Plenty of Canadian agency websites have a language toggle in the corner. Click it and the text swaps, the URL does not change, and the page is now in French in a way that convinces nobody.
It is the most common bilingual implementation and close to the least useful. Worth understanding why, because the fix is not much more work than the broken version.
What goes wrong technically
A widget that swaps text with JavaScript leaves one URL holding two languages. A search engine crawling it sees one page, in one language, usually the default one. The French version effectively does not exist as far as search is concerned, so a French-speaking buyer searching in French will not find you.
What works instead is unremarkable. Separate URLs per language, each serving real content in that language. Then hreflang tags telling search engines that these two pages are versions of each other, so the right one is shown to the right person.
Pick a structure and keep it. A path prefix is the simplest and easiest to maintain. What matters more than the choice is that every page has a stable address in each language.
What actually needs translating
Not everything, and this is where budgets get wasted.
Interface and navigation: yes, entirely. A French page with English buttons is worse than no French page.
Your service and about pages: yes, and properly. These carry the trust argument, and machine translation reads as machine translation exactly where credibility matters most.
Structured listing data: this is the easy part. Bedrooms, price, square footage, property type. These are fields with fixed vocabularies, so they translate once and apply everywhere. Building listings from fields rather than paragraphs means most of the page becomes bilingual almost for free.
Free-text descriptions: the genuinely hard part. Machine translation of property copy produces text that is grammatically fine and tonally wrong. If budget is limited, translate descriptions for higher-value listings and leave the rest in the original language with a clear note, which is more honest than publishing something clumsy.
The bit people underestimate
Bilingual is not only a website property. If a French-language page invites someone to enquire, someone has to answer in French.
A site that presents itself as bilingual and then replies in English does more damage than an English-only site, because it made a promise. Decide what you can actually service, and build to that rather than to an aspiration.
The same applies to documents. If your listings link to a PDF that only exists in English, the French page is only half there.
Quebec is its own consideration
Quebec's language requirements are stricter than general bilingual good practice, they apply to commercial communications, and they reach businesses that do not consider themselves Quebec businesses.
If you operate in Quebec or serve clients there, treat that as a specific question to get advice on rather than something covered by having a French version. It is not a website design decision.
Common questions
Is a translation widget ever acceptable?
As a convenience on top of properly translated pages, it does little harm. As the entire bilingual strategy, it means the second language does not exist for search and reads poorly for humans.
Do I need hreflang tags?
If you have genuinely separate language versions, yes. They are how search engines learn the pages are alternates rather than duplicates, and which to show whom.
Should listing descriptions be machine translated?
Only if reviewed by someone who speaks the language. Raw machine output in property copy is noticeable, and it undermines the credibility the rest of the page is building.
What if I only speak English?
Then be English only and be clear about it. That is a defensible position. Presenting as bilingual and failing to service it is worse than not offering it.
Which pages should be translated first?
Navigation, your service pages, and the enquiry flow. A buyer who can browse in French but cannot enquire in French has been walked to a closed door.
If your language toggle is a widget
Send us your site and we will tell you whether your French pages exist as far as search engines are concerned, which is usually the fastest way to settle the question.
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