Website Translation Mistakes: What We Found on 51 Translated Homepages

Translating a website has never been faster or easier. Checking the result is another story, especially when nobody on your team is a native speaker who can vouch for it.

So we ran a test. We took the homepages of 51 English-language websites that also have a French version and compared each one with its translation. Not one came out clean.

What stood out was where the mistakes sat: the long paragraphs were mostly fine, and the trouble was in the short stuff, like menu labels, buttons, names, and the bits of text nobody looks at.

Below are the 7 mistakes that kept coming up, why they slip through, and a checklist to catch them on your own site.

How We Ran the Test

• The sample: 51 websites from English-speaking companies, 1 homepage each, with a French version at its own address. None of them use Weglot
• How we found them: through French product searches on Google in Canada, France, and Belgium, keeping the results that were French versions of English sites
• The mix: 44 online stores, 4 software companies, 2 B2B suppliers, and 1 other site
• The method: AI agents compared each English homepage with its French version block by block, from menus and banners to body text, buttons, and footer

We also checked every example quoted here by hand on the live pages. It's a small sample, and it leans toward online stores in Canada, so read it as a snapshot of common patterns rather than a measure of the whole web. We've left the sites unnamed, because the patterns are what matter here.

The 7 Mistakes That Kept Showing Up

1. Short Labels Translated With the Wrong Meaning

This was the most visible problem. A single word on a button or in a menu has no sentence around it, so the translation has to guess which meaning you had in mind, and it often guesses wrong. Labels like these, along with translated names and broken phrases, turned up on 21 of the 51 sites.

• A "Close" button on a cart panel became "Proche", as in "nearby"
• A "Clear" button for search filters became "Éclaircir", as in "brighten"
• A pet brand's "Bowls" became "Boules", as in balls
• An outdoor brand's "Gear Outlet" became "Sortie de vitesse", roughly "speed exit"
• A "Sign In" link became "S'inscrire", which means "Sign up"
• An "Orders" link became "Ordres", as in commands, instead of "Commandes"

These are the words visitors use to find their way around a site. When they're wrong, people notice before they've read a single sentence.

2. Brand, Product, and Partner Names Translated

Names should usually stay exactly as they are. Several sites had theirs translated anyway:

• A Trustpilot logo was described as "Pilote de confiance", literally "pilot of trust"
• The UnionPay logo, in a row of payment methods, was labeled "Salaire syndical", a union worker's salary
• Shop Pay became "Boutique Pay"
• A 3D printer brand's own name was translated in its footer, so "About [Brand] Lab" became "About the [Brand] laboratory"

A translated brand name looks like a different company. A translated product name can send visitors looking for something that doesn't exist.

3. Text Left in English

31 of the 51 French homepages had English text visible on the page, and 2 of them had translated little more than the menu and footer. The usual suspects:

• Buttons and links, like "Shop all", "Continue shopping", and "Discover more"
• Pop-ups and banners, such as newsletter sign-ups and sale announcements
• Legal links, like "Terms & Conditions"
• "Skip to content", left in English on 10 of the 51 sites. Keyboard and screen reader users rely on this hidden link, so a visual review rarely catches it
• The page title that appears in browser tabs and search results, left in English on 5 sites

4. The Same Word Translated Several Ways

One barbecue maker's product line appears under 4 different names on the same homepage, once in English and 3 times in different French versions. A car parts store said "S'inscrire" for "Sign Up" in its header and "Enregistrement" in its footer. A medical supplier used 2 different French words for the same specialty in 2 menus.

Each version can be acceptable on its own. Side by side, they make a site feel stitched together and harder to trust.

5. Phrases Translated Word for Word

• A "LEARN MORE" button became "APPRENDRE ENCORE PLUS", literally "learn even more", where a French site would say "En savoir plus"
• "Select Black colour" became "Choisissez Noir couleur", with the words left in English order
• A legal link about the customer's right of withdrawal became "Resilier le contrat", which means terminating the contract

Short calls to action and legal wording are where word-for-word translation does the most damage. One sounds off, the other says something different.

6. Numbers, Prices, and Codes

French writes numbers differently: "1 899,00 $" rather than "$1,899.00". Several French pages in the sample kept the English format for prices, ratings, and figures like "500,000 homes".

Some went further. One site's "25+ years of pet nutrition expertise" lost its number on the way and became "more than years of expertise". Another translated its promo codes, so the code SAVEVP became ENREGISTRERVP, with "save" read as saving a file.

7. Missing Signals for Search Engines

This one isn't about wording. 15 of the 51 sites had no hreflang tags pointing to their French version. Those lines of code tell search engines a French version exists and which audience it's for. And 5 sites left the page title in English, which is the first thing French searchers see in their results.

Without those signals, search engines can struggle to show the French page to the people it was made for. Each language version needs its own URL, hreflang tags pointing between the versions, and a translated title and meta description.

Why These Mistakes Slip Through

Looking at where the mistakes sat, 3 likely reasons stand out:

• No native speaker reads the result. If no one on the team is a native French speaker, chances are nobody notices "Proche" on a close button
• Reviews focus on the main text. People tend to proofread the main headline and the product descriptions, not the footer, the cart, the pop-ups, or the hidden links
• Short text has little context. The fewer words in a label, the more meanings it can have

How to Catch These Mistakes on Your Own Site

1. Read the Navigation First

Start with the menus, buttons, and footer links, on desktop and on mobile. If you can only get a native speaker for a few minutes, ask them to read these and nothing else.

2. List the Names You Never Want Translated

Write down your brand, product, partner, and payment method names, plus any theme or app labels. Then lock them in a glossary or an exclusion list so they stay as they are.

3. Pick One Translation per Key Term

Decide how your core product terms should read in each language and apply that choice everywhere, from the menu to the footer.

4. Check What Changes Often

Promo banners, pop-ups, codes, and seasonal campaigns often get added after the main translation is done. In our sample, several sites left them in English, and one translated its promo codes.

5. Check the Text Nobody Sees

Look at skip links, page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text, and form labels. They're easy to miss in a visual review, and some of them are exactly what search engines and screen readers read.

6. Check Numbers and Formats

Go through prices, dates, phone numbers, units, and promo codes. Each language has its own conventions, and a price in the wrong format looks like a mistake even when the number is right.

7. Tell Search Engines About Each Language

Open each language version and confirm it has its own address, like yoursite.com/fr/ or fr.yoursite.com. Then check that it has hreflang tags and a translated title and meta description. Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool shows you how Google sees a page.

Want a first pass in under a minute? Our free Translation Quality Checker reads your translated homepage and flags what's left untranslated and what's likely wrong, with a suggested fix. No signup needed for your score, and it works whatever you used to translate your site. Check your homepage

Like any automated review, the checker spots what's likely wrong rather than proving it. Treat what it flags as a list for a native speaker to confirm.

Where Weglot Fits

If your site runs on Weglot, most of this checklist maps to tools you already have:

• Glossary (Translation Guidelines in Weglot 2.0): set the terms and rules your translations should follow, so brand names stay as they are and key terms read the same everywhere
• Translation Exclusion: keep specific blocks or pages out of translation entirely
• Visual Editor: review and edit translations on a live preview of your page, so you see a button label where visitors see it
• Translation List: see your original and translated content side by side

AI handles the scale. A review in context, starting with the places where context is thin, refines the nuance so you can publish every language with confidence. For more on review workflows, see our 3-level framework for reviewing translations, our complete guide to translation quality, and our list of 8 translation errors and how to solve them.

Start With the Small Words

In our test, the mistakes that hurt sat in the short labels, the names, and the text nobody looks at. That's where to spend your review time first.

Ready to translate your website with in-context review built in? Start your 14-day free trial of Weglot.