WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) on the Internet. Many businesses need to offer their product and services in more than one language, so how does WordPress cope with this?
This is an important question if you are looking at using WordPress for your website, so here are some of the things you need to consider.
Who needs Multilingual Website?
Many businesses offer their websites in multiple languages, some by choice and some because of the segment they operate within.
The sectors such as hospitality and real estate are obvious answers, but there are many other sectors such as manufacturers, distributors, and some service industries that can add incremental revenue by offering a multilingual website.
What are the benefits of Multilingual Websites?
The obvious answer is that you want to be able to offer your products or service in the language that your potential customers speak.
This ignores a very critically important issue. Customers search in their native language, so if you do not have the language and relevant content, your website will not be selected and displayed in search results, such as Google SERP.
Hence, so long as your potential clients use their own language to search, you will need to offer your content in their language on your website.
What are the options?
There are 2 options to achieve multilingual content:
- Using an auto-translation plug-in
- Using a Multilingual Plug-in, which means creating content and displaying the correct language to visitors.
Auto-translation Plug-in Pros and Cons
Let’s deal with the translation plug-ins as they are easy to install, minimal costs, but they offer very little practical value.
The pros of these plug-ins is simple, as they are very cheap to implement and you do not need to translate the content of your website.
The list of cons is a little longer, including:
- Page indexing – Pages in other languages are not indexed, as they do not exist. They are created on the fly, when a visitor clicks on a translate button. As pages do not exist, they do not get indexed
- Search Engine Results – Since your pages do not exist, they do not get indexed, which means your pages do not show up in Search Engine Results Pages. This means you do not get any traffic from any other language other than the original language of your website.
- Translation Accuracy – Translation tools have improved a lot since their introduction, but they are still far from ideal. Don’t get taken in by AI (Artificial Intelligence) claims. They still do not recognise context, nor do they recognise colloquialism that people use in their every day language. Whilst useful, they are not really accurate, which can lead to misunderstanding of your product or offering, leading to customer dissatisfaction and complaints. Read our article on “Lost in translation”.
Multilingual Plug-ins Pros and Cons
An important note here is that your Theme must support multilingual functionality. Make sure your theme is WPML (WordPress Multi Language) compatible, also check with the author that it will work with the plug-in of your choice.
These plug-ins allow you to create multiple versions of your pages with a single click, one per language. This will be an exact replica of your original page, with the original language. You then need to populate each page with the content that you have translated (hopefully by a professional translator and not via Google Translate). The advantage is that you do not have to manually recreate each page’s layout.
Most plug-ins indicate in the navigation bar when the page has a translated versions available, by displaying the country flag, or the initials of the language, in the navigation bar. Clicking on the icon, will take you to the language. This means visitors can switch between languages, as well as get indication of which languages are available for each page.
The pros of this approach are:
- Indexing – As you have real pages in each language, your pages are indexed by search engines, therefore expanding your website’s reach.
- Search Engine Results – Because you have content in the native language of the internet user, your pages will appear on the Search Engine Results Pages. This means you have a better chance of attracting traffic other than your original language, which will deliver incremental traffic and hopefully conversion.
- Translation Accuracy – So long as you have used a native speaker who is a professional translator, your translations should be accurate, including search terms that are in everyday use by the native speakers.
The cons of this approach are
- Translation Costs – Professional translation is not cheap, but they are worth their weight in gold. Your website looks professionally written irrespective of the language, which speaks volume about your business.
- Maintenance – Every time you make a change, or add new content, you have to translate the new content, or apply the changes you have made in the original language to your additional languages (e.g. price changes, specification changes, Terms & Conditions, etc.). This ensures consistency and the integrity of the content.
- Plug-in licences – Some plug-ins have annual licensing, but in the scheme of things, they are a minor cost and well worth the investment.
What Multilingual Plug-ins should you choose?
There are many plug-ins that can do the job, but there 2 popular plug-ins that we recommend you check-out.
PolyLang
This is our favourite for a number of reasons.
-
- The basic version is free
- Pro may be required based on your theme
- WooCommerce Compatible (requires an additional licence)
- Easy to set up including a Set up Wizard
- Can use Loco Translate plug-in to supplement any missing theme translation fields
- Click here to read more
WPML
This is the original multilingual plug-in and works perfectly well, but you need to beware of the following:
-
- There is no free version
- Install needs good technical knowledge, even if you use their Wizard
- Everyday use is not as easy as PolyLang
- Auto-translation module is no better than Google Translate, so don’t fall for the AI label!
- Click here to read more
Summary
Multilingual websites enable you to extend your addressable market beyond your native language, and easily justify the costs.
Using Auto-translation plug-ins and functions is a folly, and does not offer you any additional traffic, unless visitors have searched for your product/service in your website’s original language and not their own. Translation quality and accuracy can be hit and miss.
Using Multilingual plug-ins require more effort and money. If there is a business case for additional revenue, then it becomes a self-financing investment. If there is no business case, you should not be considering multilingual option anyway!
Contact us if you need multilingual websites, as well as translation by native speakers in English, Spanish, Dutch, German, or French.