Translating a website is sold as simple math: four languages, four times the market. We have two translated sites and ninety days of data, so instead of opinions we break it down by language.
The four-language site
One of our real estate portals is live in Spanish, English, Portuguese, and French, with listings matched language by language. In 90 days:
- Spanish: 1.785 impressions, 7 clicks.
- English: 926 impressions, 2 clicks.
- French: 476 impressions, 2 clicks.
- Portuguese: 54 impressions, 1 click.
The translated versions add up to 1.456 impressions —45% of the total— and five clicks. In other words: translation does expand your surface area in search, and it does not multiply visits.
The fact that Portuguese sits at 54 impressions with the same listings as French —54 times fewer— isn’t a translation issue. It’s that search demand in Portuguese for that product, at that moment, is what it is.
The two-language site, where the data gets interesting
On graphemics.net, same period:
- Spanish: 69 URLs, 14.518 impressions, 44 clicks. CTR of 0,3%.
- English: 51 URLs, 393 impressions, 9 clicks. CTR of 2,3%.
English has 37 times fewer impressions and a CTR that’s seven times better. Nine clicks out of 53 —one in six site clicks— come from a language that represents 2,6% of impressions.
There’s the nuance the headline misses: translation doesn’t bring volume, but it can bring higher-quality clicks, because you compete in a market with less noise and clearer intent.
Why translation alone isn’t enough
Three concrete reasons, all seen across these two sites:
- You translate the copy and leave the storefront in the old language. It happened to us: two English pages were served with the title and meta description in Spanish. The body copy and H1 were in English. Someone searched in English, we showed in position four, and they read a Spanish title.
- You translate what you have, not what people search. Keywords don’t map one-to-one across languages. A service searched in Spanish as “agencia” is searched in English as “services,” and a literal title translation leaves out the query that would bring people in.
- You publish without pairing languages. If versions aren’t interlinked with hreflang, Google doesn’t know they’re the same page in another language and treats them as competing duplicates. Pairing them is manual work — and it’s the step that often gets left half-done.
When translation is worth it
With these numbers in hand, our rule of thumb is:
- Yes, when the paying customer is in another language. In real estate in the Caribe mexicano, the Canadian, U.S., or European buyer is the customer: 1.456 impressions in English and French are a doorway in even if they deliver few clicks today.
- Yes, when there’s little competition in that language for your topic. That’s what explains the 2,3% CTR.
- No, if it’s just to “have the site in English.” Without a title, a description, and keywords thought through in that language, what you publish is a copy that shows up but doesn’t get clicked.
- Not yet, if the site in its primary language still isn’t working. Translating a problem multiplies it by four.
How to measure it on your own site
In Search Console, filter by page and split by the language prefix in the URL (/en/, /fr/). Look at three things per language: impressions, clicks, and average position. If a language has impressions and zero clicks, the issue is in the result —title and description— not in the translation. If it has no impressions at all, it’s competing for terms nobody searches in that language or it’s not paired.
If you want that breakdown for your site, write to us and we’ll send it language by language, with the pages that already show and the ones that don’t.
Google Search Console data from July 2 to September 29, 2026, downloaded on September 30, for graphemics.net and for an in-house real estate portal published in four languages. The split by language was done by URL prefix. Search Console figures settle over a few days.
Versión en español: Traducir tu web a cuatro idiomas no te trae tráfico por sí solo
Versión en español: Traducir tu web a cuatro idiomas no te trae tráfico por sí solo
