Localize text and SEO

The Webflow CMS allows you to manage structured content (like blog posts, product listings, team bios, etc.) across all locales using a shared schema and per-locale content overrides. This structure makes it ideal for scaling multilingual content — whether you’re translating, localizing, or transcreating.

How CMS localization works

• When you add a new locale, Webflow clones all existing Collections and their items into that locale.
• The Collection schema (fields, templates, references) is shared across all locales.
• Each CMS item is localized individually. Initially, content is inherited from the primary locale, but you can override fields per locale.
• Once a field is overridden, it becomes independent — future edits in the primary won’t overwrite the translated or localized version.

Search engine visibility doesn’t stop at translating metadata. To succeed globally, you need to adapt your SEO strategy to how people search in each language, region, and culture.

Webflow's Localization feature allows you to customize all key SEO fields per locale, including page titles, meta descriptions, slugs, Open Graph tags, and more. These fields follow the same inheritance and override model as other content in Webflow.

Webflow offers built-in machine translation (MT) to help you quickly translate content across your site, including static pages, CMS content, and SEO fields. It’s a powerful way to accelerate localization, especially when launching in new markets or translating large volumes of content.

But MT is just one piece of a full localization strategy. To use it effectively, it's important to understand how it fits into the three core content approahces: Translation, Localization, and Transcreation.

When to use machine translation

Use machine translation when:

• The content is informational, not emotional (e.g., product specs, FAQs, system text)
• You need a first draft to accelerate content production
• The page or locale is low-priority or experimental
• You're translating SEO metadata to get started quickly, with plans to localize later
• You're localizing large volumes of CMS content (e.g., documentation, blog posts)
• You have a clear QA process to review and refine translations after generation

Avoid machine translation when:

• The content is brand voice-sensitive (e.g., homepage hero, campaign CTA)
• The page contains idioms, humor, or culturally specific references
• You’re targeting a high-impact market or priority launch
• The tone needs to evoke emotion, trust, or urgency
• You’re repositioning messaging or changing narrative structure per region
• You require regulatory accuracy (e.g., legal or financial disclosures)

Best practices for using machine translation in Webflow

For teams working across multiple locales, Webflow’s APIs make it possible to automate content localization across static pages, CMS items, SEO metadata, and reusable components. Whether you are integrating with a translation management system (TMS), syncing from a headless CMS, or building an internal editorial workflow, the APIs give you fine-grained control over localized content at scale.

What you can do with Webflow's Localization APIs

Using the CMS API, Pages API, and Components API together, you can:

• Create content for multiple locales in a single operation
• Translate or update content in static pages, CMS items, and Components
• Programmatically manage SEO metadata and slugs for every locale
• Push translated content from an external system directly into Webflow
• Keep localized pages and components aligned with global brand structure

All three APIs work with Webflow’s localization model, where content starts by inheriting from the primary locale and can be overridden for each secondary locale.

Key use cases