By creating a multilingual website and optimizing your translated content for SEO, you can effectively reach a large international audience and have a good chance of generating massive traffic to your website or building a loyal global audience. According to Internet World Stats, less than 26% of Internet users speak English, and more than 50% of Google searches are conducted in other languages.
Most people prefer to use their native language to navigate websites. Although 56.6% of websites are in English, only about 6% of the world’s population are native English speakers, and 75% of people do not speak English at all.
If you only offer your site in one language, you miss out on a vast potential audience. If you are looking for ways to increase your website traffic, develop and optimize the visibility of your products or services to reach your target audience in new markets, one solution is to create a multilingual website.
This article will show you several ways to create a multilingual WordPress website and easy-to-use website translation tools to increase traffic.
Let’s get started.
How to Create a Multilingual Website ?
Multilingual functionality is the creation of two or more language instances of your site that are, in most cases, linked together by a switch in the front end. It creates a centralized website structure where each instance is a copy of the default language.
In addition to taking into account your understanding of your target market, choosing which languages to translate, and determining the range of content types to translate, there are techniques, the most important of which is how you will set up your international URLs. There are three most commonly used approaches to developing multilingual URL structures: different parameters, directories, and domains.
Each approach can allow you to create pages in multiple languages using a third-party plugin, a multisite network, or another solution to achieve multilingual functionality.
Let’s take a look at these URL format options:
Different parameters
It may be the easiest way to separate your languages. It’s simply adding a language parameter to the end of each URL.
With this approach, the home page for each language would have a URL such as:
– https:// your-site.com/?lang=en
– https:// your-site.com/?lang=en
– https:// your-site.com/?lang=es
And the internal pages would look like this:
– https:// your-site.com/your-page-in-english/?lang=en
– https:// your-site.com/your-page-in-english/?lang=en
– https:// your-site.com/your-page-in-espanish/?lang=de
Different directories
By doing this, you divide each language into its directory. So each homepage for each language would have the following URL:
– https:// your-site.com/en/
– https:// your-site.com/en/
– https:// your-site.com/es/
And the internal pages would look like this:
– https:// your-site.com/en/your-page-in-English/
– https:// your-site.com/your-page-in-English/
– https:// your-site.com/your-page-in-Spanish/
It is generally less expensive and easy to configure, as most translation plugins offer it by default. However, it can be more challenging to geolocate the site because, for example, users may not recognize the language they are in from the URL alone.
Different domains
There are two ways to separate your languages, depending on the domain. You can place different languages in completely different domains, as follows:
– https:// your site.com
– https:// your site.fr
– https:// your site.es
Or you can place the languages in different subdomains:
– https://en. your-site.com
– https://fr. your-site.com
– https://es. your-site.com
You can only choose one of these options. If you decide to use separate domains, you must ensure they are all available for purchase, each for consistency. If you choose the sub-domain option, you must purchase only the main domain (for example, .com or .org).
Sub-sites
Another scenario would be to have several sub-sites, each one being multilingual in its own right. This solution combines both approaches – with Multisite and using a plugin – and allows you to build a complete multilingual network.
It’s an excellent solution for companies or franchises that span the globe and need to support multiple languages for each site. Using sub-sites, you can divide your website by country and each country by language. Here is an example:
– https://your site.com/spain/en/
– https://your site.com/spain/es/
– https://your site.com/france/en/
– https://your site.com/france/fr/
As you can see, the leading site https://example.com is divided into two countries, and the place for each country is divided into two languages. The same applies if you decide to use a different URL format, for example:
– https://example.es/en/
– https://example.es/es/
– https://example.fr/en
– https://example.fr/fr/
Using a Third Party Plugin
It is the most common way to get multilingual functionality on your website. There are a lot of plugins available, but here we will look at some of the most used plugins that have proven themselves over time.
GTranslate
GTranslate plugin for WordPress may be the easiest way to create a multilingual WordPress site. The GTranslate plugin uses the free and easy-to-install Google Translate machine translation engine to translate WordPress sites. It allows you to translate your entire website instantly, with no effort.
GTranslate works in 103 available languages. Users also have the option to switch between translations if they wish through a pop-up window that will ask them if they want the page translated. It is a user-friendly option in which you can choose between three display modes inline, tabbed, and automatic.
It is a matter of how the tab will display on your site. The automatic option will detect the user’s language and country and ask the user if they want the translation, while the other options force the user to select it.
This tool allows you to create different domains for translated pages, and when someone in France searches for your page, your French-translated site will be displayed automatically. The plugin can even translate URLs to ensure you get the best search engine optimization. However, it could be more accurate in automatically translating articles and pages.
In addition, it only translates the published text. Sections of the site that cannot be reached by Google Translate, such as email templates, will remain untranslated. Moreover, you cannot edit the translations in the freemium version of the plugin. So, no matter how Google translates the content, that’s how you’re prompted to display it on the site. Also, if you purchase a monthly subscription and decide to unsubscribe at some point, you will lose all translated content automatically.
Price: There is a free version available for this WordPress translation plugin.
The base price starts at $5.99 per month and increases to $34.99 monthly for enterprise-level services.
TranslatePress
TranslatePress is a comprehensive and easy-to-use multilingual WordPress plugin that you can use to translate your website into many new languages. TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It’s fast, won’t slow down your website, works with any theme or plugin, and is SEO-friendly.
TranslatePress also offers a free version that allows you to translate your site’s content using a simple visual editor into an unlimited number of languages and create a search engine-friendly version of your site for each language. With the TranslatePress WordPress plugin, you can create static versions of your translated content.
To generate translations for your site, you can translate your content from scratch or use an automatic translation service like Google Translate or DeepL. TranslatePress allows you to go back and manually refine these translations if necessary, even if you automatically translate your site with Google Translate.
You will manage all your translations using a simple visual editor like this one: The plugin’s premium version gives you access to the SEO Pack add-on to unlock TranslatePress’s multilingual SEO features, such as translating titles, meta descriptions, and URL slugs, automatically adding hreflang tags, and creating a multilingual XML sitemap.
Installing the TranslatePress plugin
To get started, you can install the free TranslatePress plugin from WordPress.org. Then, go to Settings → TranslatePress in your WordPress dashboard to choose the languages you want to use on your site:
– Default Language – your site’s current content language.
– All languages – One or more new languages that you want to translate your site content into.
The free version of the TranslatePress plugin allows you to translate your site into one new language, while the premium version supports unlimited languages.
Set up automatic translation (optional)
If you want to use an automatic translation, you must configure it. Automatic translation can be configured from the Machine Translation tab in the TranslatePress settings area. You can use machine translation to generate essential translations for your site for SEO translation. If you want to use machine translation, TranslatePress supports two machine translation services:
– Google Translate, which is available in the accessible version of TranslatePress.
– DeepL, which requires at least the TranslatePress Business license.
TranslatePress automatically connects to these services and sends your website content to them. It will then receive translated versions of your content back via the API.TranslatePress stores these translations in your site’s database locally, so you don’t have to query the API every time you load a page.
It means you can keep your costs down, and you’ll also be able to edit translations, if necessary, manually. You will then need to manually review these translations to optimize them for clarity and SEO.
Translate/Optimize Main Content
Once the machine translation is complete, you will want to enter and work on the translations of your main content and your content title:
– If you have machine translation enabled, you can edit/revise the translations in Google Translate or DeepL.
– If you translate your content manually, you must enter the translations from scratch.
To get started, open the part of the content you want to translate on the front end of your site. Then, click the Translate Page option in the WordPress toolbar to launch the TranslatePress visual editor. You should see a live preview of the content on the right and a sidebar on the left.
To edit your site’s content, hover over it in the live preview and click on the pencil icon. The translation will then open in the sidebar, where you can make changes.
Translate your SEO title and meta description.
Now you’ll move on to translating the SEO metadata of your article. With the TranslatePress SEO Pack extension, you can move on to translating the SEO metadata of your article. The TranslatePress SEO Pack extension offers built-in support for most WordPress SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and more.
You must first make sure you’ve set your SEO title and meta description for the original language of your content using the SEO plugin of your choice. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to access these translations from the TranslatePress visual editor using the drop-down menu at the top of the sidebar.
Translate Your URL Slug
You can also use the Visual Editor drop-down menu to translate the URL slug of an individual content item, just as you did for the SEO title and description. You can open the string translation interface if you want to translate URL slugs for your entire sites, such as category and tag slugs. You will be able to translate all other URL descriptors on your site.
Pricing:
Google Translate and DeepL offer a free version with identical limits. With Google Translate and DeepL, you can translate up to 500,000 characters per month for free forever. So as long as you stay under 500,000 characters per month, at about 100,000 words (although the exact number of words depends on your content), you can use either API for free.
The approaches for paid API use are slightly different, and Google Translate is generally cheaper. With the Google Translate API, you pay strictly according to your usage. After your first 500,000 characters per month, you spend $20 per million characters.
With DeepL, you pay a low flat rate for API access plus a usage-based fee. No matter how many translations you have, you pay a flat fee of $5.49 per month to access the API. After that, you’ll pay $25 per million characters.
POLYLANG
Polylang is one of the most popular free WordPress translation plugins. It offers a free version with essential features and a few Pro versions that can fit your website’s needs. Polylang comes with a lot of features, but there are some limitations.
For example, although it is compatible with many themes and plugins, you cannot translate the hard-coded strings out of the box. It means you only have control over the content you enter into the editor. However, there is a solution to this problem. You can install Loco Translate and use both plugins together.
While Polylang allows you to make your blog post multilingual, Loco Translate will enable you to edit the hard-coded strings in your theme. When working together, these two plugins are a good pair for your multilingual WordPress site. This WordPress localization tool also allows for the automatic upload of language packs and works with various themes.
Benefits:
Language package uploads are automatic, and RTL languages are fully supported. You can add up to 100 languages if you wish.
Cons:
Polylang requires you to add multilingual text, which can take longer.
Cost: Free
WPML
WPML is a paid plugin, and as such, it offers more features. Weglot allows you to use automatic translation or manually enter translations into the website yourself. It has a straightforward setup and excellent customer support. Also, it is excellent for e-commerce websites, as it is very well compatible with WooCommerce.
WPML offers a large number of extensions, which makes it compatible with a lot of popular plugins, such as Contact Form 7. You can choose from over 60 languages. It also offers an additional paid option to automatically translate pages and posts using Google Translate, DeepL, or Microsoft Azure. This option saves time and translation costs, but it can affect the accuracy of the content.
WEGLOT
Weglot is also a paid plugin, but it’s much more geared toward machine translation. It contains most of the tools you would ever need for a multilingual WordPress site without bloating it with unnecessary settings, and it also offers excellent technical support. The main idea of Weglot is an automatic translation, and it works quite differently compared to other plugins.
While WPML creates duplicate versions of your articles, pages, etc., Weglot translates the page just before it is served to the user. Weglot does not create a mirror version of your content; instead, it translates the page on the fly on its servers. Suppose you have a site that supports English and French, for example. Once you create an article in English, Polylang, and WPML will automatically create a mirror article in French.
However, the content will not be automatically translated, so you must write your article twice, once in English and once in French. Of course, this also applies to posts, pages, and custom post types. In other words, there are no extra steps to translate a page, all you have to do is open the page, and it will be automatically translated.
However, don’t expect machine translations to be accurate. Weglot uses DeepL, Google Translate, Microsoft Translate, and Yandex Translate as translation engines. According to them, you should rely on something other than the initial translation, as it is only meant to give your translators a head start.
To reduce translation inconsistencies, Weglot offers a visual editor that will make translating your content a breeze. Plus, the translation takes place on Weglot’s servers, making it a lightweight plugin with no additional load on your servers. If you want to avoid automatically translating your content, then Weglot may not be the right choice.
The price is based on the number of words translated, and it can quickly become expensive if you have a lot of content. Also, since the translation is done on someone else’s server and, unlike other plugins, there are no extensions, you are limited to what Weglot offers.
Pros: This multilingual WordPress plugin has a simple user interface. It is also compatible with most other plugins and theme.
Cost: There is a free version of this tool. The starter pack costs a little over $12 per month, but you can upgrade to the Corporate version for $550 per month.
Amazon Polly
The Amazon Polly plugin brings the power of AWS text-to-speech to WordPress and makes it easy to leverage this popular content delivery option. After the Polly plugin for WordPress was launched, it was updated to include translation features using Amazon Translate. Today, you can add Polly to your site and translate the text-to-speech feed into a growing list of languages.
Pros: You can leverage one of the most potent translation technologies on the market, which AWS is constantly refining and improving.
Disadvantages: While the list of included languages is growing, some will undoubtedly be overlooked.
Cost: Free.
How to Improve Your Multilingual SEO?
The primary way that translating your website can help you increase your traffic is to consider the search engine ranking of your translated pages and improve your search engine optimization (SEO) opportunities. Here are some tips you should keep in mind when translating your content to be SEO-friendly.
Read more:
Top 15 SEO Trends for Ranking High in Google SERPs
8 Steps to Build an Effective Website Structure for SEO
60 Best WordPress Plugins to Grow Your Business
Make sure translated content is indexable.
When it comes to multilingual SEO, you should be aware that there is a difference between dynamic and static (indexable) translated content. As we said above, the easiest way to offer your website in multiple languages is to use the GTranslate plugin, which allows visitors to translate your site into any language dynamically.
But this method will not help you get more traffic because your translations need to be indexed in Google rankings. To benefit from multilingual SEO, you must create an indexable site for each language using one of the static URL structures of subdirectory, subdomain, or separate domains.
Translate your SEO titles and meta descriptions.
In addition to translating the front-end content that your visitors will see, if you want to rank your content in multiple languages, you need to translate the essential SEO elements that Google looks at, including the SEO title, meta description, URL content, and image alt tags.
In addition, it is necessary to adapt the internal links that the text contains so that they point to links in the translated version of the site and external links so that they point to pages in the same language. By clicking on a text link, the user can avoid arriving on a page that is not in their language. If the content is accompanied by images, tables, graphics, or videos, it is necessary to adapt the corresponding descriptions and titles.
Read more:9 Main Meta Tags for SEO
Add the hreflang attribute.
The hreflang tag allows Google to understand the languages present on your site and to direct users to the website corresponding to their local language. It allows Google to ensure that it ranks the correct page version for each language search. To monitor this and detect hreflang errors, you can use the International Targeting report in Google Search Console.
Create a multilingual XML sitemap.
Like your original XML sitemap, a multilingual XML sitemap helps Google discover and crawl all translated versions of your page.
Perform keyword research in destination languages.
After all, you want your translated content to match people’s phrases. You can’t automatically expect people to search for the exact literal translation of your original keyword. Literal keyword translation is quick and easy, but it could be more effective.
The idiomatic nuances of each language, its culture, and context should be taken into account, and, as a result, a significant number of keywords should be included. Thus, the main objective of displaying the website among the first results of search engines has yet to be achieved.
For this reason, you need to adapt your company’s content to other languages by doing an SEO translation and discovering unique keywords in the target language. Most quality keyword research tools already support keyword research in multiple languages. Consider switching to a tool like Ahrefs or KWFinder if your tool does not.
Make sure you translate your slugs for SEO purposes.
In addition to your SEO titles and descriptions, you should also translate your URL slugs. Part of your site’s URL appears after the main domain name. By translating your URL, search engines can recognize if your website has different versions in other languages.
By adopting the domain name to the target languages, you also indicate to your search engine that you are addressing a particular country. In doing so, you can achieve a higher ranking in the search results, which translates into more clicks on your page.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article has given you a better idea of how you can make your WordPress site multilingual. Translating your content is a great way to increase your traffic and start ranking more content in search engines like Google.
There are several ways to make a WordPress site multilingual. The best way is to use a third-party plugin if you’re running a small or medium-sized website. However, a custom solution linking multiple WordPress installations or even different sites is a good option for larger companies.