What is WordPress?

WordPress is a popular open-source content management system (CMS) that enables users to create, maintain, and update websites without requiring technical knowledge. A content management system (CMS) is a software that makes it easier to develop websites by offering tools for producing and managing information, designing layouts, and adding functionality with the help of countless plugins. WordPress is the most commonly used CMS tool and powers over 43.5% of all the websites on the internet.

What are multilingual websites?

Multilingual websites display content in multiple languages, allowing users to select their preferred language for browsing. Website owners can tailor the content to specific languages, providing a more localized experience for visitors. This helps reach a broader audience, enhances user engagement, and improves accessibility for users from different linguistic backgrounds.

By default, WordPress is installed in English, which is suitable for many users. However, as your customer base grows, offering a multilingual website becomes essential to effectively engage with a diverse audience. Providing content in multiple languages helps you reach and connect with customers from different regions and backgrounds, improving their overall experience.

Benefits of a multilingual website

Targeting a larger audience: Having a multilingual website helps you reach a larger audience by allowing users to access your information in multiple languages. This is important if you are targeting a specific nation or region.

Improving SEO: Translating your websites content into multiple languages allows you to rank for keywords in those languages too. This would help you attract more traffic to your website all around the world.

Building trust with international customers: When visitors see that your website offers content in their preferred language, it makes them more likely to trust your business and engage with you.

Increase sales: 76% of online shoppers prefer to purchase products or services with information in their native language. 

Provides a better user experience: A multilingual website helps to provide a better user experience for people in the language in which they searched for something.

How you can make your WordPress website multilingual?

To have a multilingual website, you need the following items:

• A domain name 
• A WordPress hosting
• A Multilingual WordPress plugin

You can use multiple plugins such as TranslatePress, WPML, Polylang, etc. This blog will provide a step-by-step guide on using Polylang to set up your multilingual website. However, whichever plugin you opt for should offer you the basic functionality of 

• Allowing you to translate posts, pages, products, etc
• Helping you easily translate your categories, tags, plugins, and themes
• And providing a way for you to set up SEO-friendly URLs for each language

Essentials for a multilingual website

• Language switcher
• Flags/ language names
• Account for Text Expansion within page layout/design
• Using Images and Icons That Are Culturally Appropriate

Using polylang

Polylang is a free WordPress multilingual plugin with more than 700,000 active installs. This plugin provides you with all the necessary requirements for a multilingual website. Here is how you can integrate Polylang into your WordPress website:

Step 1:

Install and activate the plugin using the installation URL provided here.

Step 2: 

After successfully installing and activating the plugin, we would have to set up the plugin. To do so, navigate to Languages → Setup.

You will then see the Polylang setup screen appear, here you can start by choosing the languages you would like to add to your site. Choose the required languages from the available dropdown and then click “+ Add new language” followed by “Continue” to move to the next step of the plugin set up.

The next screen is a permission setting where you can allow Polylang to translate the content of your site. Allowing Polylang to do so makes it easier for translation. Once enabling the option click on ‘Continue’ to move to the next step of the set up.

The next step is where you configure how your content (pages, posts, categories, tags, custom post types, etc.) is handled across different languages. Once you have chosen your language, click on ‘Continue’ to move to the next step of the set up.

Step 3:

After successfully setting up the plugin, you will notice a Languages tab on the left sidebar. Navigate to it to configure the Polylang plugin.

Here, you can add more languages to your site. To do so, go to ‘Add new language’ and choose your desired language from the dropdown. Once you do so, its full name, locale, language code and flag will be set automatically. Set the language order and click on ‘Add new language’.

All your languages will be displayed on the right side of the screen, with the default language marked by a filled-in star. To change the default language of your site, simply click on the star in the row of the desired language.

You can also choose to edit a language you have added from here.

Step 4: 

Navigate to the transitions tab under languages.

Here you can determine the site title of the website for each of the respective languages.

Click on ‘Save Changes’ to move to the next step.

Step 5:

Next, navigate to the settings tab

In the URL modifications section, you can decide whether to use multiple domains for your multilingual website and select the link structure for your alternate language pages. You can choose to include the language code in the URL either before the respective page slug or prior to the domain name.

Additionally, you can choose to show or hide the language code for the default language and configure the URL behavior for the home page of different languages.

In this settings tab, you can enable the “Detect browser language” option, which automatically redirects visitors to the language that matches their browser’s language settings.

By activating “Media” all media items added to the website will have their alternative text and any other attached text translated into the languages added automatically.

In the “Custom post types and taxonomies” section, Polylang allows you to translate templates created with Elementor and other custom post types or taxonomies created with other plugins.

Under “Synchronization,” any checked options will ensure that changes made to content in one language are applied to all other languages as well.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the Polylang documentation regarding the settings tab.

Step 6:

Navigate to Appearance -> Menus

Firstly, make sure the Language Switcher option is turned on in the screen options on the top right corner.

Next, create a menu like how you would normally. To add the Language switcher, select it from the ‘Add menu items’ dropdown on the left like so:

You have the option to customize the appearance of the language switcher in the ‘Languages’ dropdown menu. You can choose to display either just the language names, just the flags, or both. The switcher can be configured as a dropdown or as separate tabs. Additionally, you can decide whether users should be redirected to the homepage of the selected language and whether to hide a language if no translations are available for it yet.

You will need to create individual menus for each language, along with their corresponding pages, and assign them to the appropriate language. This ensures that the correct headers are displayed when a specific language is selected on the site.

The site I’m using as an example consists of two languages—English and French. As a result, I’ve created two menus and selected where each one should be displayed.

Step 7: 

To create and link pages in different languages, go to the Pages section and find the page for which you want to create an alternate language version. Then, click the edit option under the relevant flags column for that page.

You will then be able to create a new page – here you can name the page, add its content and see which which language you are creating the page for as well as the original page you are translating.

Once you publish this page you will be able to see both versions of the page, like so:

Step 8:

You can now proceed to design the pages in the alternate languages. 

After that you can alter or create a menu for these alternate language pages and assign it to the header display location (as outlined in step 5). 

Conclusion

In conclusion, creating a multilingual website with WordPress using the Polylang plugin is a straightforward process that can significantly improve your site’s accessibility and user experience. By offering content in multiple languages, you can reach a broader audience, improve SEO, and build trust with international customers. The steps outlined in this guide, from installing Polylang to setting up language-specific menus and pages, provide you with the tools needed to deliver a seamless multilingual experience for your visitors.

For any inquiries or assistance, feel free to reach out to us at info@simplileap.com. We’d be happy to help!

Kashish Chandani

Fueled by a passion for constant learning, I’m diving into the worlds of technology and web development. Despite being new to these fields, I thrive on challenges and love learning and experimenting with various programming languages. Working at Simplileap, I eagerly seize every chance to grow under their guidance. With my determination and enthusiasm, I’m committed to excelling in my career and becoming a valuable asset in the tech industry.