Content
Adult content localisation that reads as if it were written there
Adult content localisation is rewriting a lawful adult brand's pages so they sound natural to each audience: the product copy, the category pages, the words at the age check, the help pages and the emails. Explicitness, humour and vocabulary vary widely between languages, so we work with native speakers and a clear style guide for every market.
- Aatone
- €prices
- 18+gate text
- §legal
- @emails
What we localise
- Product and category copy
Rewritten for how people in each market describe and search for products
- Age-check and consent text
Clear, correct wording in the local language, so nobody is confused at the gate
- Help, delivery and returns
Local carriers, local timescales, local ways of asking for help
- Legal pages
Translated with care and flagged for review by a lawyer in each market
- Emails and notifications
Order and account messages that match the tone of the site
Where the line falls between translating and localising is the subject of our journal entry on localising adult content.
Google and translated content
A common worry is that search engines punish translated pages. Google's position has shifted over time, and the current emphasis is on value rather than method.
| When | Google's position |
|---|---|
| Before March 2024 | Google listed text translated by an automated tool without human review among examples of auto-generated spam |
| March 2024 | That policy became "scaled content abuse": mass-produced pages made to manipulate rankings, whether by people, machines or both |
| June 2025 | Google said its policies do not strictly treat AI-translated content as spam; low-value, unoriginal content at scale is the problem |
In practice: a reviewed, useful translation is fine; thousands of unreviewed pages churned out for rankings are not. Making each language findable is covered on multilingual SEO.
Kept out of every language
- Health or performance claims that cannot be supported in that market
- Explicit wording on pages meant to stay safe for work
- Unreviewed machine translation of whole sites
- Any copy selling escorting or other paid sexual services
Tone levels, market by market
| Question | Why it differs |
|---|---|
| Formal or informal address? | German and French offer Sie and du, vous and tu; brands choose differently, and switching mid-site jars |
| How explicit can product copy be? | Norms on frankness vary, and what reads as playful in one language can read as crude in another |
| Humour and wordplay? | Puns rarely survive translation; most need replacing rather than translating |
| Which words for bodies and products? | Clinical, everyday and slang terms carry different weight, and search volumes differ between them |
We decide these per market with a native-speaking writer, record them in a short style guide, and apply them consistently, so the brand sounds like itself in every language.
Glossaries that keep everything consistent
A glossary lists the terms your site uses in each language: product types, materials, sizes, features, age-check wording and legal phrases. Every translator and writer works from it, which stops the same product being called three different things across pages, a problem for shoppers and for search alike. The glossary is also where keyword research meets writing: where searchers use one term much more than another, that term goes in, and the glossary records why.
A review routine that catches problems
- A native-speaking translator or writer produces the text from the glossary and style guide.
- A second native speaker reviews it on the live page, not in a spreadsheet, so layout and context are checked too.
- Product facts and legal text are checked against the original by someone who knows both.
- Anything that changes in the original is flagged for every language on the same day.
Most localisation errors we see are not mistranslations but stale pages: a price, policy or product changed in English and never updated elsewhere.
Safe-for-work pages in every language
SafeSearch filtering works in every language, so explicit wording or images on open pages hide them from many searchers in each market. We keep category, product and guide pages safe for work in every version, with explicit material labelled and separated in the same way as on the original site. Words that are mild in one language and explicit in another are flagged in the glossary, so a careful English page does not become a filtered French one.
Machine translation, used with care
Machine translation has improved, and Google said in June 2025 that its policies do not automatically treat AI-translated content as spam; what matters is whether pages are useful and made for people. In practice, machine output for adult products often gets tone, slang and technical terms wrong, and sometimes turns a careful phrase into an explicit one. We may use machine translation as a first draft for long, low-risk text, but every page is edited by a native speaker, and legal, health and safety text is always translated by a person.
Emails and messages
Localisation does not stop at the website. Order confirmations, delivery updates, password resets, newsletters and support replies all reach customers in their inbox, often on shared screens. Each needs translating, with subject lines that are discreet in the local language as well as in English. Marketing emails also need consent wording that suits each market's rules on electronic marketing. We include these messages in the glossary and review routine, so the first email a new customer receives sounds like the site they just bought from.
Images, video and alt text
Visual content needs localising too. Images with text in them, product photos showing local packaging, and videos with spoken English all need a version for each market or at least subtitles. Alt text and file names should be in the page's language, describing the image plainly and safely for work, because search engines read them and screen-reader users depend on them. We list every asset with text or speech in it and agree which need replacing, which need subtitles and which can stay as they are. The site-wide side is covered on website localisation and the search side on multilingual SEO.
The age check, in the local language
An age check is often the first thing a visitor in a new market reads, and a clumsy translation there loses people before they see anything else. The wording should explain, in plain local language, why the check exists, who carries it out and what happens to their data, in line with the local rules. Where a market requires a particular kind of check, such as France's double-anonymity option, the text should say so in terms people recognise. Our guide to translation vs localisation explains why these few lines matter so much.
Keeping languages in step
The original site keeps changing. A simple change log, shared with every translator, makes sure updates reach all languages within days rather than months.
How results are counted
For each language: pages reviewed and published, glossary coverage, visits and conversions by page, and errors reported by customers or found in checks. We track how long it takes for a change in the original to reach every language, since that number tells you more about quality than any score. Plans are under pricing, and the method is set out in our guide to localising adult content.
Questions
Does Google penalise machine-translated pages?
Not for being machine-translated as such. Google has said its policies do not treat AI-translated content as spam in itself; the problem is large volumes of unoriginal pages that add little value.
Why not translate word for word?
Adult vocabulary, humour and levels of explicitness differ widely between languages and cultures. A literal translation can sound clinical in one market and crude in another.
Do you localise legal pages?
We manage the translation and flag what differs by market, but legal pages must be checked by a lawyer in each country.
How do you keep a brand consistent across languages?
With a glossary and a short style guide per language, agreed before translation starts and updated as we go.
Should we use formal or informal address in German and French?
Choose one per language to suit your brand, record it in the style guide, and keep it consistent across the site. Switching between Sie and du, or vous and tu, reads as careless.
Free market review
Before you go abroad, see where you stand
Tell us which countries and languages you have in mind. We look at your site's structure, language signals and the rules in each market, then reply with a written plan for the first market. There is no charge and no commitment.
Request a free market review