Would you like to translate your WordPress blog in several languages? Want to know where to start?

In this tutorial, I will show you how to do it easily on your WordPress blog.

You don't need to set up a multi-site network or have multiple WordPress installations for each language. You will be able to easily translate your articles, pages, keywords, categories and even your themes into multiple languages ​​as you wish.

multilingual-wordpress

We will offer you the most adopted approaches by multilingual bloggers.

The first approach allows you to manually translate your content into languages ​​of your choice (French, English, Spanish).

The second approach does not actually allow you to Create a blog multilingual, but add a translation service to your blog using Google's service (Translate).

It goes without saying that manually translating your content is a better approach. This method allows you to maintain and ensure the quality everywhere on your blog. You can do it yourself or recruit professionals.

If you don't have enough resources, but still want to give the option to view your content in multiple languages, then you can use Google Translate.

This will add an option that will allow your users to switch from one language to another, and the content will be translated using Google Translate. The negative point with this method, is the type of translations are not always good.

So let's start by creating a multilingual site manually.

How to translate a WordPress site manually (human translation)

All you have to do in this case is download the Polylang plugin available on WordPress.org. After activating the plugin, you will need to access the " Settings> Languages To configure the plugin.

how to configure it-plugin

The plugin settings page is mainly divided into three tabs. The first tab is labeled " Languages ". It is on this tab that you can choose the languages ​​to use on your blog.

You will need to add the default language, and choose the other languages ​​available in the translated version.

After choosing the languages, click on the " Strings Translations ". Here you can translate your site, its description and choose the date and time format.

string-translations

The last step is the plugin configuration page. Here you can choose the default language to use on your blog and other technical settings.

tab-url-settings

For most newbies, we recommend that they do not change the URL, so choose the first option. Why ? Simply because if you deactivate this plugin, all other links will be broken (Death).

For those looking to benefit from a multilingual blog optimized for SEO, then we recommend that you choose the second option for “ pretty permalinks How on the previous capture.

You will need to choose the option that allows you to detect the language of browsers. By doing so, the user will immediately see the content in their preferred language, and can switch to another language if they wish.

Once done, click on " Save Changes To save your settings.

How to add multilingual content on WordPress

Polylang allows you to easily add content in multiple languages. All you have to do is create a new page / post (or edit an existing). On the edit screen, you will notice the " Languages ».

how add-a-content-Multilingual

Your default language will be automatically chosen. So you can add content in your default language, and translate it into other languages.

To translate your content, you need to click on the “+” button just after the language, and then add the content for that language.

Article-multilgue

You can repeat the process for the other languages. Once this is done, you will be able to publish your article / pages.

It is important to note that the plugin " Polylang "Also works with" Custom Post Types Then you will be able to translate your eCommerce store (WooCommerce) Easily.

How to translate categories, keywords and custom taxonomies

You can also translate your categories, keywords or other taxonomies in use.
To do this, you must access the categories (" Articles> Categories ").

Translation-categories-tags

You can add a default language and click the icon for each language to start adding translations.

How to display a language change option on your WordPress blog

Add an option to change language, allows users to choose a language while browsing your blog. PolyLang lets you simplify things. All you need to do is access the " Appearance> Widgets "And add the widget" Language Switcher To your sidebar.

widget-language-switcher

You can choose the mode « DropDown », Or choose the language flags. Once it's done, you can click on the “Save” button to save your widget.

You can now see on your theme a widget that shows the different languages ​​available.

demo de-translation widget

How to use Google Translation to create a multilingual WordPress blog

If the manual method offers a much richer and more interesting experience, you may lack the time and resources to put this method into practice. In this case, you can use Google Translate to automatically translate the content of your blog.

All you need to do is install and activate the plugin " Google Language Translator » available on WordPress.org. After activating the plugin, access the location " Settings >> Google Language Translator To configure the plugin.

google-language-translator

This plugin allows you to choose the languages ​​available on Google Translate. You can remove the mark " Google »On the different translations. This plugin is really flexible. All you have to do is go to the settings page to configure it the way you want.

That's all there was to say about translating a WordPress blog easily. Feel free to share the article with your friends on your favorite social networks.