An expert contribution from Katarina Eppacher, Head of Matoma Classic

Global brand – local relevance:
For international companies, it is no longer enough to simply operate a central website in one language. If you want to combine customer proximity, regional search engine presence and consistent brand management, you need a smart web structure with a strong technical basis. With its multisite approach, powerful plugins and clever hosting, WordPress offers precisely this flexibility – provided you know how.

In this article, we show you how to set up a professional corporate website with WordPress – with regional portals, language variants and global performance.

1. multisite – the foundation for your global web structure

The WordPress multisite is an underestimated game changer. Instead of operating individual instances for each region or language, the multisite approach enables a common technical platform. This means:

• shared hosting
• Central user administration
• Standardized security settings
• a central code base

Corporate websites, regional country presences (e.g. Europe, China, USA) and language variants (e.g. French for Europe, Chinese for China) can be mapped in an integrated WordPress structure – clear, maintainable and future-proof.

2.speed is not an option, but a must – with CDN for global performance

The further away a user is from the web server, the longer it takes to load a page – without technical countermeasures. With a content delivery network (CDN) such as Cloudflare or Bunny.net, you can solve precisely this problem.

Static content (images, stylesheets, scripts) is cached and delivered from data centers worldwide. This means

• A user from Shanghai obtains content from a node in China
• Visitors from Lisbon access a CDN edge in Western Europe
• And your site remains fast and stable in every region

CDNs are a must if you want to achieve international performance, high user satisfaction and good Google rankings in all regions.

3. central content, local relevance: The perfect structure for your corporate website

International websites need a clear separation between global and local content. Our recommendation:

• The corporate site serves as an umbrella brand presence with central content such as the mission statement, careers and ESG topics.
• The regional pages (Europe, Asia, USA, etc.) focus on market specifics, sales, regional contacts and language features.

Technically and editorially, this works best if you create a clear structure for central content and “regionally expanded” content. Jointly maintained media libraries, shared templates and selective content sharing (“Share this section to EU site”) ensure efficiency and brand consistency.

4. language is key – retain full control with WPML and Switcher

We recommend WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) for the implementation of multilingual websites. This allows individual language variants to be defined on each region page – for example:

• Europe: German, English, French
• China: Mandarin
• North America: English, Spanish, French

Region and language switchers allow users to navigate intuitively through your site landscape – either directly from the corporate site to the respective region or via a language menu within a region.

In our opinion, WPML plus Multisite is currently the cleanest solution when it comes to SEO-separated domains, flexible language paths and editorial control.

5. SEO per language – how Google & Co. find exactly the right pages

A common mistake with international websites: It is translated, but not optimized for the local market.
With tools such as Yoast SEO or RankMath in combination with WPML, WordPress offers the option of editing each language variant individually in terms of SEO.

That means:

• Meta descriptions, title tags, alt texts – everything is adapted linguistically and culturally
• Hreflang tags ensure the correct display in the search index
• Local keywords can be used in a targeted manner

The result? Relevance in every market.

6 One system – many advantages

The combination of WordPress multisite, CDN, WPML and SEO tools opens up incredible opportunities for corporate marketing teams:

• Rapid market launch of new country presences
• Low technical complexity with high scalability
• Stable security and performance thanks to centralized maintenance
• Global brand consistency with local proximity

At the same time, the individual regions remain flexible in terms of language, content and user guidance.

Conclusion: WordPress is ready for your international digital strategy

Anyone who believes that WordPress is only suitable for smaller websites should look twice today. With the right plugins, a professional setup and a clear structure, WordPress is a powerful CMS, even for globally active companies.

And the biggest advantage: your marketing teams retain control – instead of being dependent on agencies or IT departments.

Matoma has been helping companies to use WordPress at the highest level for over 20 years – from structural planning and hosting to maintenance, SEO and performance monitoring.

Fancy a setup that strengthens your international brand and takes the pressure off your teams?
Then let’s talk.

FAQ: Plugins, security & maintenance