How to Migrate From Polylang to Weglot, Fast

Polylang is a popular WordPress plugin that lets you translate your content manually. It works well for teams with dedicated translators and time to manage the translation process.

But manual-heavy workflows can make it incredibly time-consuming to translate large, complex sites at scale.

If you’ve started pushing Polylang to its limits, it could be time to upgrade to an AI-powered multilingual WordPress plugin like Weglot. Changing plugins is simple, and you’ll probably find that translations are faster, more accurate, and easier to manage.

In this article, you’ll learn what makes Weglot the right choice for your site, how to quickly migrate your translations, and what to do once you’ve migrated.

Why Weglot Is the Right Choice for Polylang Users

While Polylang provides a structured framework for managing translations within WordPress, Weglot starts from a different premise. Rather than expecting you to add your own translations, it automatically translates your content and gives you tools to refine the results.

Here are some of the benefits you can expect when migrating to Weglot:

• Better, instant translations. DeepL, Google Translate, and Microsoft Translator power Weglot’s highly accurate initial translations. Its AI Language Model then refines these to match your brand voice, so two-thirds of customers never make edits.
• A more consistent tone of voice. Weglot’s AI Language Model trains on your guidelines, glossary, and custom rules to create translations that sound just like your brand. The more you refine the language model, the less you’ll need to correct them in the future.
• A faster website. Unlike Polylang, which stores translations as individual WordPress posts, Weglot hosts your translations off-site. This can help maintain site performance and keep your site load speed fast, no matter how many languages you add. An added bonus is improved security, as you don’t need to give translators or other teammates access to your CMS dashboard.
• Less manual work. Where Polylang requires you to translate pages one by one – even if you use automatic translation – Weglot automatically scans your website and creates new translations as soon as you add new content.
• Interactive editing. Weglot’s Visual Editor lets your team make changes in context, so they can see exactly how translations appear on your site. It offers a faster, more intuitive workflow than Polylang, which requires editing translated posts in WordPress.
• More organic traffic. Weglot translates your site in line with Google’s multilingual SEO best practices, so your site is more likely to appear in localized search results.

Improvements in translations, site speed, and SEO often lead to measurable business outcomes. For example, ecommerce brand Volant used Weglot to translate a 100,000-word website into 9 languages, resulting in a 2.4-times increase in online visits and 39% higher international revenue.

How to Migrate From Polylang to Weglot

Although there’s no one-click way to migrate from Polylang to Weglot, the process is simple enough for anyone to complete without technical knowledge.

Here’s what migration looks like step by step.

Export Your Polylang Translations

Start by exporting your existing Polylang translations so you can import them into Weglot later and avoid losing your previous work.

If you’re using Polylang Pro, you can export translations as an XLIFF file. Head to Pages > All pages and select all the translated pages you want to export.

Click Translate from the Bulk actions dropdown, click Apply, choose the Xliff 2.0 format, and then Submit.

You’ll also want to export any glossary rules you’ve created in DeepL for use with Polylang Pro if you plan to carry these into Weglot. You can do so in the web translator and the desktop app.

Remove Polylang From WordPress

Removing Polylang from your WordPress site will avoid conflicts with the translations and your URL structure once you switch to Weglot.

Here’s how to do it:

• Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins in your WordPress profile.
• Click Deactivate Polylang.
• Click Delete to remove the plugin entirely.

Do a quick manual check of your website to confirm it’s loading correctly and no Polylang code is still active.

Install and Configure Weglot

With Polylang removed, you’re ready to set up Weglot.

Find it in your WordPress admin by navigating to Plugins > Add New. Search for “Weglot”, which looks like the following:

Install and activate the plugin. Then, open Weglot to create your account and choose a plan that matches your site’s word count and language requirements.

Copy your API key, then head back to your WordPress admin and add it to the Weglot plugin’s settings panel. It looks like this:

Set your original language (that’s the language your site is currently written in) and your destination languages (the ones you want to translate to).

Finally, choose your URL structure. That will either be a subdirectory (yoursite.com/de) or a subdomain (de.yoursite.com). Subdirectories are often better for SEO because they consolidate authority and link equity under one domain, but recreate the format you used in Polylang.

It doesn’t take long to set up Weglot (just 5 minutes!) and start translating your content. For example, local SEO software provider GMBapi.com found the process frictionless and added Dutch, Italian, German, French, and Portuguese in just a few hours.

Import Translations or Generate Your First Translation Layer

Once installed, Weglot generates an initial layer of translations using AI. Ensure full coverage by using Weglot’s URL scan feature to include pages that aren’t accessible from your homepage, like landing pages.

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Alternatively, you can upload the translations you exported from Polylang. Here’s how to do it:

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Edit Your New Translations

Once your first translations are live, it’s time to review and refine them. Weglot offers several ways to do this, depending on your workflow, including a visual editor, AI, and professional help.

The Visual Editor is the easiest way to check and edit translations, as you can do it while browsing.

Upload Your Glossary

Glossary rules define how to translate specific terms, such as product names and branded language. If you set up rules in Polylang, you can carry these over to Weglot to keep translations consistent.

Here’s how you do it:

• In your Weglot dashboard, go to your project, then Glossary > Actions > Import.
• Download the Weglot example glossary template.
• Add your terms from the Polylang export, making sure they match the required format.
• Re-upload the completed file by heading to Glossary > Import file.

Note: The glossary import and export feature is available on Weglot’s Advanced plan and above.

Validate the Move With This Post-Migration Checklist

Whether you’re changing your CMS, hosting provider, or translation tool, any major change to your website can cause things to break.

Use the following checklist to ensure everything is working correctly after the migration.

If something goes wrong, Weglot’s support center offers dozens of videos and articles to help and our reactive support team is just an email away at [email protected]. For Enterprise customers, a dedicated account manager is on hand to resolve any issues.

You’ve Migrated, Now What?

Once you’re set up, you can use Weglot’s features to improve the quality and speed of your translations. Here’s what you can look forward to next.

Enter New Markets Faster and Scale Easily

While Polylang required you to create translations for every language every time you uploaded a new post, Weglot continuously scans and translates all of the content on your site.

So, when you add or revise content on your original site, Weglot will automatically provide translations in real time.

This feature removes barriers that may have been stopping you from adding new pages to your site or entering a new market. You don’t have to hire translators (although you can if you wish) or reserve time to upload your translations. Translations happen without your team lifting a finger.

Alternatively, use the feature to test new markets without significant upfront investment.

For example, French ecommerce brand The Bradery used Weglot to test demand in Dutch and Italian markets. Seeing that traffic volume was limited on its Weglot Dashboard, the brand paused international expansion before overcommitting.

Refine Your Existing Translations with AI and Professional Help

Weglot lets you produce incredibly accurate translations thanks to its AI model. If you need a shorter or alternative translation, Weglot can provide further AI assistance from OpenAI and Gemini.

Just click the AI button to the right of “Automatic translation” in the image below on the translations you want to activate it on (you can also do this on a whole page in 1 click:

Weglot’s custom AI Language Model delivers high-quality results. But if you need to guarantee accuracy, the platform’s collaboration feature can connect you to a professional human translator.

Just choose the parts of your site you want manually reviewed. The translator will provide a translation for your approval, and Weglot will automatically update your site with the new copy.

Make Edits on the Fly With Weglot’s In-Context Visual Editor

With Polylang, making edits means diving into individual WordPress posts and making changes line by line. But Weglot lets you find and fix translation issues as you browse the site, simplifying workflows.

The Visual Editor lets you make changes in context without having to navigate the WordPress back-end and find the right post. It also democratizes the editing process and enhances your security, allowing anyone to make changes even without a WordPress login.

Here’s what the process looks like:

The Visual Editor is particularly powerful for agencies that manage several multilingual sites on behalf of clients.

Digital marketing firm Influence Society loves the feature, for example, because it means clients can make changes to their translations without risking breaking site functionality by messing about in the CMS.

Handle Your Migration Stress-Free With Weglot

Migrating from Polylang to Weglot means less manual work, better translations, and potential organic growth. It’s why over 110,000 websites use Weglot, from startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Ready to see first-hand how easy it is to migrate from Polylang to Weglot and simplify your multilingual site management? Try the 14-day free trial today.