Creating a multilingual WordPress site is essential if you want to please your customers. Most entrepreneurs think that a multilingual website is necessary only if their business caters to different customers internationally. However, that’s not the case. Even if you have a local business, a multilingual website will be of great help.
You can create a multilingual WordPress site using two options. the first one is to use plugins. The other one is using WordPress Multisite.
How to Use Plugins to Create a Multilingual WordPress Site
You can use many plugins to create a multilingual WordPress site. If you go to the ‘plugins’ section in your WP dashboard, you can find a lot of them. However, you should choose your plugin carefully.
Some of these use automatic machine translations. This means that the contents of the site are automatically translated to another language. You cannot manually override them. Then, there are plugins using semi-automatic translations. Some plugins facilitate only manual translations.
The best plugin for automatic translations is GTranslate. We recommend this based on inputs from the WordPress community. For semi-translations, we suggest Transposh and Ajax Translator Revolution. In case of manual translations, qTranslateX, Polylang and WPML (WordPess Multilingual Plugin) are the best. WPML is a premium plugin, (pay to use) and it is used in many corporate websites.
Of these, the best option for small business owners will be to use semi-automatic plugins. They help you to edit the translated content, requiring less manpower. If you want perfection, then manual plugins are worth a try, but they require a lot of manual effort.
How to Make Use of WordPress Multisite
Your multilingual WordPress site can also be created using WordPress Multisite. It is a feature that allows you to have sites sharing the same WP installation. Each website has one language.
The websites can be displayed using sub-domains or separate domains. In other words, you can create multiple virtual sites that are networked together. However, this is recommended only for advanced WordPress users.
These are the simplest ways to create a multilingual WordPress site. Give them a try and let us know how you like them. For your special web development and design needs, give us a call.
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