Website planning
Can You Add Multilingual Pages to Your Existing Hospital Website?
Your Korean-language website is working well, but you need pages for international patients. Does that mean rebuilding the whole site?
You can explore adding a multilingual section while keeping the Korean website, provided the current platform and hosting support it. You may also be able to continue working with your existing agency. The right approach depends on what the website allows you to change and what the people who manage it can help with.
What can you keep, and what needs to be added?
Start by separating what the Korean site already does well from what international patients need. If it provides clear information about your services and handles inquiries effectively, you can plan around keeping those functions.
The new pages can focus on the patients and services you want to introduce first. For example, pages for English-speaking patients researching a particular service could cover that service, the medical team, your location and how to contact the clinic.
Review the Korean copy and photographs you already have. Which materials can you reuse, and what needs updating or adding? Your hospital or clinic should confirm that the information is current and that you have permission to use the materials.
| What you may be able to keep or reuse | What you may need to add |
|---|---|
| Existing Korean URLs, service pages and inquiry functions | Pages and URLs for each new language |
| Usable hospital and medical team information and photographs | Service, visiting and contact information for international patients |
| The existing domain and website environment | A language menu and links between corresponding pages |
| Management of the Korean website | Responsibility for updating and checking the new language pages |
With that distinction in place, you can request a quote for the additional work you actually need. Compare costs after clarifying both the new pages and the work needed to connect them to the existing website.
The platform and your access permissions determine what is possible
A website that lets a developer add files directly offers different options from a website managed entirely through a site builder. Whoever handles development needs to check whether new pages can be added under the existing domain and whether the language menu can link to them.
You do not need to work out the server configuration yourself. You can send your current agency a request along these lines:
We would like to keep our Korean website and add pages in other languages. Please let us know which ways of connecting those pages the current site supports, which settings would need to change, and what help you can provide with the navigation.
An address such as /en/ is one option for an English section, but its suitability depends on your website. Google recommends separate URLs for different language versions and describes several possible arrangements, including subdirectories and subdomains. Choosing a URL structure does not guarantee better search rankings. Google’s guidance on multilingual and multi-regional sites
If the existing setup cannot accommodate the addition, you may need another way to connect the pages or a wider set of changes to the original site. That review determines how much of the current website can stay as it is.
Can your current agency and a new team work together?
You can consider this approach once both teams agree on who will handle each task and what support they need. For example, a new team may finish the translated pages but lack permission to add them to the existing menu. Someone at your current agency or in your hospital’s website team would then need to make that connection. Allow for that work in the launch schedule.
| Who is involved | What to agree before work begins |
|---|---|
| Current agency or website manager | Supported ways to connect the pages, changes to existing menus and settings, and what will be backed up and which parts can be restored if needed |
| Team building the multilingual pages | The pages to build in each language, the access or changes needed to connect them, and checks of the new pages and links |
| Hospital or clinic team | Approved materials and official information, the languages and services to cover, inquiry handling and approval to launch |
Existing maintenance agreements differ, so include any extra fees and the current agency’s availability when comparing quotes. Our website agency handover and maintenance checklist (Korean) covers related points to discuss.
What should you send to get a quote and timeline?
To start, share your current website URL, who builds and manages it, the languages you need, the services to introduce first and your preferred launch date. Explain whether your team will provide the Korean source text and translations or would like help preparing them.
When reviewing a quote, look beyond the page count. Check whether it includes connecting the navigation, preparing materials and translations, desktop and mobile checks, and updates after launch. Any changes to the existing site settings or Korean URLs should be listed separately. Our guide to hospital website costs and project scope (Korean) explains further cost items.
Changing the Korean URLs adds migration work, such as connecting old addresses to their replacements. Discuss the multilingual addition and any URL migration as separate parts of the project. Google’s guidance on site moves with URL changes
Check the Korean website as well before launch
Move between the new language pages and the existing Korean site on desktop and mobile. Check the language menu, key service pages and inquiry buttons. Make sure the contact options on the new pages lead to channels your staff will actually monitor.
Your developer should also check that hreflang annotations, which identify corresponding language versions for search engines, point to the right live URLs. Check these annotations and the visible language buttons separately. Google’s guidance on localized page versions
After launch, distinguish between a page being accessible and a page being indexed in search. Meeting Google’s technical requirements does not guarantee indexing, so agree separately on the checks included at launch and the follow-up checks in search. Google Search technical requirements
If you want to keep your current website, send us its URL. At BlinkAd, we can review what you can reuse, which pages you need to add and what needs to be agreed with your existing agency before defining the project scope.