More than just translation: how to create a multilingual website

It is time for your company to cross borders, a multilingual website is essential to make you known in other countries.

Before you start translating your site, some aspects must be clarified before you can make this transformation and make it a success.

To know how to translate a web page or what to consider when installing a multilingual wordpress, follow the reading….. Let’s go!

How to create a multilingual website

Language selector

Before development, think carefully about how your users will be able to choose the language. If you are an online store, a good solution is to select when you access the site. They will be able to browse directly in their country’s shop, with prices, language and texts already adapted.

However, if it is a site for a company, you can choose a drop-down menu at the top of the page. If there are only a few languages (2 or 3 at most) you can indicate the available languages and so that the user only has to click on the language he is interested in.

WordPress

To create a multilingual wordpress, you have several options. Translation involves the installation of a plugin that will help you adapt all your content to a new language. Almost all of them have a free version that will allow you to get to know them and try them out before you make your decision.

Once you have chosen the one that suits you best, we recommend that you choose the paid version. Extensive support, widget translation or integration with site builders are some of the reasons why it is worth subscribing to the pro version. Let’s see which plugins stand out the most for a multilingual wordpress.

WPMLL

WPML is one of the best known plugins for having a multilingual wordpress. It allows you to translate all the elements of a website: pages, taxonomies, menus, texts of the theme….

It is compatible with themes and integrates with other frequently used plugins, thus avoiding certain problems. Another of its strong points is the total control of SEO by the plugin: metadescriptions, sitemaps, url visualization…

In addition, the support offered in the paid versions makes it one of the most reliable options for creating your multilingual wordpress. Payment plans start at $29 for a blog, but the $79 one is more recommended for a website. With the latter, you can translate up to three websites, and benefit from integrations with page builders or WooCommerce, for example.

Polylang

Polylang is another of the most remarkable plugins for creating a multilingual wordpress. Easy to install and use, it also allows you to translate all the elements of WordPress. Another advantage: it is concerned about the behaviour of the web page and the loading time, so it does not increase the loading time of your page.

SEO is also important for Polylang, so it integrates with the most popular plugins to easily configure hreflang or opengraph tags. Polylang offers different price plans, depending on the number of websites and whether it is an e-commerce with WooCommerce or a website without a store.

WeGlot

WeGlot is another option for a WordPress that gains followers. Its simplicity of installation and the possibility of managing all translations from a single location are its strong points. It also facilitates collaboration between the different team members.

If you don’t want to start from scratch, WeGlot automatically creates a first version so that it can be revised later by the translators. It also provides access to professional translation services from its platform and facilitates SEO optimization.

In this case, their payment plans are somewhat different from the previous ones, since they are based on the number of words and the number of languages. With the free plan, you will be able to translate the site into only one language and up to 2,000 words. In the Starter, 99€, you can translate up to 10,000 words into one language.

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