WordPress is a versatile platform that allows users to create websites in their preferred language effortlessly. Many popular themes and plugins are also designed to support translations, enabling users from around the world to build WordPress websites in their native languages.
However, by default, WordPress can only handle one language at a time. This limitation poses a challenge for organizations, businesses, and institutes that want to cater to a diverse global audience.
Imagine international businesses, governments, and educational institutions that need to offer their content in multiple languages. While machine translations like Google Translate exist, they may not meet the quality and professionalism expected by these entities.
To address this issue, some users might consider setting up WordPress installations on different subdomains for each language. However, this approach is difficult to manage, with updates and backups becoming a headache.
To overcome this issue, WPML(WordPress Multilingual) plugin comes in handy. It allows your website to become truly multilingual, offering content in multiple languages without the need for separate installations. With its user-friendly interface, managing translations becomes easy, and it seamlessly adds language switching options for your website users.
In this article, we’ll provide an overview of WPML and demonstrate how you can integrate WPML with Elementor to create a multilingual website effortlessly.
Table of Contents
Why Should We Create a Multilingual Website using WPML
Creating a multilingual website with WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin) has many advantages that can boost your online presence and reach a global audience. In today’s world, reaching people who speak different languages is important for businesses and individuals who want to grow and connect with new markets. Let’s explore why having a multilingual website with WPML is creating the right decision.
- Reach a Global Audience: The primary advantage of a multilingual website is the ability to reach a wider global audience. By offering your content in multiple languages, you break down language barriers and create a more inclusive online experience for users from diverse backgrounds. This enhanced accessibility can significantly boost your website’s traffic and engagement, providing you with a greater opportunity to connect with potential customers, clients, or followers worldwide.
- Improved User Experience: User experience (UX) is an important factor in determining the success of a website. When visitors can access content in their native language, they feel more comfortable and engaged with your site. Multilingual websites built with WPML ensure that users can effortlessly navigate, understand, and interact with your content, leading to higher user satisfaction and increased time spent on your site.
- Increased Credibility & Professionalism: Presenting your content in multiple languages demonstrates a commitment to engaging with an international audience and establishes your product as credible and professional on a global scale. It builds confidence in potential customers, clients, or partners, as they see that you value their language and culture enough to provide content tailored to their needs.
- Enhanced SEO & Search Visibility: Search engines reward multilingual websites with better rankings in local search results. When users search for content in their native language, search engines are more likely to present relevant multilingual websites. WPML optimizes your multilingual content for search engines, increasing your website’s visibility and organic traffic from various language-specific search queries.
- Easy Content Management: WPML streamlines the process of managing a multilingual website. It allows you to translate all aspects of your site, including posts, pages, custom post types, taxonomies, and more, directly from the WordPress dashboard. The translation editor ensures seamless content localization and accuracy, making it user-friendly for both website administrators and translators.
Build Your Multilingual Website Using WPML
Plugins Install
To create your multilingual website, you’ll need the following plugins:
- Elementor(Free or Pro)
- WPML(WordPress Multilingual)
Install WPML Plugin
Note: WPML is a paid plugin, but it’s the best choice because it offers a lot of features. Many websites use WPML to make a multilingual WordPress site, so there’s a good reason for its popularity.
You can install and activate this plugin directly from the WPML website.
Once the plugin is installed and activated, it will add a new menu item named ‘WPML‘ to your WordPress menu. Clicking on this menu item for the first time will lead you to the plugin’s settings wizard.
Configure WPML Setup
To configure the WPML setup, navigate to WPML -> Setup.
Language
WPML will detect the language of your WordPress site automatically. You can adjust it here if you wish. Below that, you should pick the additional languages you want for your website. You can add more languages later if necessary.
Then, simply click the Continue button to move on to the next step.
URL Format
You have different choices for how you want to set up the URL format. You can use a directory structure, separate domains, or subdomains for each language.
The best choice for most websites is the directory structure. It’s better for SEO.
If you want each language to look like a separate website, you can choose subdomains or separate domains. But remember, Google might treat them as different websites. So, only choose this if it’s your plan.
Register WPML
Now, the plugin will prompt you to enter the Site Key. You can find this key in your account on the WPML website.
Translation Mode
In the following step, you will need to decide how you want to handle translations mode on your website.
You’ve got two choices: translate everything or translate only what you want. We recommend going with “Translate What You Choose” because it gives you more control over how the translation process works.
Moving forward, you’ll need to choose how you want your website to be translated.
You have several options: translate yourself, involve website users, bring in specific translators or a translation manager, or go for a professional translation service.
Remember, you can always modify your translation management approach later on.
Support
In the other step, you have the option to grant permission to share plugin and theme details. This enables quicker support assistance if required.
Plugins
Following that, WPML will request your approval to install additional useful plugins. You can skip this for now and decide to install these plugins at a later time.
Finished
Congratulations! You’ve now successfully configured WPML to create and oversee your multilingual website.
The next step involves adding the translated content to your website.
Integrating Multilingual Content into WordPress Using WPML
WPML simplifies the process of translating all aspects of your WordPress website into multiple languages.
You can effortlessly translate your WordPress pages, posts, tags, categories, and themes into many languages according to your preferences.
Integrating Multilingual Pages & Posts
Just click on the “Posts” menu to access all your existing posts. Then, You’ll see language columns right beside your post titles.
WPML presumes that your current content is in your website’s main language. It will display “Add” buttons alongside your posts for each language. To translate a post, simply click the “plus” button corresponding to the desired language.
You also have the flexibility to handle translations while in the process of editing a post.
When you’re working within the post editing interface, a new ‘Language‘ meta box will be visible, and there are two distinct options for managing translations: the WPML Translation Editor and the WordPress Editor.
Upon selecting either the WPML Translation Editor or the WordPress Editor, a popup window will appear. Within this window, you’ll need to make your choice based on your specific requirements. Once you’ve made your selection, click the “Apply” option.
Following this, you can choose your preferred language by clicking the “plus” button. If you opt for the WPML editor, you’ll be redirected to the WPML translation page. But if you decide on the WordPress editor, a new page will be generated. This new page provides you with the space to write or customize content according to your preferences.
In WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor, you have two choices. First, you can use Automatic Translation to translate the whole page with just one click. Alternatively, you can manually add your translations for each sentence in the right-hand field. To finish each translation, simply click the green check mark.
When your translating is done, click the “Complete” option below.
View Your Translation
To see your translation, just go to WPML ➝ Translation. Here, you’ll find a list of all the content available for translation. Click on the “View” option to show your translation.
Once you click the “View” button, the translated page will be displayed.
You can also handle translations by navigating to the WPML ➝ Translation Management page.
On this page, you have the ability to see your content, allocate tasks to translators, and work on translations.
You can involve users as translators, regardless of their roles on your WordPress site. It includes adding subscribers, allowing everyone to contribute, and enhancing translation.
You can also enhance your translation process by adding a translation manager. This person has the authority to add new translators, create or assign translation work, and handle various translation-related tasks for smoother workflow.
Translate Categories & Tags
With WPML, translating categories, tags, and other custom taxonomies is straightforward, even if you’re using them extensively.
Navigate to WPML➝ TaxonomyTranslation and access the custom taxonomies you intend to translate.
For instance, in the below screenshot, we chose categories, and it showcased all the categories from our demonstration site.
Adding Navigation Menus
WordPress is equipped with a powerful navigation menu system. WPML enables you to translate these menus in the same way you would translate posts or taxonomies.
To do this, navigate to Appearance ➝ Menus on your website. If you have multiple menus, choose the specific one you wish to translate.
On the right-hand column, you’ll find your menu with links that allow you to translate it into other languages that are enabled on your site.
When you click on a language, a new menu will be generated for that particular language.
In this menu, you’ll have to include the same menu items that are present in your primary language menu.
Integrating Plugins, Themes & Other Text with WPML
With WPML Multilingual CMS, you have the option to select official translations of themes and plugins or utilize its internal string translator.
Navigate to WPML ➝ Themes and Plugins Localization page to access this feature.
By default, you’ll find the choice to automatically load a theme’s (.mo file) using load_textdomain. You can mark this option to acquire theme translation files.
This functionality is applicable only to themes obtained from the WordPress.org theme directory.
For the best results in translating your theme and plugins specifically for your site, we suggest utilizing WPML’s String Translation module.
String Translation is used to find the texts that aren’t associated with posts, fields, or categories. These texts might generate from plugins, themes, or even WordPress itself, such as the site’s tagline. With WPML’s String Translation, you can easily locate and translate all of these texts.
WPML Language Switcher Widget for Elementor
You also have the option to translate your content using the Language Switcher widget offered by WPML. This widget allows you to place a language switcher in various spots within your Elementor page layouts. Moreover, it grants you the ability to customize the appearance of the language switcher on your website.
Furthermore, WPML goes a step further by intelligently handling links within Elementor widgets, such as Buttons or Images. When content is translated, WPML automatically updates these links to redirect users to the corresponding translated versions, ensuring a cohesive and user-friendly experience.
To begin, create the desired template using Elementor in which you intend to position the language switcher. Here, I am creating a footer template.
Within this template, I simply drag and drop the WPML Language Switcher widget into the footer area. Feel free to customize it according to your requirements.
For any existing Footer language switcher present on our website, the option to remove it is straightforward. Navigate to WPML ➝ Languages ➝ Locate and deactivate the “Footer Language Switcher” option.
Now, the page appears as follows:
Customizing Language Switcher in WPML
With the Language Switcher feature in WPML, you can easily translate your content. This feature lets you add a language switcher in different styles to your elementor page. You have the flexibility to customize how it looks on your website. Not only can you set the theme for the switcher, but various customization options are also available.
This makes it simple for users to switch between languages while navigating your site. Whether you want a sleek design or a more personalized appearance, WPML’s Language Switcher feature makes it easy to tailor your language-switching experience to match your website’s style. It’s a user-friendly way to create a multilingual site without hassle!
To personalize the language switcher, go to WPML ➝ Language. Look for the ‘Custom Language Switcher‘ option, enable it, and click the Customize button.
Click the ‘Customize‘ button, and a little box will pop up with options to make your language switcher look just the way you want! You can even customize it to match your style and preferences. Go ahead and customize it to make it uniquely yours.
Wrap Up
In summary, WPML is a powerful tool that makes creating a multilingual website easy. You can translate various elements like posts, pages, menus, taxonomies, and more effortlessly. It also provides options for managing translations and even translating themes and plugins. With WPML, your website can reach a broader audience and offer a better experience to users in different languages.
