Although English continues to be the most common written language online, you can reach more international internet users by translating your website content into other languages.
This can be all down to choosing a WordPress translation plugins, there are many cost-effective ways of publishing content in multiple languages, you can either choose a free and premium translation option.
Choosing a Translation Plugin
WordPress makes it easy to create a multilingual website and you can even translate the WordPress dashboard area. So when it comes for you to choose a translation plugin for WordPress, there’s are a couple of things to keep in mind:
The process:
Understanding the translation process is one of the most important things, you need to check before you just installing a plugin on your site.
Firstly, you need to ask yourself these simple questions:
- Does it require you to download a language pack?
- Does it make use of a third-party web app?
- Does this plugin offer manual or automatic translation?
SEO:
Like i mentioned above, having a multilingual website, you can reach a wider audience. But if your translation plugin isn’t optimised for search engines, all of your marketing efforts will backfire. So you need to keep in mind to check if your translation plugin is SEO-friendly.
Automated or Human Translation:
If you want to create a localised website, then it is in your best to hire a human translator rather than relying on an automated translation service.
If you want to allow users to specify a language optionally, then having an automated translator might be the right solution.
In this WordPress Wednesday, I would like to share with you the 5 best WordPress translation plugins on the market.
1. GTranslate
GTranslate is the first plugin in this list. This plugin uses Google Translate feature but it does hide some of the unwanted displays that come with the API.
The plugin also auto-switch to the correct language that is based on the visitors’ web browser settings. But also you can customise it based on your preferences, right even down to alternate flag icons.
It support’s 103 languages and also full SEO compatibility within the paid versions of the plugin. So this plugin is a great choice if you are looking to monetise your site by reaching a bigger audience worldwide. Lastly, the plugin is fast, as it handles all the translations within the cloud. So you will notice that there is virtually no impact on your website’s performance.
Price: Free to $37.99 per month
2. WPML
The second plugin in today’s list can both tackle multilingual management and the translation process itself. WPML gives you the option of translations placed on either the same domain, subdomain or even a different domain.
Included in this plugin is the feature of multilingual support for eCommerce based stores, translation widget and synchronisation cloud services for auto-translation.
This plugin was designed to be powerful enough for any type/level of website but yet simple enough for smaller sites. This plugin lets you translate any part of your website, so from pages, posts, to menus. This plugin is also compatible with any other WordPress plugin that uses the WordPress API.
Price: From $39.00
3. Polylang
Polylang is a self-translation free WordPress plugin where you can choose your preferred option from your profile and it automatically downloads the correct language pack.
It has a widget in the navigation menu for switching between languages. Also, it can give you separate versions of your site on a subdomain for each language. As this is an open-source plugin it supports as many languages as you and your site needs. It also supports custom taxonomies, sticky posts and lastly RSS feed.
Price: Free
4. Weglot
Weglot has more than 100 translation languages available. This is a light-weight plugin which offers automatic translations. You also gain access to professional translators if you need it.
You’re able to manage translated content from a dashboard. Also, this plugin can even handle your WooCommerce product pages and checkout.
With this plugin you get a free trial that offers 1 language and 2,000 words so you can test it for yourself how the plugin words. While there’s plans that range from 10,000 to 1,000,000 words per year and up to 10 translated languages.
Price: Free, to price tier starting at €99.00 per year
5. Babble
With Babble, all you’ll have to do is get a new language pack, so just install Babble, and enable your new language, then translate. Once it’s done working the magic, it will tell your translators that it is ready for their attention.
So, Babble will then displays two versions of the WordPress visual editor: one with the original content and the other with everything a translator needs before going live.
Price: Free