If your site, app, or product needs to speak more than one language, managing content can go from “no big deal” to “please make it stop” pretty fast. This guide is for anyone who’s got Contentful in the mix—marketers, developers, editors—who actually needs to ship multilingual content, not just talk about it in meetings.
We’ll walk through what works, what’ll trip you up, and how to keep your sanity while localizing in Contentful.
1. Get your languages straight before you touch Contentful
Before you start clicking around in Contentful, you need a plan. Contentful is flexible, but if you don’t know which languages you really need, you’ll just make a mess.
Do this first: - List every language you actually need for your site/app right now. (Skip the “maybe someday” languages.) - Figure out if you want some content to show up in only certain languages, or if everything should be global. - Decide if you need region-specific variants (e.g., Canadian French and France French).
Pro tip: Each new language adds complexity. Languages you don’t really need are just more to manage, translate, and QA later.
2. Set up languages (locales) in Contentful
Contentful calls each language a “locale.” Here’s how to actually get your languages into the system:
- Go to Settings → Locales.
- Click “Add locale.” Pick the language and region (e.g., “French (Canada)”).
- Decide on a fallback. This is the language Contentful uses if a translation is missing. Usually, you’ll want your fallback to be your default language (like English).
Things to know: - The first locale you add is your “default.” It matters—editors will see it first, and it’s the fallback elsewhere. - You can add, remove, or change locales later, but it’s a pain if you have a lot of content. Get it right up front.
3. Structure your content models for localization
Here’s where things often go sideways. Not every field needs to be translated—sometimes you want a number or an image to be the same everywhere. You have to tell Contentful which fields are “localizable.”
How to do it: 1. Open your content model (e.g., “Blog Post”). 2. For each field, flip on the “localize” toggle only if that field needs translating. - Text, titles, slugs: usually yes. - Images, IDs, numbers: usually no, unless you need a translated image or a region-specific price.
What works: - Keeping your content models as simple as possible. - Only localizing what actually changes.
What doesn’t: - Making every field localizable “just in case.” You’ll end up with empty fields and confused editors.
4. Enter and manage translations
Now you’ve got your languages and your models set up. Time to actually get content in.
Entering translations in Contentful
- Go to an entry (like a specific blog post).
- Use the language selector at the top to switch languages.
- Enter the translated content for each localizable field.
Tips: - You can leave fields blank for a language; Contentful will use the fallback. - If a language isn’t published, that version won’t show up on your site/app.
Pro tips for editorial workflow
- Batching helps. If you have a lot of translations, consider exporting content for translators and importing later. Contentful’s UI is fine for editing, but not great for managing dozens of languages at once.
- Naming conventions matter. For slugs or URLs, make sure you’re actually translating them (or not) on purpose.
- Use roles/permissions. Don’t let just anyone publish translations. Mistakes multiply fast in multiple languages.
5. Automate where you can (but don’t trust it blindly)
There are tools and plugins to connect Contentful with translation services—some even offer “machine translation” (think: Google Translate in your CMS).
The honest take: - Automation is fine for drafts or “getting started,” but anything public should be checked by a human. Machine translation is okay for boilerplate, but will embarrass you sooner or later. - If you have a real translation team, use Contentful’s API or third-party tools (like Phrase or Lokalise) to push/pull content. The built-in export/import is clunky, but it works.
Ignore: - “One-click translation” plugins that promise perfect results. They’re never perfect, and you’ll spend more time fixing than if you’d just done it right.
6. Deliver the right language on your site/app
It’s one thing to store content in multiple languages; it’s another to actually show the right one.
Here’s what you need to handle:
- Querying Contentful for the right locale. Your app or site has to ask for ?locale=fr-CA or whatever the user wants.
- Fallbacks. If a translation is missing, Contentful returns the fallback language you set up.
- Switching languages. Your UI needs a language switcher—and you have to map URLs to the right locale.
What works:
- Server-side logic that reads the user’s browser language, then asks Contentful for that version.
- Explicit language selectors (dropdowns, etc.).
- Routing that includes the locale in the URL (e.g., /fr-ca/blog/my-post).
What doesn’t: - Hoping Contentful “just knows” what language to deliver. You always have to specify the locale.
7. Versioning, QA, and common headaches
Multilingual content multiplies your risk of mistakes. Here’s how to keep things under control:
- Versioning: Contentful tracks versions, but if you update the English version, it won’t magically update the French, Spanish, etc. You need a process for flagging “out of date” translations.
- QA: Preview every language before publishing. It’s easy to miss placeholder text or garbled characters.
- Consistency: If you change your content model, check that all locales still work. Sometimes fields “disappear” in certain languages if they weren’t set up right.
Common headaches: - Forgetting to localize a field, so it never shows up in other languages. - Editors updating only the default language and forgetting the rest. - Messy fallback logic—users seeing English on a French page.
8. Keeping it sane: Maintenance and real-world tips
- Start small. Don’t add languages you don’t need.
- Train your team. Make sure everyone knows which fields are localizable, and how to switch locales.
- Document your process. Even if it’s just a Google Doc, write down how you want things done.
- Regularly prune unused locales. Dead languages (in the system, not in real life) just slow you down.
Wrapping up
Multilingual content in Contentful isn’t rocket science, but it’s easy to overcomplicate things. Get your languages and models set up right, localize only what’s necessary, and keep your workflow simple. Iterate as you go. If something feels clunky, it probably is—fix it before you add more languages.
Keep it simple, stay organized, and remember: more languages mean more complexity, not just more reach. Start with what matters and build from there.