Bilingual Websites in Canada: English and French Done Properly

Bilingual Websites in Canada: English and French Done Properly

Many Canadian businesses serve customers in both official languages. A good bilingual site treats French as a real version of the site, not an afterthought.

Last reviewed: November 2026.

Translate properly

Machine translation is a useful first draft. Have a fluent speaker review anything customer-facing, especially services, prices, policies and legal pages. Adapt examples and terms for your French-speaking audience.

Give each language its own URLs

Use a clear structure such as /fr/ for French pages, so each version can be indexed and shared.

Let visitors switch easily

Put a visible language switcher on every page that goes to the equivalent page in the other language, not the home page.

Tell search engines about the versions

Use hreflang tags to link each English page to its French equivalent, and set canonical tags so each version points to itself. Do not let half-translated pages compete with the English ones.

Do not forget the details

• Forms, error messages and confirmation emails in both languages.
• Chatbots and phone greetings in both languages. See bilingual customer service.
• Dates, prices and phone formats that read naturally in French.
• The page language declared in the HTML.

Keep both versions in sync

When you change prices, hours or services, update both versions the same day. Assign one person to own this.

Quebec

If you serve customers in Quebec, the Charter of the French Language and Law 25 may affect your site and communications. Check with your adviser. See Law 25 and website chatbots.

How we help

Our own site runs in English and French, and we build bilingual sites with proper hreflang and translations reviewed before launch. See AI websites.