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 conducting business in English as society becomes more international. In Belgium, on the other hand, people have long been accustomed to expressing themselves in two languages. This is certainly true in Brussels, the Flemish Periphery (the ring of municipalities surrounding 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 that receive subsidies from the Flemish government are required to publish texts on their websites in Dutch. Conversely, Brussels institutions that receive subsidies from French-speaking governments are required to publish their online content in French. As for Brussels governments themselves, they are legally required to make their websites bilingual, since French and Dutch are the official languages in Brussels.
When it comes to unsubsidized organizations and businesses, the situation is a little different. Want to be sure? Then I recommend contacting your local municipality. Is this for a business website? If so, feel free to ask a business network such as UNIZO.
Why is this website not in French?
My own business is based in the Brussels-Capital Region. Because I am registered as a Dutch-speaking citizen, all government communications with me are automatically in Dutch. As a logical consequence, I also established my business in Dutch. That is why the primary language of this website is Dutch.
Furthermore, the majority of my client base speaks Dutch and English. Although I occasionally work in French as well, my main target audience is still located in Brussels, Flanders, and the Netherlands, and they primarily speak Dutch and English. Does this mean I’m ruling out potential French-speaking clients? Probably not, because many French-speaking residents of Brussels can indeed read Dutch and English.
In addition, sustainability is one of my core values. Translating my website into French as well would make it very large, which would significantly increase CO2 emissions. So, in my case, choosing Dutch and English is also a sustainable choice.
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’m asked to build a multilingual website from scratch. In such cases, it’s very important that the client chooses a primary language – one that they themselves are fluent in and that I, as a web designer, also understand. This is because the website’s primary language is usually also the language of the backend of your website. By choosing a primary language, you’re also choosing the language in which your WordPress dashboard will appear.
In addition, your website’s source language serves as the starting point for your translations. Choosing a single, clear language makes the translation process go more smoothly – whether you do it yourself or use translation software or a human translator.
How does translating a WordPress website work?
This can be done in two ways:
- Using a free tool like Google Translate: your links will remain the same, and only the language of your text will change. Be careful with Google Translate – more details follow below!
- Using a paid tool like WPML: this changes the links. The original page in the base language is essentially copied and then translated manually or automatically. Incidentally, you can also do this entirely by hand without such a tool, but it will take you 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 sustainable plugin that doesn’t take up much space on your site
- A fast plugin – it won’t slow down your website
- Easy to use
- It’s completely free
Disadvantages of Google Translate:
- The translation may contain errors
- You cannot manually edit translations
- This isn’t good for your SEO (search engines won’t realize that your website’s content is available in another language)
- Translations are sometimes inconsistent
- Incorrect translations can come across as very unprofessional
Why I don’t work with Google Translate
I don’t use Google Translate because I still don’t consider its translations to be professional. Especially when translating between Dutch and French, this tool still makes a lot of mistakes, which can lead to messages being misinterpreted. Furthermore, in Belgium’s bilingual municipalities, street names are also bilingual. The technology behind Google Translate still can’t handle that.
Why I work with WPML
After initially using Google Translate on this website for half an hour, I was so embarrassed by the poor translations that I decided to purchase WPML, install it, and put it to work. That was a financial and time-consuming investment, but it was more than worth the effort. Because now I can say that most of the translations from Dutch to English are actually 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 professional software such as DeepL.
- Links: WPML creates new links for your translations automatically, which you can also customize yourself – super handy for your SEO.
- AI: WPML uses DeepL, which in turn uses artificial intelligence. As a result, the translation system learns and becomes smarter over time.
- Service: Since you’re paying, you can also take advantage of the support provided by OnTheGoSystems Limited, the company behind WPML.
- Simple workflow: At first, it takes a little while to figure out where everything is, but once you find your way around, your workflow speeds up considerably.
- Good for your SEO: With WPML, you can translate literally everything. Think of: your header, footer, image captions, tags, categories, everything in WooCommerce, meta descriptions… This allows search engines to pick up on the other languages on your website, which should lead to an increase in your traffic.
Disadvantages of WPML:
- Paid plugin: You can make it as expensive as you want, but for as little as €99 per year, you’ll have access to all the translation options and translation credits you need to use DeepL to automatically translate your site.
- Time-consuming: If you use DeepL to translate, you’ll naturally want to review everything and make any necessary adjustments. With a large website, this can easily take a few days.
- Slightly less sustainable: WPML is a robust plugin, but the carbon footprint of your translations also depends on the number of pages and blog posts you translate.
How can I translate my website with WPML?
- Go to the website of WPML and purchase your plan. I recommend that you don’t choose the cheapest plan at €39 per year, but rather the “Multilingual CMS” plan at €99 per year. That way, you’ll have much more control over your translation.
- Check whether your site meets WPML requirements. If it does not, you can ask your host to adjust the necessary settings on your website.
- Download WPML: Go to your WPML dashboard, download the OTGS plugin, and save it to your desktop.
- Install WPML: Go to your WordPress dashboard and add the OTGS plugin in the Plugins section. Once you install it, you’ll notice that several new WPML plugins have been installed on your site.
- Configure WPML: Go to your WordPress dashboard at >, then navigate to WPML > > Languages. Here, you set your default language (base language). Under “Language URL Format,” choose how the links will be generated. On my site, for example, you’ll see the “/en/” segment in the English-language links. You can also specify here whether your language switcher uses flags or language abbreviations. For example, I chose the abbreviation “NL” instead of a Dutch flag because I’m based in Belgium, not the Netherlands.
- Set up WPML: Go to the WordPress dashboard at >, then navigate to WPML > settings. This is where you specify how you want to use WPML. The translation mode lets you decide how you’ll use WPML. Will you translate everything manually, or will you automate the process? With automatic translation, you can use DeepL. From my experience, I can tell you that this usually works well, but you’ll often need to make minor adjustments afterward.
- Start by translating your pages and blog posts: go to any page or blog post and click “Edit Page.” In the “Page” column, you can select the language you want to translate into. Make sure “WPML Translate Editor” is checked, then click the pencil icon. You’ll now see the WPML translation editor appear with translation strings. It’s up to you to decide how to use the translation strings.
- Are you going to use DeepL for automatic translation? That’s fine, but be sure to proofread everything first and make any necessary adjustments.
- Translate your menu, header, and footer. This depends entirely on the theme and page builder you’re using. For example, are you using Divi? If so, follow the step-by-step guides for integrating WPML with Divi from Elegant Themes.
Are you unsure about purchasing the Divi theme and builder? Then check out these 10 reasons to choose Divi!
Do I really need to translate all the content on my website?
No, of course not. You only translate what you want to translate. For example, on this website, all the pages have been translated, but not all the blog posts. Only the most-read blog posts have been translated.
How sustainable is a multilingual website?
It depends on how you go about it. Are you using Google Translate? Google Translate is a lightweight plugin and doesn’t duplicate pages. Are you using WPML? If so, you are effectively duplicating pages, and that can quickly add up to quite a few MBs.
To keep it as sustainable as possible, I’ve only translated the pages and relevant blog posts on this website. 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
Whether or not translating a website is required depends on your professional situation. You can choose to use Google Translate, but there’s a risk that the translations will come across as unprofessional. With WPML, on the other hand, you’re in full control and can create a professional, multilingual website!
Do you translate your website? Why or why not?
Article updated on October 1, 2026.
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