How to Translate Your Website from English to Serbian (Without It Sounding Translated)

Whether you're a foreign company reaching customers in Serbia, or a Serbian business that wants to sell abroad, at some point you'll need your website in a second language. It's tempting to treat this as a quick job: paste the text into a translation tool, copy the result back, done.

That approach usually produces a site that is technically understandable but obviously translated. Customers notice, and it quietly lowers trust. This guide covers the decisions that matter when translating a website between English and Serbian, and a process that keeps the work manageable for a small business.

Decide what actually needs translating

Not every page needs a second language on day one. Start by listing the pages that a new customer in the target market really needs:

• Home page and main service or product pages
• Pricing, shipping and returns information
• Contact page and any forms
• Legal pages that apply to that market (privacy policy, terms)

Blog posts, old news and internal pages can often wait. A smaller, well-translated site is better than a large one where half the pages switch language halfway through.

Don't forget the parts that are easy to miss: button labels, form error messages, email confirmations, image text, page titles, and meta descriptions. These small pieces of text are often where a translated site gives itself away.

Latin or Cyrillic?

Serbian is written in both Cyrillic and Latin script, and both are widely used. This is the first decision that is unique to Serbian, and there's no single correct answer:

• Latin script is widely used online and in advertising. It is also easier for readers in neighbouring countries and for foreign visitors.
• Cyrillic is the official script and is common in public institutions, some media, and with audiences who prefer it. Some brands use it deliberately to sound traditional or local.

Latin is a practical default for a commercial site. If your audience is more official or you want a more traditional feel, Cyrillic may suit you better. Some sites offer both, which is easy to automate because the scripts convert reliably, but check that your fonts support both and that URLs stay consistent. Whatever you choose, be consistent across the whole site.

Formal or informal "you"?

English has one "you." Serbian distinguishes between the informal ti and the formal Vi. This affects nearly every call to action: "Contact us," "Order now," "Sign up."

Younger, casual brands often use ti, while professional services, finance, healthcare and B2B sites usually use Vi. Pick one, write it into a short style guide, and make sure everyone who works on the site follows it. Switching between the two on the same page looks careless.

Going the other way, from Serbian into English, the challenge is different: Serbian business writing can be more formal and longer than English readers expect. A good English version is often shorter and more direct than a word-for-word translation.

Translate meaning, not words

The biggest difference between translation and localisation is that localisation adapts the text for the reader, not just the language. Practical examples:

• Prices and currency: show dinars (RSD) or euros as your customers expect, with local formatting. Serbian uses a comma for decimals and a dot for thousands (1.250,00), the reverse of English.
• Dates and times: Serbian commonly uses day.month.year (14.10.2026.) and the 24-hour clock.
• Phone numbers and addresses: use the local format and include country codes for international visitors.
• Examples and references: an idiom, holiday or cultural reference that works in English may mean nothing in Serbian, and vice versa. Replace it rather than translating it literally.
• Tone: marketing language that sounds enthusiastic in English can sound exaggerated in Serbian. Read the result out loud and ask whether a local business would actually say it that way.

Plan for longer text

Serbian text can run longer than the English original, and grammar changes word endings depending on context. In practice, this means:

• Buttons and menu items may need more space. Check every page on a phone after translating.
• Text built from pieces ("You have" + number + "items") often breaks, because Serbian nouns change form with numbers. Write complete sentences for each case rather than gluing fragments together.
• Make sure your fonts include Serbian characters such as č, ć, š, ž and đ, and Cyrillic letters if you use them. Missing characters show up as boxes or fall back to a different font.

Don't forget SEO in the second language

Translated pages can bring in search traffic, but only if they are set up properly:

• Research keywords in the target language. People don't always search for the literal translation of your English keyword. Type your service into Google in Serbian and look at the suggestions and the pages that rank.
• Translate page titles, meta descriptions and image alt text, not just the visible body copy.
• Give each language its own URL, for example /sr/ and /en/, rather than switching language with a script on the same address.
• Use hreflang tags so search engines know which version to show to which audience. If you use a website builder or multilingual plugin, check whether it adds them and that they're switched on.
• Translate URL slugs where it makes sense. Use Latin characters without diacritics in URLs to avoid encoding problems.

Where translation tools fit in

Translation tools can save time, especially for a first draft or for large amounts of repetitive text such as product data. But they can make mistakes that matter on a business website: wrong formality, awkward phrasing, mistranslated technical terms, inconsistent terminology between pages, and occasionally sentences that say something different from the original.

A sensible approach for a small business is: use tools for the draft, then have a fluent human review and edit every customer-facing page. The review is where the text stops sounding translated.

A simple process that works

1. Inventory: list every page and text element to translate, including forms and emails, in a spreadsheet.
2. Style decisions: script, ti or Vi, currency, and a short glossary of terms that must always be translated the same way (product names, service names, legal terms).
3. Draft: translate, by hand or with tools.
4. Edit: a fluent speaker revises for tone, accuracy and natural phrasing.
5. Check in place: review every page on desktop and phone, including buttons, forms and error messages.
6. Set up SEO: URLs, titles, meta descriptions and hreflang.
7. Maintain: whenever the original page changes, update the translation too. An outdated second-language page sends customers mixed messages.