Ghost CMS Development for more on theme development.
How editors work with it
A translation is created as a regular Ghost post. To link it to the original, the editor adds internal tags: the post’s language and its translation group. Everything else — URLs, the language switcher, hreflang — the site handles on its own. We give editors a short guide and walk them through the process on real posts.
What’s included
- Planning. Languages, section structure and URLs for each language.
- Deploying the build on your server or ours.
- Developing or adapting a theme with language support.
- Setting up routing for each language’s sections.
- A guide for editors and help with the first translations.
- Support: updates to Ghost and the build, further improvements.
See it in action
The site you’re reading right now runs on this build. Switch the language, and you’ll land on the translation of this very page.
