How can I translate my WordPress website?

17 Aug 2024 | web design

jochem oomen | wordpress website vertalen | Foto: Sander de Wilde

Do you live in a multilingual environment? Do you work in different languages? Then it might be a good idea to translate your WordPress website. But why should you actually do that? And how can you get started? And how big is the carbon footprint of a translated website? You’ll read about it in this article.

Why do I need to translate my WordPress website?

In the Netherlands, more and more companies are also working in English because society is becoming more international. In Belgium, on the other hand, people have long been accustomed to expressing themselves in two languages. Especially in Brussels, the Vlaamse Rand (circle of municipalities around Brussels) and facility municipalities (municipalities in Flanders and Wallonia that are bilingual) people speak both Dutch and French.

So if your company or organization is located in a multilingual environment, it may be a good idea to make your website available in another language.

Am I required to translate my WordPress website?

This depends on local regulations. For example, Brussels institutions, which receive subsidies from the Flemish government, are obliged to publish texts on their websites in Dutch. Conversely, Brussels institutions that receive subsidies from French-speaking authorities are obliged to publish their online texts in French. As for Brussels governments themselves, they are legally obliged to make their websites bilingual, since in Brussels the official languages are French and Dutch.

As for unsubsidized organizations and businesses, again, it’s just a little bit different. Do you want to be sure? Then I recommend you check with a local municipality. Is it about a company website? Ask your question to an entrepreneurs’ network such as UNIZO.

Why is this website not in French?

My own business is located in the Brussels Capital Region. Because I am registered as a Dutch-speaking citizen, all government affairs for me are automatically conducted in Dutch. A logical consequence is, that I have founded my company in Dutch as well. Therefore, the basic language of this website is Dutch.

Furthermore, the majority of my client base is Dutch and English speaking. Although I also occasionally work in French, my main target audience is still in Flanders and the Netherlands and speaks mainly Dutch and English. Does that exclude potential French-speaking clients? Perhaps not, because many French-speaking Brussels residents can actually read Dutch and English.

In addition, sustainability is one of my core values. Translating my website also into French would make my website very large, which would increase CO2 emissions enormously. So choosing Dutch and English is also a sustainable choice in my case.

By the way, did you know that there is such a thing as sustainable web design? Read here what sustainable web design is and how you can apply it.

Before you start translating: choose a basic language

Sometimes I am asked to build a multilingual website from scratch. It is very important that the client chooses a basic language. One that the person has a good command of and that I, as a web designer, also understand. The basic language of the website is usually also the language of the backend of your website. By choosing a base language, you also choose the language in which your WordPress dashboard will be visible.

In addition, the base language of your website is the beginning for your translations. Choosing one clear language will make the translation process go more smoothly. Whether you do it yourself or have it done by translation software or a human interpreter.

How does translating a WordPress website work?

This can be done in two ways:

  1. Through a free tool like Google Translate: this keeps your links the same and only changes the language of your written words. Be careful with Google Translate, more explanation follows below!
  2. Through a paid tool such as WPML: this changes the links. The original page in the base language is actually copied and translated manually or automatically. By the way, you can also do this completely manually without such a tool, but then you are much longer.

Why should or shouldn’t I use Google Translate?

If you want to use Google Translate on your website, you can use the free version of the plugin GTranslate, download and install it on your WordPress website.

Pluses of Google Translate:

  • A lightweight plugin
  • A durable plugin that doesn’t take up much space on your site
  • A fast plugin, it does not slow down your website
  • Easy to operate
  • It is completely free

Disadvantages of Google Translate:

  • The translation may contain errors
  • You cannot adjust translations manually
  • This is not so good for your SEO (search engines are not going to realize that the content of your website is available in another language)
  • Translations are sometimes inconsistent
  • Incorrect translations can look very unprofessional

Why I don’t work with Google Translate

I don’t work with Google Translate because I still don’t find Google Translate’s translations professional. Especially between Dutch and French, this tool still makes a lot of mistakes, which can cause messages to be misinterpreted. Furthermore, in Belgian bilingual municipalities you also have bilingual street names. The technology behind Google Translate still can’t handle that.

Why I work with WPML

After first spending half an hour Google Translate on this website, I was so embarrassed by the poor translations that I decided to purchase WPML, to install it and put it to work. That was a financial and time-intensive investment, but well worth the effort. Because I can now say that most translations from Dutch to English are correct!

What are the advantages and disadvantages of WPML?

Advantages of WPML:

  • Translation: you can do this yourself or outsource it to an interpreter or to professional software such as DeepL.
  • Links: WPML creates new links for your translations yourself which you can also edit yourself, super handy for your SEO.
  • AI: WPML uses DeepL which in turn uses artificial intelligence. As a result, the translation system learns and gets smarter and smarter.
  • Service: because you are paying, you can also benefit from the help of OnTheGoSystems Limited, the company behind WPML.
  • Simple workflow: at first it takes a while to find where everything is, but once you find your way, your workflow speeds up considerably.
  • Good for your SEO: with WPML you can translate literally everything. Think: your header, footer, image captions, tags, categories, everything from WooCommerce, metatexts… This does allow search engines to pick up the other language of your website, which, if all goes well, will increase your visitor numbers.

Disadvantages of WPML:

  • Paid plugin: you can make it as expensive as you want, but starting at $99 a year, you already have access to all translation options and translation credits that let you put DeepL to work translating your site automatically.
  • Time-intensive: if you use DeepL to translate, you want to take a few moments to read over everything and adjust things if necessary. With a large website, this can take several days.
  • Slightly less sustainable: WPML is a solid plugin, but the carbon footprint of your translations also depends on how many pages and blogs you translate.

How can I translate my website with WPML?

  1. Go to the website of WPML and purchase your package. I recommend you not to choose the cheapest package of €39 per year, but the package “Multilingual CMS” of €99 per year. That way you will soon have much more control over your translation.
  2. Make sure your site meets WPML requirements. If not, you can ask your host to adjust the necessary parameters of your site.
  3. Download WPML: Go to your WPML dashboard, download the OTGS plugin and place it on your desktop.
  4. Install WPML: Go to your WordPress dashboard and in the plugins section, add the OTGS plugin. Once you install it, you will notice several new plugins of WPML installed on your site.
  5. Configure WPML: Go to your WordPress dashboard > WPML > languages. Here you define your default language (base language). Under language URL format you choose how the links will be created. On my site, for example, you will see the /en/ part in the English links. Furthermore, you can also specify here whether your language changer uses flags or abbreviations of languages. For example, I chose the abbreviation “NL” instead of a Dutch flag because I am not based in the Netherlands, but in Belgium.
  6. Setup of WPML: go to WordPress dashboard > WPML > settings. With these, you specify how you want WPML to work. Through translation mode, you decide how to use WPML. Will you translate everything manually yourself or will you automate it? With automatic translation, you can put DeepL to work. From my experience I can tell you that this usually works well, but you often have to make minor adjustments afterwards.
  7. Start translating your pages and blog posts: go to any page or blog and click on “edit page.” In the “page” column, you can specify which language you want to translate to. Make sure “WPML translate editor” is checked and click on the pen icon. Now you will see WPML’s translation editor appear with translation strings.
    Now it’s up to you to decide how to use the translation strings.
  8. Do you choose machine translation with DeepL? Fine, but please read everything over first and adjust if necessary.
  9. Translate your menu, header and footer. This depends entirely on the theme and builder you use. For example, are you working with Divi? Then follow the steps for WPML integration with Divi from Elegant Themes.

Having doubts about buying the theme and builder Divi? Then discover 10 reasons to choose Divi here!

Do I really need to translate all the content on my website?

No, of course you don’t. You translate only what you want to translate. For example, on this website, all pages have been translated, but not all blog posts. Only the blogs that are widely read are translated.

How sustainable is a multilingual website?

That depends on how you approach it. Are you putting Google Translate to work? Google Translate is a lightweight plugin and does not copy pages. Are you using WPML? Then you are effectively copying pages and quickly adding quite a few MBs.

To keep it as sustainable as possible, with this website I have translated only the pages and relevant blogs. So definitely not everything.

As a web designer, sustainability is very important to me. That’s why I signed the Sustainable Web Manifesto in June 2024. Here you can see what the Sustainable Web Manifesto is and how I implement it in my own business.

Conclusion

Translating a website may or may not be required depending on your professional situation. You can choose to do it with Google Translate, but there is a risk that the translations will look unprofessional. With WPML, on the other hand, you have everything under control and can create a professional, multilingual website!

Do you translate your website? Why or why not?

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