A German website for a business in Masuria: URLs and costs
A German website for a business in Masuria: which pages to translate, AI or a translator, /de/ URLs, hreflang, prices in euros, reviews and your Business Profile.
Tourists from Germany plan their stay in Masuria in German: they look for accommodation, boat trips, restaurants or equipment rentals in their own language. If your website is only in Polish, some of them simply won’t find you, and some won’t trust an offer they don’t understand.
In this guide I write about what to translate first, how to set up URLs and hreflang, how to approach prices and reviews, and what to do in your Google Business Profile. At the end you have a checklist.
Step 1: choose the pages worth translating
You don’t have to translate the whole website. Start with the pages where guests decide whether to book or call:
- Home page: who you are, where you are and what you offer, in three sentences.
- Offer: accommodation, boat trips, services, with a description of what’s included in the price.
- Prices: season, minimum number of nights, deposits, surcharges.
- Directions and surroundings: address, parking, distance from the lake, nearest town.
- Contact and booking: phone number with the country code, form, hours when you reply.
- Terms and privacy policy: guests have the right to know what they are agreeing to.
Leave blog posts and old news for later. Four good pages are better than thirty weak ones.
Step 2: a translator or AI with proofreading
You have three options. Below is the comparison I go through with clients.
| Method | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|
| Professional translator | Natural language, certainty in legal texts | Higher cost, longer time, changes are harder |
| AI without proofreading | Fast and cheap | Unnatural phrasing, errors in proper names and prices |
| AI with human proofreading | Fast, reasonable cost, text corrected by someone who knows the language | You need to find a proofreader |
In my offer, AI translation with human proofreading is part of the multilingual websites and stores service. For accommodation offers and terms, I recommend having the proofreading done by someone who speaks German at a native or very good level.
What to watch out for in translation
- Proper names: leave the names of lakes, towns and trails in the original and add a short explanation next to them, e.g., “Jezioro Niegocin bei Giżycko”.
- Numbers and units: write dates the German way (e.g., 12.07.2027) and times in the 24-hour format.
- Addressing guests: texts for customers use the formal “Sie”.
- Sentences with promises: check phrases such as “no extra fees” or “quiet hours from 22:00” with particular care.
Step 3: /de/ URLs and hreflang tags
Each language version should have its own URL. The simplest structure is a language folder:
- Polish:
https://twojadomena.pl/oferta/ - German:
https://twojadomena.pl/de/angebot/
A switcher that changes the text on the same page without changing the URL is not enough. Google then sees only one version, and guests can’t send friends a link to the German version.
In its documentation on multilingual sites, Google recommends linking the versions with hreflang tags. In the head section of each page, you add references to all of its versions, including the page itself:
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="pl" href="https://twojadomena.pl/oferta/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://twojadomena.pl/de/angebot/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://twojadomena.pl/oferta/" />
On the German page you insert the same set. The references must be reciprocal, because Google may ignore one-way ones. Also add <html lang="de"> on the German pages, as well as a German title and description for search results.
Don’t redirect visitors automatically based on their browser language or IP address. A visible “Deutsch” switcher in the header is better. I set up this structure as part of a multilingual website, together with separate SEO for each version.
Step 4: prices and currency
Guests from Germany think in euros and quickly abandon a website where they have to convert zlotys on their own. You have two sensible options:
- Price in zlotys and approximately in euros, e.g., “PLN 350 (approx. €80, as of...)”. Add the date of the conversion.
- Price in euros, if you really charge in euros. Then you are responsible for updating the table when the exchange rate changes.
Whichever you choose:
- the price on the website must be the same as what the guest pays on site,
- state whether the price is per person, per room or per night,
- list the surcharges: bed linen, cleaning, local tourist tax, pets, deposit,
- give the payment method, e.g., cash, bank transfer or card.
If you accept deposits online, online payments are a separate topic. For a German guest, it’s important that the payment and the booking confirmation arrive in German.
Step 5: reviews in German
German guests like to read reviews, but they trust the ones in their own language most. You have a few options:
- Ask German-speaking guests for a Google review by sending them a message in German with a direct link. I describe how to get the link and how to ask for reviews in the guide on how to get Google reviews.
- On your website, show a few genuine reviews in their original language with a note that they come from Google. Don’t change their content.
- Reply to reviews in German if the author wrote in German.
A ready-made message to copy:
Guten Tag, vielen Dank für Ihren Besuch bei uns. Wir freuen uns über eine kurze Bewertung bei Google: [Link]. Das dauert nur eine Minute und hilft anderen Gästen sehr. Vielen Dank!
Remember Google’s rules: you may not offer rewards for reviews or ask only satisfied guests.
Step 6: your Google Business Profile in German
Many German guests find you through Google Maps. What you can do:
- In the website field, enter the address of your main website. You can add a link to the German version in posts (a button with a link), because Google doesn’t allow any links in the business description.
- In the business description, write a few sentences in Polish and, if most of your guests are German, also add a short paragraph in German. Check in the dashboard how the description is displayed.
- Posts and offers: publish them in both languages, for example “Segeltörn ab Giżycko, Juli frei”.
- Categories, services and hours: fill them in carefully. For a tourist, what matters is whether you are open on Sunday.
- Photos with captions that are understandable without knowing the language: the lake, a room, the parking lot, the entrance.
The Google Business Profile service takes care of completing your Profile, and you can check its current state in my free Google Business Profile audit.
Step 7: costs
Net prices from my offer:
- an additional language on a website or in a store: from PLN 1,490 per language,
- texts from me: PLN 290 per page, if you need new content in Polish,
- local SEO: from PLN 790 a month, if you want someone to handle search positioning in German too,
- Google Business Profile: from PLN 490, ongoing management from PLN 349 a month,
- turnkey business website to which a German version can be added: from PLN 4,900.
Example: if you have a business website and want to add German with proofreading, you start from PLN 1,490 net. I set the final amount in the quote, because it depends on the number of pages and forms and on how much text needs correcting. On top of that comes 23% VAT. Also include later changes in your costs: when your price list changes in Polish, it has to be changed in German too.
Checklist before publishing
- Translated: home page, offer, prices, directions, contact, terms and privacy policy.
- Proofread by someone who knows German.
- Separate
/de/URLs for each page. - Reciprocal hreflang, with an x-default version.
- A visible language switcher, no forced redirects.
- Titles and descriptions in Google results in German.
- Phone number with the +48 country code.
- Prices with information on what they cover and in what currency.
- A message asking for a review in German.
- Business Profile description and posts in German.
Summary
A German version doesn’t have to mean dozens of pages. Start with your offer, prices and directions, give them separate /de/ URLs and hreflang, and show prices so that guests don’t have to calculate anything. The rest, that is, reviews and your Business Profile, you can polish in a few hours.
If you like, I will prepare a German version of your website. Write to me or see multilingual websites and stores. I prepare quotes within 24 hours, and new clients get 20% off their first order. You can also check your website first with the free Check your website tool.
Frequently asked questions
No. A few pages are enough to start: the home page, your offer, prices, directions and contact. You can add the rest, for example blog posts, later, once you see that German guests are using that version.
It won’t replace a German version. Guests from Germany search in German, so without your own page Google usually won’t show them your business for those phrases. Browser translation also gives you no control over what they will read about prices and terms.
If you charge in zlotys, the simplest option is to keep zlotys and add an approximate conversion with a date. A price in euros is more convenient for guests, but then you have to keep it up to date and honor it. What matters is that the price on the website matches the one the customer will pay.
Yes, it’s worth making the privacy policy and the consent clause next to the form available in German too, because guests have the right to understand what they are agreeing to. It’s worth having the legal translation checked by someone who knows both languages.
It depends on the number of pages and the amount of text to proofread. I give the exact time in the quote, which I prepare within 24 hours of the inquiry.
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