Does AI Favor Translated Content? (+1.3 Million Citations Analyzed)

One big question and 1.3 million citations analyzed later, and the verdict is clear: translated websites win more visibility in Google AI Overviews, with promising signs in ChatGPT too.

What we wanted to know was: If LLMs cite content in one language, will they also cite it in others?

Spoiler: Translated websites gain 327% more visibility in AI Overviews for non-available language queries, according to our analysis of 1.3 million citations. 

Even better, translated websites are more frequently cited in Google AI Overviews across all languages analyzed in the study, demonstrating how translation significantly boosts global visibility.

Why This Matters Now

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have noticed just how drastically search has changed. Hardly a day goes by on LinkedIn without another study (if you can’t beat them, join them, right?), a “guaranteed” new strategy, or the latest quick win everyone’s chasing. And let’s be honest, we’ve all tried them.

While being the best in traditional search was once about ranking in the top spot, it’s become abundantly clear that we’re all now a little clueless on the “core tactics” that will help you get cited. 

As more of us turn to ChatGPT and other LLMs - and with Google’s AI Overviews suddenly arriving in summer 2024 - one key question remained unanswered: When users search in different languages, how do LLMs and AIO decide which websites to cite?

If you’re like us and a regular Ahrefs user, you’ve probably seen their June 2025 data showing that Google’s translate.google.com proxy pulls in 377 million monthly visits from untranslated websites.

Instead of sending users to the original sites, Google was (or is?) keeping them on its own translated versions, effectively stealing traffic from its original content source. Luckily, a few weeks later (a coincidence? We’ll never know), Google started rolling this back somewhat, but it was still prevalent in certain countries. 

And it got us thinking about whether this visibility problem extends to AIOs and LLMs.

“The problem grows because untranslated sites never build authority in unserved languages. As a result, they have little user engagement, which reduces trust signals that Google values.”
Eugène Ernoult, CMO at Weglot

Want the summary? Check out our video:

Does Untranslated Equal Unseen?

So, back to our original question: If LLMs cite content in one language, will they also cite it in others?

To answer this question, we carried out in-depth research on how AIOs and LLMs treat translated versus untranslated content. 

We created a two-phase study focused on Spanish-language markets in Spain and Mexico.

• Phase One: We analyzed 153 websites without English translations: 98 from Spain and 55 from Mexico. These high-traffic sites were deliberately chosen because they offered no English versions.
  
  
• Phase Two: We introduced a comparison group of 83 Spanish and Mexican sites with versions in both Spanish and English. This allowed us to directly compare the performance of translated versus untranslated content.

Our methodology converted the top 50 non-branded keywords per site into natural language queries. To do this, we:

• Crawled and analysed all the sources for all the responses we saw in the AIOs, ChatGPT, SERPs and PAAs. 
• We then used proprietary Ellipsis FALCON software to work out what people are actually searching for and what they need answered. 
• Translated these natural language queries between the Spanish and English versions.

This generated 22,854 queries in Phase One and 12,138 in Phase Two.

Using Ellipsis software, we tracked these queries to measure how often each site appeared in AI search results. The data was analyzed by country (Spain and Mexico) and AI search method (Google AIO and ChatGPT) for sites with and without a translation. The findings were clear.

Key Findings

Untranslated Sites Results

The data confirmed our hypothesis: untranslated websites lose significant visibility for queries in other languages, even if they rank highly in their main available language.

Google AI Overviews:

• Our sample size of 98 untranslated sites in Spain achieved 17,094 citations for Spanish queries but only 2,810 citations for English, a difference of 431%.
  
  
• Our sample of 55 untranslated Mexican sites showed a similar pattern with 12,038 citations for Spanish queries and only 3,450 citations for English, a difference of 213% fewer citations when searching in English. 

‍

ChatGPT: While less dramatic, ChatGPT still showed the same bias. Spanish sites received 3.5% fewer citations in English, with Mexican sites 4.9% fewer.

Translated Sites Results

The comparison group revealed the advantage of proper translation – sites appear significantly more in AIO searches in the second language when translated.

Google AI Overviews: The impact on Google's AIO is huge, with translated sites achieving massive visibility gains in English searches.

• Translated sites in Spain achieved 10,046 citations for Spanish queries and 8,048 citations for English, a difference of just 22%.
  
  • For a business, this means that a query performing well for a site in Spanish will also perform well for the site in English. This results in far more potential customers being exposed to the site through AI search for the same content.
  • Additional bonus: English citations will lead to the site's English version, not a Google translation, resulting in the site capturing the traffic.
• Translated Mexican sites showed 5,527 citations for Spanish queries and 3,325 citations for English – a difference of 59%.
• While some disparity remains, visibility for translated sites – in English searches – increased by up to 327% compared to untranslated sites.
  

‍

ChatGPT: ChatGPT shows virtually no language bias for translated sites. In fact, Spanish sites receive 0.3% more citations in English than Spanish, while Mexican sites see 1.8% more English citations than Spanish. 

Our research shows that translation levels the playing field in ChatGPT citations. The real difference emerges in AI Overviews, where the majority of global queries take place.

Overall Performance Boost

Translated sites perform better across all metrics. 

Translated sites received 24% more total citations per prompt than untranslated sites. Broken down by language, translation resulted in a 33% increase in English citations and a 16% increase in Spanish citations per query.

Our findings suggest that translation signals authority and trustworthiness to AIOs and ChatGPT, improving citation performance across all languages, not just the language they are translated to.

Case Study: The Cost of Not Translating

To show why this visibility gap matters, let’s look at a real case from our study.

One of the sites analyzed is a major Spanish book retailer. They stock English titles, ship worldwide, and clearly serve English-speaking customers. Yet because their website is not translated into English, they are nearly invisible in English-language searches.

Here’s what happens:

• They appear 64% less often in AI Overviews and ChatGPT when the query is in English.
  
  
• For every 100 Spanish queries where they show up, the same query in English surfaces them only 36 times.
  
  
• And in those 36 cases, the link goes to Google Translate’s proxy, meaning the retailer doesn’t even capture the traffic.

The result: the business loses both visibility and customers, despite offering exactly what English speakers are looking for.

Analysis and Implications

Our study shows that when people search in a given language, AI overwhelmingly prefers to cite content written in that same language. 

As a result, untranslated sites are nearly invisible to international audiences using AI Engines for research - missing out on huge numbers of potential citations in non-available language queries. For businesses aiming to grow internationally, this represents a major missed opportunity.

Conclusion: Website Translation Is a Must for AIO visibility

• In Google AIOs, untranslated websites receive 431% more AIO citations for available language queries vs non-available languages, resulting in a huge visibility gap.
• Adding full translations closed that gap, boosting visibility by 327% and significantly improving discoverability across all languages.

The takeaway is simple: untranslated means invisible. To gain visibility in AIOs and LLM searches - especially if you serve an international audience - website translation is essential.