Case study · Website support

Client: Z Performance
Industry: Healthcare
Agency: Glasshouse Digital
Service: Webflow website support

Services: Website supportWeb development
Focus: Webflow LocalizationEnglish and ChineseAuckland NZ

Z Performance: One Webflow site, now in English and Chinese.

Q: Can you add a language to a Webflow site you did not build?

Yes. This site was already live, built by someone else, and the work was subcontracted through Glasshouse Digital. Every change was reviewed on the webflow.io staging domain before anything went live, and the whole job took about a week.

An Auckland physiotherapy, acupuncture and personal training clinic wanted its whole website in Mandarin as well as English. We added it to the live Webflow site in about a week, on Webflow’s own localization.

Live site→Get in touch→

The Z Performance website in Chinese on a laptop, with the open mobile menu beside it, both showing the EN | 中文 language switch

Direct answer

A second language added to a live Webflow site by using Webflow’s own localization, not a copy of the site.

English stays the primary language and Chinese (Simplified) is the secondary one, served from /zh/ URLs with hreflang alternates. The hard-coded menu was rebuilt from native Webflow elements so it translates with everything else, and every translated page was reviewed by hand before it went live.

The request

A large part of the audience reads Chinese.

Z Performance runs two clinics in Auckland, in Remuera and East Tamaki, and is ACC registered and a Southern Cross affiliated provider. The site was already live on Webflow, built by someone else. The ask was a language switch for the whole website, English and Chinese (Mandarin).

We proposed two ways to do it and set out the trade-offs, the add-on pricing and how Webflow prorates billing. The client chose the first.

1. Webflow Localization add-on (recommended)

One set of pages with Chinese content attached. Hreflang and the other SEO signals are handled automatically, and any future layout change is made once for both languages. The cost is a small monthly add-on fee.

2. Duplicated pages with custom routing

No subscription. But every page exists twice, so every future change has to be made twice, and the routing is custom code someone has to maintain.

Setup

English first, Chinese second, /zh/ in the URL.

Webflow Localization runs with English as the primary language and Chinese (Simplified) as the secondary one, using the ISO code zh. Chinese pages live under /zh/, so /pricing has a counterpart at /zh/pricing.

The Z Performance homepage in English at 1440px, with the EN | 中文 switch in the top navigation

The same Z Performance homepage in Chinese at 1440px, with the Chinese language active in the switch

The menu

The menu could not be translated, so it was rebuilt.

Before any translation, the main navigation had to stop being code. A menu written as raw HTML in an embed sits outside localization, so it would have stayed in English and kept pointing at English pages.

The problem

The main menu was hard-coded HTML inside a code embed. It could not be translated, and its links would not follow /zh/ URLs.

The rebuild

The old menu code was backed up, then the menu was rebuilt from native Webflow elements (lists, links, classes) with page-based links, so localization applies to it automatically.

The animation

The original class names were kept, so the existing animated burger menu script kept working without changes.

The styling

Menu styling moved from custom code into native Webflow classes, so it is editable and renders correctly in the Webflow Designer. Only the interaction states Webflow cannot do natively stayed in a small custom CSS block.

The rollout

The new menu replaced the old one on all 17 pages, and the old component stayed in the project as a fallback.

Native elements

The rebuilt navigation in Chinese. It is made of Webflow lists, links and classes, so it follows the language the visitor is in.

Translation and review

An LLM did the first pass. A person checked every page.

All pages, the shared components (navigation, footer, testimonials, contact and booking sections) and the CMS content were translated with an LLM. Then every page was read through manually, because a clinic site carries medical and insurance wording that has to be right.

One glossary for key terms

Services, booking buttons, ACC claims and insurance wording are translated the same way on every page.

Literal translations fixed

Medical terms that came out literal or wrong were corrected by hand.

An invented name removed

The first pass had given a staff member a Chinese name that does not exist. It was taken out.

A currency error corrected

A currency mistake in the translated text was found and fixed.

Typos in the English flagged

Typos in the original English copy were passed to the client rather than quietly changed.

The Chinese pricing page of the Z Performance site at /zh/pricing

Switcher and screens

A plain text switch that keeps you on the same page.

The client preferred a simple text selector. EN | 中文 sits in the top navigation and the footer, keeps the visitor on the same page (/pricing and /zh/pricing) and highlights the active language.

The footer of the Chinese site, with the EN | 中文 language switch at the bottom left

Smaller screens

Burger menu below 1280px.

On smaller laptop screens the navigation overlapped the logo. It now collapses into the burger menu below 1280px. A horizontal scroll problem caused by the scroll animations was fixed in the same pass.

The Chinese site at a 1180px viewport, with the navigation collapsed into the burger menu

The open mobile menu in English, with the EN | 中文 switch among the menu items

The open mobile menu in Chinese, with the EN | 中文 switch among the menu items

Staging first

Every change was reviewed on the webflow.io staging domain before anything went live. Stack: Webflow, Webflow Localization, the Webflow MCP with Claude for AI-assisted implementation and translation, and the site’s existing GSAP animations.

Result

A bilingual site on Webflow's native localization.

The client approved the translations and gave the go-ahead to publish.

SEO-friendly URLs

Chinese pages sit under /zh/, and the live site carries hreflang alternates for x-default, en and zh, which we checked after publishing.

Easier to edit later

The menu and its styles are native Webflow now, so anyone working in the Designer can change them.

One set of pages

Future layout changes are made once for both languages.

Agency testimonial

I recently had Alexander add a second language option to a client’s website.

In his typical fashion he communicated the options, scope and timeline extremely well and completed the job in no time at all. I cannot recommend him highly enough.

Jimmy Thrush-Marsh · Digital Performance Director at Glasshouse Digital

The partner behind the project

Glasshouse Digital, an Auckland agency, brought us this work and handled the communication with the client. It is the same arrangement as the A1 Sure Services, Vines Estate and Dawsongroup cases.

Read the Glasshouse Digital case Webflow development services

Website support

Need another language on your Webflow site?

Tell us the languages and the pages. We set out the options, the scope and the timeline before we start.

Webflow · Localization · Support · Auckland, New Zealand

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Case study FAQ

Questions about the Z Performance localization.

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For Z Performance we proposed both and recommended Webflow Localization. It keeps one set of pages with Chinese content attached, handles hreflang automatically and means a layout change is made once. Duplicated pages avoid a monthly add-on fee but every future change has to be made twice. The client chose Webflow Localization.

The pages, shared components (navigation, footer, testimonials, contact and booking sections) and CMS content were translated with an LLM, then every page was reviewed manually. The review used a consistent glossary for services, booking buttons, ACC claims and insurance, fixed literal or wrong medical terms, removed an invented Chinese name for a staff member and corrected a currency error. The client then approved the translations before anything was published.

No. The site is one set of pages with a Chinese version attached through Webflow Localization, so a layout change is made once and applies to both languages. New text still needs translating for the Chinese version.

Yes. This site was already live and built by someone else, and the work came through the agency Glasshouse Digital. Every change was reviewed on the webflow.io staging domain before anything went live, and the job took about a week. It is the kind of work we do as website support.