SEO
AI translation for your website: does Google penalise machine-translated pages?
Copy for AI
No, Google does not penalise a page because it was translated by a machine, so AI translation on your website is not a problem in itself. What Google does penalise is translated content published at scale without adding anything for the reader. The difference is therefore not in the tool, but in what you do with it: a proofread, useful translation with the right keywords can rank perfectly well, while an unreviewed automatic copy of hundreds of pages is a risk. In this article you will read what Google’s rules literally say, what makes an SEO translation different from an ordinary translation, and how to set up a multilingual site that gets found in every language.
Looking for the bigger picture first (machine, translator or hybrid)? Then read our guide to website translation. If you use a translation platform, our Weglot review is a useful addition.
What does Google say about AI translation and automatically translated content?
Google covers automatic translation in its spam policies under “scaled content abuse”: creating many pages with the main purpose of manipulating rankings rather than helping users. In Google Search’s spam policies, the examples literally include scraping content to create many pages, “including through automated transformations like synonymizing, translating”, where this provides little value to users.
Read that sentence carefully, because the qualification is at the end: where little value is provided. Google says the policy applies no matter how the content is created. A translation in itself is therefore not a violation. A site that rolls out its product catalogue automatically in twelve languages without anyone ever checking whether the pages are right does enter the danger zone.
A second signal comes from the documentation itself. In June 2025 Google removed from its guidelines for multilingual sites the old advice to block all automatically translated pages via robots.txt. The reason Google gave in its overview of documentation changes: aligning with the March 2024 spam policy on scaled content. In other words: the message used to be “hide machine translation”, now it is “judge every page on its value”.
You find the same line in Google’s guidance on AI-generated content: focus on accuracy, quality and relevance, especially with automatically created content, and that also applies to metadata such as the title, the meta description, structured data and alt texts. Those last four are the ones most often forgotten in translation projects.
What is the difference between a translation and an SEO translation?
An ordinary translation converts your text into another language. An SEO translation also makes sure the page gets found in that language. The biggest difference lies in the keywords: people search with different words in every language, and they are rarely the literal translation of your Dutch search term.
An example from our own research. “Website vertalen” is searched around 170 times a month in Belgium. The literal French counterpart “traduction site web” gets 40 searches among French-speaking Belgians, and “traduire site web” just as many (Google Ads data, October 2026). In English, “website translation” gets around 90 searches a month in Belgium. Anyone who only translates picks one by chance; anyone who makes an SEO translation first checks which variant people search for and adapts the page to it.
What you take into account in an SEO translation:
| Element | Ordinary translation | SEO translation |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword | Translated literally | Researched again per language and market |
| Title and meta description | Often forgotten or too long | Rewritten around the local keyword |
| URL (slug) | Stays in the source language | In the language of the page |
| Headings | Translated | Tuned to the questions asked locally |
| Alt texts and file names | Usually not | Translated |
| Internal links | Sometimes point to the source language | Point to the pages in the same language |
| Hreflang and canonical | Not applicable | Correct per language version |
| Proofreading | Optional | By a native speaker |
How does Google recognise the language of your page?
Google looks at the visible text on the page, not at the code. The guidelines for multilingual sites state that Google does not use code-level language information, such as the lang attribute or the URL, to determine the language. Two practical consequences:
- One language per page. Google recommends keeping the content and navigation of a page in the same language and avoiding side-by-side translations (NL and FR in two columns).
- Do not translate only the boilerplate. Google calls a page where only the menu and footer are translated while the main text stays in the source language a poor user experience. You often see this with half-finished translation plugins.
That does not make the lang attribute useless: screen readers use it to choose the right pronunciation, so for accessibility it should be set correctly.
How do you set up a translated site correctly from a technical point of view?
The technical setup decides whether Google finds your translated pages at all. According to Google, Googlebot usually crawls from the United States and does not send a language preference with its requests. A site that switches language based on a cookie or the browser setting may therefore show Googlebot only one version. That is why four basic rules apply:
- A separate URL per language, for example
/fr/and/nl/or a separate domain. No language switching on the same URL. - Hreflang on every language version, reciprocal and self-referencing, so Google shows the right version to the right searcher. The details are in hreflang tags explained, the classic mistakes in fixing hreflang errors.
- No automatic redirects based on language. Let the visitor choose with a language switcher that links to the equivalent page, not to the homepage.
- A self-referencing canonical per language version. A French page with a canonical pointing to the Dutch version will not be indexed.
After launch, check that every version is reachable and that the tags point to each other correctly. Our free hreflang checker shows which language versions exist, whether the hreflang is right and whether an automatic translation plugin is running.
When is machine translation responsible?
Machine translation is a production tool, not an end product. For SEO it is responsible as soon as a human reviews the pages that matter. A practical split:
- Machine is enough (with spot checks): large catalogues, technical documentation, knowledge base articles with little sales pressure.
- Machine plus proofreading: blog articles and informational pages. A native speaker checks terminology, tone and the keyword.
- Rewritten by a human: homepage, service pages, landing pages, CTAs and forms. That is where the visitor decides whether to get in touch, and where a machine sentence gives you away fastest.
That hybrid approach fits what Google asks: every published page must be useful and accurate. It also fits what your customer asks. A French-speaking buyer forgives a missing translation more readily than a translation that sounds strange; that is the subject of our article on translating content for multiple markets.
Frequently asked questions about AI translation and SEO
Will I get a penalty for using Google Translate on my site?
Not automatically. Google assesses whether content was created at scale without value for the user, and names automatic translation as one of the techniques. A few machine-translated pages that you review and improve are not a problem. Thousands of unreviewed translated pages are.
Should I set automatically translated pages to noindex?
Only if they are not good enough to show to a reader. Google recommends keeping content that falls under scaled content abuse out of the search results. It is better to improve the most important pages and only exclude the weak remainder temporarily until it has been proofread.
Should I translate my URLs too?
Yes, if your platform allows it. A slug in the language of the page is clearer for the visitor and contains the local keyword. If you change existing URLs, set up 301 redirects from the old to the new addresses, as described in our 301 redirect plan.
Is DeepL better than Google Translate for SEO?
For SEO, the engine matters less than the proofreading. Both deliver a usable first draft; neither knows your keywords, your sector or the Belgian context. The difference between a page that ranks and one that does not lies in what happens after the machine.
Want your translated pages to be found as well?
A translation nobody finds generates no leads. We do keyword research per language, write native NL and FR copy for the pages that need to convert and set up the multilingual technology (URLs, hreflang, canonicals) correctly. See how our website translation services start from SEO.
Free website scan
Enter your website and get an automatic scan within minutes, with concrete technical and SEO improvements. No sales pitch.
We only use your details for your scan. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.