It’s pretty easy to build a website with WordPress, and for most companies it provides all the necessary functions. When it comes to website translation, a WordPress website has many options to easily make the switch between languages. If you’re running a WordPress site, check out the most popular options for translating it below.
1. Easy-to-Install WPML (WordPress Multilingual) Plugins
A website translation plugin is a software component that you can install on your website, particularly on content management systems like WordPress, to enable translation capabilities. These plugins are designed to help you translate your website content into multiple languages, making your site accessible and readable for users around the world or in domestic markets in any language users prefer.
Website translation plugins typically offer the following features:
- Language Management: They provide a user interface where you can manage the languages you want to translate your website into. You can add, edit, and remove languages as needed.
- Content Translation: These plugins allow you to translate your website content, including pages, posts, menus, widgets, and other elements. They provide an interface where you can input translations manually or integrate with automatic translation services.
- Language Toggle: They provide a language switcher feature that allows visitors to switch between different languages on your website. This may be implemented as a dropdown menu, flags, or other visual elements to indicate language options.
- SEO Optimization: Some translation plugins offer features to optimize your translated content for search engines. This includes options to set language-specific URLs, meta tags, and other SEO-related settings.
- Compatibility and Integration: Website translation plugins are designed to integrate seamlessly with your content management system. They should be compatible with popular themes and plugins, ensuring that your translations work well across all aspects of your website.
- Translation Management: Advanced translation plugins provide features for managing translation workflows, collaboration with multiple translators, and maintaining translation consistency across your website.
MotionPoint offers an integrated plugin for your WordPress site. There are both free and paid versions of translation plugins, offering different features and management tools.
Paid – MotionPoint’s WordPress Multilingual Plugin
MotionPoint has a partnership with WordPress to easily assign and receive content that needs translation directly from your WP website. WPML’s plugin allows users to send their content directly to a language service provider, in this case MotionPoint, for a seamless and fast workflow process.
With the MotionPoint WPML Multilingual Plugin, you get:
- Streamlined workflows that allow you to submit, receive, and publish translated content
- Full control of your original and translated content in one location
- Customized localization management
- Access to over 100 languages
- Industry-leading turnaround speeds
Learn about how easy it is to translate your WordPress site with a compatible plugin solution here.
Free – Google Language Translator
The following features come with the free version of the WordPress Google Plugin:
- Free Google automatic machine translation
- Option to hide “Suggest better translation” pop-up
- Option to hide Google top frame after translation
- Google Analytics integration
- Translate the site on the fly
- Translate posts and pages
- Translate categories, tags, menus, widgets, themes, and plugins
- Floating language selector
- Language bar with flags in menu
2. Manual Translation with Subdomains
You can have your web content manually translated using in-house linguists or an outsourced translation service. If you already have your WordPress site, you can set up a multisite and create a subdomain, which is part of your parent domain. You'll want to ensure your new subdomain has the same theme as your original. Then, simply add in your translated content as a new, separate subdomain.
Once your website is translated, all you have to do is add a link to it in your original-language website. This allows users to switch back and forth between languages. While this is not too hard, WordPress does recommend working with a professional language service if your content requires more nuanced translations or customized localization.
3. Proxy Solutions
Lastly, MotionPoint’s proxy technology automates the content detection process and assists our translators, quality assurance analysts, and web engineers in making website translation less complex and less costly. Leveraging proxy translation technology enables you to operate independently of your CMS or technology stack. Our proxy solution eliminates the technology and personnel challenges of localizing online content.
Proxy technology uses the code and content of your original website, enabling the translation, deployment and continuous operation of translated versions, for as many markets as you wish. Proxy translation is the fastest, most cost-effective method for launching and maintaining multilingual websites. We handle the entire project for you, allowing you to focus your internal resources on other matters.
Unlike other integrations, like plugins, where you must retain control of the whole process, our proxy solution gives you:
- Translation services
- Continuous maintenance and updates
- Project management
- Automatic workflow management
- Quality assurance
- 24/7/365 managed server hosting
Which Approach is Right for You?
Depending on what you’re looking for, you have many options to translate your WordPress website. If what you’re looking for is an easy, hands-off approach that saves you money and internal stress, you may want to opt for MotionPoint’s proxy solution. With flexibility, ease of integration, scalability, and significant cost savings, there’s a lot to love about partnering with MotionPoint for your website translation needs.
Want to weigh your options? Reach out to us today to get a demo.
Last updated on June 21, 2023
