Bilingual GP surgery websites — Cymraeg and English, equal billing.

What "bilingual" actually means on a Welsh GP website

Most UK GP website providers offer "bilingual" as a tickbox: a Google Translate widget in the corner of an otherwise English page. That fails on every front. The translation is unreviewed, the URLs don't change, search engines can't index the Welsh content, the urgent banner stays English, and Welsh-speaking patients who arrived from a Welsh Google search land on an English page and have to translate themselves.

Our bilingual build is structurally different. Every public-facing page exists twice — once as /en/contact, once as /cy/cysylltu — with its own URL, its own meta description, its own hreflang declaration. The Welsh page is professionally translated by a human translator (Welsh translation is not a job for a model, particularly for clinical language) and reviewed by a Welsh-speaking practising NHS GP before it goes live.

What gets translated, what stays the same

Translated: page copy, headings, navigation labels, urgent banners, forms, error messages, accessibility statement, complaints procedure (referencing Putting Things Right), privacy notice, contact information labels. Not translated: GP names, surgery name, postal address. Branded.

Where a patient submits a Welsh form, our system records the language preference and forwards the message to your inbox in Welsh, with an English summary line at the top so non-Welsh-speaking reception staff can route the message without delay.

SEO benefits of being properly bilingual

A correctly implemented bilingual site doubles your indexable content. Welsh patients searching "meddyg teulu" land on the Welsh page; English patients searching "GP surgery" land on the English page. Each language carries its own canonical and hreflang tags so search engines never treat the two as duplicates. Practices that have moved to a properly bilingual structure typically see Welsh-language search traffic appear within weeks of indexing — traffic that simply did not exist before because Google had nothing in Welsh to rank.

Wales-wide, not just BCUHB

Practice Digital is owned and operated by a working NHS GP who is a BCUHB Cluster Lead in North Wales. But the bilingual build is the same wherever you are in Wales — Aneurin Bevan, Hywel Dda, Cardiff & Vale, Swansea Bay, Cwm Taf Morgannwg, Powys or BCUHB. We don't charge extra for Welsh. £399/yr is £399/yr, locked for five years, whether you turn the Cymraeg layer on or off.

Where we sit on the Welsh Language Standards question

GP practices in Wales are not directly listed under the Welsh Language Standards (No.7) Regulations 2018 — those Standards apply to Local Health Boards. What does apply directly to GP practices is the 2019 Welsh Language in Primary Care Services regulations, which set expectations on signage, forms, language preference recording, and patient-facing materials. In practice, most Welsh Health Boards also expect their commissioned GPs to align with the spirit of the Standards through the contract, even where the Standards are not strictly binding on the practice itself. Our default build is set up so that a Welsh practice meets that bar without having to think about it.

The HIW, the Ombudsman and the App

Three structural facts about Welsh primary care that anyone building you a Welsh GP website should already know:

One — your inspection regulator is Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW), not CQC. Sites that say "CQC registered" are wrong for a Welsh practice. Two — the final-tier complaints route is the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW), not PHSO. Three — the patient-facing app is the NHS Wales App (run by Digital Health and Care Wales), not the NHS App. My Health Online was decommissioned for most Welsh GP practices by 31 March 2024. Sites still listing My Health Online are out of date.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is a "bilingual" GP website — versus a site with a translate button?

A translate button runs your English page through a third-party model in the browser. The output is unreviewed, often clinically inaccurate, and disappears the moment a patient refreshes. A bilingual site has two parallel page trees — /en/ and /cy/ — each professionally written and each carrying its own SEO metadata, urgent banners and online-services routes. Welsh-speaking patients land on Welsh pages from a Welsh Google search; the toggle remembers their choice across visits.

We're an English-language practice in Wales. Do we still need Welsh content?

The Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011 establishes the principle that Welsh should be treated no less favourably than English. GP practices as independent contractors are not directly bound by the Welsh Language Standards (those apply to the Health Boards), but the 2019 Welsh Language in Primary Care regulations set clear expectations on signage, language preference recording, and patient-facing materials. A bilingual website is now the practical default for any Welsh practice — including English-medium ones.

How do you keep the Welsh content in sync when we publish English news?

Our admin tool prompts for a Welsh version every time you publish in English. For routine notices — flu clinic open, phone-line down — our team translates within hours as part of the £399/yr. For clinical content, our Welsh-speaking GP reviews each post before it goes live. Urgent banners can be published in English first with Welsh following inside the SLA window.

Will a bilingual site affect our Google ranking?

Done properly, yes — positively. Each Welsh page carries its own meta title, description, canonical URL and hreflang tag. Welsh patients searching in Welsh find your Welsh page; English patients find your English page. Search engines treat the two languages as distinct, indexable content, not as duplicate pages.

Can patients send us messages in Welsh through the website?

Yes. Our contact forms, urgent-message flow and self-service request types are fully bilingual, and submitted Welsh forms are forwarded to your inbox in Welsh. If your reception team isn't bilingual we can configure auto-acknowledgement in the patient's chosen language while you reply in English — both are acceptable under the 2019 Primary Care regulations.