There is this popular saying “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language that goes to his heart. ” Hence, you should consider using a WordPress translation plugin to localize your site. Did that make any sense?? 😀
Anyways, what I mean is language is one of the major selling factors for your products and services. No matter how optimized your site is or how strong marketing strategies you use, you will still be missing out on a lot of potential visitors. And the main reason behind it is that only limited number of audiences understand the language that we use to write our contents.
My point is if we ignore the hype and then weigh out the facts- not all people all around the world understand the same language. As a matter of fact, English is losing its online dominance. Thus, it is important to localize your website so that you can easily reach out to your potential customers globally.
Top 5 languages by Content published (excluding English)
- Russian -6%
- Japanese- 6%
- German- 6%
- Spanish- 1%
- French -2%
Is it important to localize your website??
Localizing your website means making it available in various languages. In short, it is making your website multilingual. According to Web technology survey firm W3Techs, despite the total percentage of internet users speaking English being just 25.9%, more than half of the content is written in English-53.6% to be exact. That means, we spend a lot of time producing top-notch quality contents which do not reach the widest international online audience.
So, just take a moment and think – Is the hard-work we put into our websites all worth it?? Probably the answer is NO, right?
But the good news is we do have a solution for it. And, the simple way to tap on all of your potential audiences all around the world is to make your site multilingual. As simple as that 😉
One more thing, you don’t need to spend major dollars to make your contents intelligible to the global audience. WordPress- the ultimate savior (what I like to call it), offers a wide range of outstanding plugins that help in creating and handling multilingual contents. But searching for the right one can be quite overwhelming for you all.
That’s why, in this article, I have listed down some of the best WordPress translation plugins. Let me walk you through the best of all, free and premium WordPress translate plugins.
WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin)
WPML is the widely known, best WordPress translate plugin. With an outstanding track record, WPML has been serving thousands of customers since 2009. As it connects you with professional translation services, you can also hire someone to get your contents translated. Furthermore, it allows you to easily translate your WordPress pages, posts, taxonomy, menus, theme text and almost everything. Consequently, this WordPress multilingual plugin helps you in creating a multilingual website easily and in no time.
You can choose over 40 languages and even better you can add your own language by using the language editor. Plugin’s String Translation Interface makes the translation of texts hassle free. Also, you can totally depend on this plugin as it provides a fully reliable support to its customers.
Pros:
- Available in both Multilingual Blog & Multilingual CMS versions.
- Affordable professional translation.
- Compatible with most WordPress themes.
- Reliable Support.
Cons:
- It is not free.
- There are some minimum requirements in order to run WPML such as WordPress 4.7 or above.
Price: 39 EUR (Multilingual Blog)
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Polylang (FREE + Premium)
With 700000+ active installs, Polylang is one of the popular language translator plugins for WordPress. Polylang allows you to assign a language to individual posts, categories, pages and post tags. Consequently, this WordPress translation plugin happens to be the best option for those looking for an all-in-one solution for creating and managing a multilingual website.
Besides, it automatically downloads respective WordPress language packs after a user selects the preferred language from their profile. Also, it fully supports RTL is compatible with most WordPress themes. Moreover, it supports more than 40 languages and enables you to use unique subdomains for each enabled language. Furthermore, you can switch between languages through a widget in the navigation menu.
Pros:
- Available for free as well.
- Language switching via widgets or menu.
- Supports RTL and most WordPress themes compatible.
- Available in both free and pro versions.
- Use a subdomain or separate domain for each enabled language.
Cons:
- Not so robust features.
- Translation has to be done manually or install other plugins as an add-on.
Price: Free or €99 (Pro)
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TranslatePress (FREE+Premium)
If you want to build a WordPress website with the ability to translate it and go multilingual, TranslatePress can be the perfect companion for you. It is a WordPress translation plugin which enables your website to translate the contents into any languages from just the front end. It also has a very user-friendly interface that can be easily used and customized to suit your needs.
This plugin allows you to effortlessly translate the entire page at once. You can also include shortcodes, forms and page builders with the help of this WordPress translation plugin. Furthermore, it is also very responsive. You can use it on any themes or plugins as well. In addition, it also supports WooCommerce. So, you won’t have any problem even if your website uses an online store.
Pros:
- Ability to translate dynamic strings added by WordPress themes and plugins.
- Supports both manual as well as automatic translations.
- Live preview as you edit the translations.
- Very reliable support teams.
- Free add-on: Language by GET parameter
Cons:
- Most of the add-ons are premium only.
- Might need some programming knowledge to translate specific blocks.
Price: Free or €99 (Personal)
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Gtranslate (FREE + Premium)
Gtranslate is yet another powerful language translator plugin for WordPress. Powerful because it can translate any HTML website and currently empowers over 500000 multilingual websites worldwide. As a result, it happens to be one of the best ways to increase the number of visitors to your site. Also, it helps you to make the online presence of your website stronger. This plugin provides the instant translation of your website upon its installation.
Moreover, it features an option that allows you to open the translated page in a new window. It is search engine friendly. Thus, it provides separate URLs to individual language and also translates the provided URLs. The integrated inline editor allows you to edit the translations manually.
Pros:
- Available in both free and premium versions.
- More than 100 languages available.
- Free automatic Google automatic machine translation.
- Integrated with Google analytics.
- Hides ‘suggest better translation’ pop-up.
Cons:
- The free version has only some minimal features.
Price: $9.99(Custom)
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Lingotek translation (FREE)
Another in the list is Lingotek translation. It is one of the best WordPress translate plugins. This plugin offers a very easy way to create and handle multilingual sites via convenient cloud-based localization and translation. Lingotek prudently blends automated machine and crowdsourced translations so as to create and maintain a multilingual website easily. If you are tight on your budgets, this plugin offers a free automatic machine translation option.
In addition, Lingotek allows you to easily translate posts, pages, post tags, menus and more. Through the translation management software, it streamlines the translation process. Because of the powerful and cutting edge features embedded in this plugin, Lingotek translation is somewhat more advanced than other WordPress translate plugins in the list.
Pros:
- Real-time Monitoring.
- Supports RTL language scripts.
- Sourced out to more than 5000 in-country translators.
- Cloud-based localization and translation.
- Multilingual admin interface.
Cons:
- Translated posts lose categories and featured image.
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Final Thoughts
Lastly, I hope these plugins will make it easier for you to reach millions of more potential customers. These plugins offer you the elegant and powerful solution to create and manage your multilingual websites. However, the selection of the plugin depends on how you plan to translate your content. Some require some manual translation while other offer automated services. Also, they differ in their working mechanism. And not to forget, despite being so popular, these themes are also not free of cons.
Have we missed out on some of the WordPress translation plugins?? Do you have any experiences running a multilingual WordPress site? Please do let us know in the comments.