How to Create a Multi-Language Website in WordPress

Creating a multi-language website in WordPress is an excellent way to reach a global audience and offer content in multiple languages. Whether you have an e-commerce site, a blog, or a corporate website, adding language options can help expand your reach, improve user engagement, and even increase your SEO performance. WordPress has a few different methods for adding multiple languages, both through plugins and manual configurations.

Why Create a Multi-Language Website?

• Global Reach: If you want to target users from different countries or regions, a multi-language website is essential.
• SEO Benefits: Properly implemented multilingual sites are better indexed by search engines and can rank higher in different language search results.
• Better User Experience: Offering content in a user’s native language increases engagement and retention, as visitors feel more comfortable.

Methods for Creating a Multi-Language Website in WordPress

There are mainly two ways to add multiple languages to your WordPress site:

1. Using a Plugin
2. Manual Multilingual Setup

We’ll focus on the first method, which is using plugins, as it’s easier and more efficient for most WordPress users.

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Method 1: Using a Plugin to Add Multi-Language Support

There are several WordPress plugins designed to make it easy to create and manage a multi-language website. These plugins help you translate your content, set up language switching options, and manage different language versions of your site.

1. WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin)

WPML is one of the most popular and powerful plugins for creating multilingual websites. It’s a paid plugin but offers many features such as translating posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies, menus, and even theme and plugin text.

How to Set Up WPML:

1. Install WPML Plugin:
   • Purchase and download the WPML plugin from the WPML website.
   • In your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
   • Click Upload Plugin and upload the downloaded WPML ZIP file.
   • Click Install Now and then activate the plugin.
2. Configure WPML:
   • After activation, you will be redirected to the WPML setup wizard. Select your default language (the language your website is currently in).
   • Choose the languages you want to add to your website.
   • WPML will also ask if you want to set up the language switcher (we’ll cover this in the next step).
3. Translate Content:
   • WPML adds a language switcher to your WordPress dashboard, allowing you to translate your posts, pages, and other content types.
   • When editing a page or post, you’ll see options to add translations for each language you’ve selected.
   • WPML allows you to either manually add translations or use the String Translation option for translating website elements like widget titles and menu items.
4. Add a Language Switcher:
   • WPML includes a language switcher feature, which allows users to choose their preferred language.
   • You can place the language switcher in the navigation menu, as a widget in the sidebar, or in the footer.
   • Go to WPML > Languages and select the language switcher options that best fit your website design.
5. SEO for Multilingual Sites:
   • WPML ensures that your multilingual content is optimized for SEO by generating the correct URLs for each language (e.g., example.com/en for English, example.com/fr for French).
   • It also allows you to translate SEO metadata like titles and descriptions for each language.

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2. Polylang

Polylang is a free and popular alternative to WPML. It allows you to create a multilingual WordPress website with ease, and it supports many languages. It also offers a premium version with additional features.

How to Set Up Polylang:

1. Install Polylang:
   • Go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress admin.
   • Search for Polylang and click Install Now, then Activate the plugin.
2. Configure Polylang:
   • After activation, go to Languages > Languages in your dashboard.
   • Add the languages you want to support. Polylang automatically detects the languages available in your WordPress installation and lets you add them.
   • Set your default language and select the languages for the content.
3. Translate Content:
   • Once the languages are set, go to Posts or Pages.
   • You’ll see options to add translations for each post or page in the different languages.
   • When editing a post, you’ll see icons next to the language options to add translations. You can either manually add a translation or use the automatic translation option.
4. Add a Language Switcher:
   • Polylang provides a language switcher widget that you can place in the menu, footer, or sidebar.
   • Go to Appearance > Widgets and add the Language Switcher widget to any widgetized area of your theme (like the sidebar or footer).
   • You can also add the language switcher to your navigation menu by going to Appearance > Menus and selecting the language switcher from the list of available options.
5. SEO for Multilingual Sites:
   • Polylang creates separate URLs for each language, similar to WPML, to ensure proper SEO.
   • You can also use Polylang alongside popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to ensure that each language version of your content is properly indexed.

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3. TranslatePress

TranslatePress is a user-friendly and visual translation plugin that allows you to translate your entire site from the frontend.

How to Set Up TranslatePress:

1. Install TranslatePress:
   • Go to Plugins > Add New.
   • Search for TranslatePress and click Install Now, then activate it.
2. Configure TranslatePress:
   • After activation, go to Settings > TranslatePress.
   • Select your default language and add the additional languages you want to support.
   • You can select the languages from a list of popular options or add custom languages.
3. Translate Content:
   • TranslatePress uses a visual editor to translate content directly on the frontend of your website.
   • Go to your website, and you will see a translation toolbar at the top.
   • Use the toolbar to translate posts, pages, images, and other content directly from the frontend.
4. Add a Language Switcher:
   • TranslatePress automatically adds a language switcher to your site.
   • You can customize the appearance and position of the switcher from the settings page, choosing to display it as a dropdown or flags.
5. SEO for Multilingual Sites:
   • TranslatePress ensures that each language is properly indexed by search engines.
   • It integrates with Yoast SEO and other SEO plugins to help optimize SEO metadata for each language.

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Method 2: Manual Multi-Language Setup (Advanced)

If you prefer not to use a plugin, you can set up a multi-language website manually. However, this method requires more technical expertise and can be more complex. Here’s how to do it:

1. Create Separate WordPress Installations for Each Language

• Set up separate WordPress installations or use subdirectories for each language (e.g., example.com/en for English, example.com/fr for French).
• This is more complex and requires managing multiple WordPress installations but gives you complete control over each language.

2. Use Custom Post Types and Taxonomies

• You can use custom post types to organize content in different languages and assign them specific categories or tags.
• You’d also need to create separate menus for each language and manually link translated content.

3. Manually Translate Content

• You will need to manually translate each piece of content, including posts, pages, and other custom content.
• This method can be labor-intensive and difficult to manage, so it’s not ideal for most users.

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Conclusion

Creating a multi-language website in WordPress is relatively simple, especially when using plugins like WPML, Polylang, or TranslatePress. These plugins provide robust support for translations, multilingual content management, and SEO optimization, making it easy for you to create a fully localized website that can cater to a global audience.

For most users, WPML and Polylang are great options to get started, with TranslatePress being a fantastic alternative if you prefer a visual translation experience. While the manual method offers flexibility, it’s much more complex and typically best suited for developers.