Website Localisation for International Markets: Complete Guide Belgium

Translating your website means converting words. Localising it means convincing a visitor in their own language, using their references, their purchasing habits and their cultural expectations. In Belgium, a trilingual market at the heart of institutional Europe, the difference between translation and website localisation is directly measurable in conversion rates.

What is website localisation?

Website localisation goes far beyond the professional translation of text. While translation focuses on linguistic fidelity, localisation adapts the entire user experience to the target market. In practice, this includes:

• Regional formats: dates (DD/MM/YYYY in Belgium, MM/DD/YYYY in the US), decimal separators (comma vs. full stop), phone numbers and postal codes
• Currencies and payment methods: prices displayed in euros with local payment methods (Bancontact, SEPA transfer) for the Belgian market
• Cultural references: images, illustrations, examples and metaphors adapted to the sensibility of the target audience
• Calls to action (CTAs): a button saying "Schedule a demo" cannot simply be translated word for word if the natural phrasing in the target language is something entirely different
• Legal pages and mandatory notices: GDPR compliance, privacy policy and terms and conditions drafted in the user's language

In short: a translation can be linguistically perfect while the localisation is poor. A site displaying prices in dollars, dates in American format and terms and conditions in English for a French-speaking Belgian visitor sends a signal of distrust, regardless of the linguistic quality of the rest of the content.

Why localise your website for the Belgian market?

Belgium is not a homogeneous market. It is an officially trilingual country, French, Dutch and German, where purchasing behaviour, communication expectations and legal norms vary by region. Ignoring this reality means losing a significant share of your potential audience.

A structurally multilingual market

On the French-speaking side, Wallonia and Brussels represent approximately 40% of the Belgian population. Flanders, Dutch-speaking, accounts for 57%. These two linguistic communities have distinct consumption habits, different media and their own communication styles. A company that publishes its site only in French is by default missing more than half of the Belgian market.

English, meanwhile, has established itself as the lingua franca of international companies based in Brussels, and in particular of the European institutions, diplomatic representations and lobby groups that form a high-value B2B segment. A quality English version of your site is essential to reach this Brussels professional network.

Direct impact on conversion rates

User behaviour studies are unanimous: an internet user is significantly more likely to complete a purchase or a contact request when the interface is in their native language. This effect is even more pronounced at the critical stages of the purchase journey: pricing page, quote form, checkout tunnel and legal pages. Rigorous localisation of these elements can substantially increase your conversions, especially on a market as segmented as Belgium.

Elements to localise on a website

A well-executed website localisation project is not limited to content pages. Here is the full list of components to address for a professional and consistent result:

Interface and UI strings

Navigation menus, buttons, error messages, tooltips, form labels, confirmations: all these micro-copy elements contribute to the user experience. They are often stored in JSON, PO or XLIFF files and must be handled with the same care as editorial content.

SEO tags and hreflang

meta title and meta description tags are not translated mechanically: they are rewritten for each market, incorporating relevant keywords in the target language. The correct implementation of hreflang tags (hreflang="fr-BE", hreflang="nl-BE") is essential to ensure Google displays the right language version to each user and avoids duplicate content issues across your pages.

Images and visuals

A family photo with an American Christmas setting does not resonate the same way as a Belgian visual. Flags, city landscapes, dress codes and even gestures can create an unconscious distance with the local visitor. Visual localisation means substituting or adapting these elements so they naturally speak to your audience.

Forms and legal pages

Under Belgian and European law, legal notices, privacy policy and terms of use must be written in a language understandable to the user. A GDPR page in English for a French-speaking user does not fully satisfy the transparency requirements imposed by the European Regulation. Our teams handle the legal localisation of these pages with the rigour this type of document demands, consistent with our expertise in legal translation.

Checkout and payment flow

Checkout pages, order confirmations and associated transactional emails are the most critical friction points. A single localisation error, a currency displayed incorrectly, an ambiguous field label, a poorly worded confirmation message, is enough to trigger a cart abandonment. These elements deserve particular attention and should be tested under real conditions before going live.

FR/NL/EN localisation for the Belgian market

Belgium is probably the European country where the nuances between language versions of the same site are most important to master. Here is why the three versions cannot simply be mechanical translations of one another.

Why three versions are necessary

Offering only a French version to a Dutch-speaking Brussels or Flemish internet user is perceived as a lack of respect. Conversely, a poorly localised Dutch version modelled on Netherlands Dutch will feel foreign to a Flemish reader, who will immediately notice the vocabulary and register differences. Belgian Dutch has its own specific characteristics that only a translator specialised in the Belgian market truly masters.

Common pitfalls: false cognates and register

Between Belgian French and French from France, the differences are real: septante vs. soixante-dix (seventy), gsm vs. portable (mobile phone), and various regional expressions. Using too many France-specific expressions on a site targeting Belgium can create a slight dissonance that undermines local credibility.

On the Dutch side, false cognates with French are numerous and hazardous in a commercial context: actueel means "current, present" rather than "recent", and eventueel means "if needed" rather than "perhaps". These subtle shifts, amplified by unreviewed machine translation, can erode the trust of a professional prospect.

In terms of register, Belgian Dutch B2B content tolerates a more formal and direct tone than its French-language equivalent. Professional titles, forms of address and the structure of commercial arguments must be adapted to these conventions for your content to ring true.

How TranslateBE manages your localisation project

A website localisation project is a substantial undertaking that draws on several competencies simultaneously: linguistic, technical, cultural and editorial. At TranslateBE, we apply a structured process to guarantee consistency and quality across the entire project, regardless of its size.

Step 1: Audit and brand glossary creation

Before translating a single word, we analyse your existing site and document your brand vocabulary: product names, technical terms, communication tone, expressions to avoid. This terminological glossary becomes the shared reference for all translators on the project. It ensures that the same term is always rendered the same way, regardless of the page or language.

Step 2: Translation with CAT tools

Our translators use computer-assisted translation tools (CAT tools) such as SDL Trados, memoQ or Phrase (formerly Memsource). These tools maintain a translation memory that ensures consistency across the entire site and reduces costs on repetitive content: menus, buttons, similar text across pages. The result is always reviewed and validated by a human expert.

Step 3: Review and quality assurance (QA)

Every delivery goes through a quality control step that includes terminological consistency checking, detection of untranslated strings, verification of technical tags and variables (avoiding "breaking" {{variables}} in JSON files), and a final editorial review by a second native linguist.

Supported technical formats

We work directly in your native formats to avoid any unnecessary file manipulation:

• JSON and JSON5: i18n files for React, Next.js, Vue
• XLIFF 1.2 and 2.0: the standard format exchanged by most CMS platforms and localisation tools
• PO / POT: WordPress, Drupal, PrestaShop
• WordPress strings via export/import of .po files or plugins such as WPML and Polylang
• CSV and XLSX for exports from e-commerce tools (Shopify, WooCommerce)
• Markdown / MDX for Gatsby, Hugo or Next.js sites with editorial content in flat files

Step 4: Delivery and ongoing support

Translated files are delivered via your secure client portal in the exact format expected by your developers. For recurring projects, content updates and new features, we offer priority access and preferential turnaround times to keep your site up to date in all languages.

See also: Machine vs. human translation: when to trust AI? · Legal translation of B2B contracts · Our professional translation services