How to Add a PrestaShop Language Switcher to Your Store Using Weglot

If you're running one of the 300,000+ PrestaShop stores worldwide, you might be missing opportunities to connect with international audiences. Converting your PrestaShop store into a multilingual platform will require a language switcher.

The interface element that lets visitors select their preferred language. Without this component, that traffic may abandon your site before making a purchase, which will limit your global market potential.

This guide examines what makes an effective PrestaShop language switcher and how to design one that converts. It will also look at two implementation methods: PrestaShop's built-in functionality and Weglot. By the end, you will understand which approach matches your business needs and how to implement it within your existing workflow.

The Function of Language Switchers in Ecommerce

Language switchers enable your users to select their preferred language on your PrestaShop store. Behind the simple button press, a language switcher is central to your multilingual setup. The system will handle translation of your product details, pricing information, shipping options, and checkout processes to match the selected language context.

For your PrestaShop store, it's a system that coordinates content translation, modifies currency displays, and implements Search Engine Optimization (SEO) markers.

Language Preference and Customer Behavior

Customers prefer to purchase in their primary language. Even this straightforward decision can affect multiple aspects of your shoppers' behavior:

• How deeply they explore your product lines.
• The time they spend in total on your site.
• Whether they make a purchase at all and complete the checkout process.
• How often they return to your site.

As such, the implementation details matter. If you display language options in a native form (showing "Español" rather than "Spanish", for example), you can create better recognition. Maintaining consistent switcher placement throughout your store will build user confidence in finding the language options they need straight away.

Technical SEO Implications

Your language switcher also connects directly to your search engine performance. Search algorithms require specific signals to understand relationships between different language versions of the same content.

There are three critical SEO components that matter here:

• URL structure. Each language version of your store requires a distinct URL pattern (either a subdirectory or subdomain) that search engines can index separately.
• Hreflang tags. These code elements tell search engines which specific language and region each version of your store targets. It's a complex technology that can go wrong with ease.
• Metadata translation. Each language version needs proper translation for title tags and meta descriptions to rank well in local search results.

If you can implement all of these technical elements correctly, you can help your PrestaShop store appear in relevant search results across multiple markets. Aside from the technical considerations, though, is design.

Designing an Effective PrestaShop Language Switcher

Your language switcher's design will have a big say in how customers will interact with your PrestaShop store. The idea is to create an intuitive experience for all visitors, regardless of location.

Speaking of which, the placement and location of your switcher will affect how your visitors discover and use it. There are three main areas of your site it can 'live'. Putting it in the header lets your visitors view it immediately and access it from any page:

The footer is a consistent location that doesn't take up premium header space, but is less visible and accessible:

Instead, you might want to put the switcher in the sidebar area or somewhere that's visible yet not within your header or footer:

This might have a knock-on effect on your site's usability and experience if you don't get the implementation right. Most ecommerce sites will put a language switcher in the header, often near search functionality or account menus. It's visible at all times and will also align with your users' expectations.

There are some other design factors that can improve your language switcher's functionality. We already talked about using native language names, but implementing flag icons is a great visual identifier that is also recognizable:

Finally, consistency and minimalism in your switcher's presentation are important (for many website elements, too). However, one area many overlook is the contrast ratio. The idea is to provide sufficient visual distinction from the surrounding elements.

It's a color scheme task that is easier with a dedicated color contrast checker, such as that within the Coolors app:

This lets you meet WCAG guidelines for accessibility and also design a language switcher that users will find easily.

Your Language Switcher Implementation Options for PrestaShop

You'll face an important decision when implementing multilingual capabilities for your PrestaShop store. You can either use PrestaShop's built-in system or use a specialized website translation tool such as Weglot.

Each approach has pros and cons, so let's review the two choices first. Afterward, we'll discuss setting up your language switcher for PrestaShop.

PrestaShop's Native Multilingual System

PrestaShop's built-in functionality gives you basic translation and operates through the platform's core architecture. This direct integration can be super usable and accessible.

The native implementation process begins in the PrestaShop 'back office'. Here, you can head to International > Translations to add new languages from a list of options.

Once you activate languages, PrestaShop will create parallel content frameworks for each language so they can receive any content translations. You can find a language selector module through the Design > Positions screen and position it within your theme's layout.

The translation process within PrestaShop presents your content using category organization, products, categories, modules, themes, and static pages. From here, you input manual translations for each element and build up your multilingual content repository piece by piece.

The direct integration is beneficial, but it's a definite workflow challenge. For instance, imagine having to translate thousands of products, each requiring titles, descriptions, technical specifications, and meta content.

It's a time investment that will scale as your site grows, especially as PrestaShop doesn't sync translations as your base content changes.

Technical SEO requirements present another challenge for the native system. International SEO demands specific technical implementations such as hreflang tags, which signal to search engines which language version applies to which regions and languages. PrestaShop's solution also places responsibility for adding these technical elements on you. Again, you'll need more time and money.

However, if you're a small store with a limited product catalog, modest growth projections, and no frequent catalog updates, you could find the native system is a cost-effective starting point. For most use cases though, Weglot will be more suitable.

Weglot's Integrated Website Translation Tool

Weglot's approach to translation combines automation with control. Instead of manual translation, Weglot will process your entire PrestaShop store's content and give you tools to refine those translations further.

The detection process will capture standard product content along with dynamic elements, checkout text, error messages, and third-party module content, something that often escapes translation.

Weglot is powered by AI translation from leading providers including DeepL, Microsoft, and Google Translate.

The result is contextual and meaningful translations rather than word-for-word replacements. As such, your product descriptions can retain the quality of your primary language from the get go.

Plus, for Weglot users on a paid plan, you have access to an AI language model feature that’s tailored to your company and its tone of voice, branding, your glossary of terms and any manual edits you’ve made to your translations. Meaning your AI translations are further enhanced in accuracy.

For those that want to make manual edits, the Weglot Dashboard allows you to further examine and improve your translations. This can be done either through the Visual Editor that displays translations within the actual store layout or your Translations List.

Through the Visual Editor You get to see how content will appear to visitors; for complex layouts, this context will improve your translation quality in comparison to isolated text editing:

From a technical perspective, Weglot automatically implements the SEO elements required for multilingual visibility.You can choose subdomains or subdirectories, dependent on your preferences.

• Subdirectories. example.com/fr/
• Subdomains. fr.example.com

It also automatically implements hreflang tags that signal to search engines which language version should appear for specific users. These become automatic background processes within Weglot that don't require any intervention.

Weglot's automation will benefit PrestaShop stores with substantial product catalogs or plans to scale. It provides immediate content coverage, which you can then refine to create an efficient workflow focusing on human translation where it matters most.

How to Set Up a Language Switcher on PrestaShop Store with Weglot

The setup process for Weglot on PrestaShop is straightforward and begins with creating an account. You can try Weglot free for 14 days, and paid plans start from $17 per month.

Once you verify your email, you'll need to choose PrestaShop as your platform and give your Workspace a name:

Next, define your language parameters by selecting your store's original language and choosing which target languages you want to implement.

From here, add your site's URL to Weglot, and specify either a subdirectory or subdomain structure.

The final step is to copy the short JavaScript code snippet and add it to your PrestaShop theme's header section before the closing <head> tag. This will enable the content detection and translation delivery for your site visitors.

After saving these changes and clearing your store's cache, you'll see the language switcher appear on your site. This means your PrestaShop website is now fully multilingual!

The Next Steps

The default language switcher will appear in your store's bottom right-hand corner. This initial placement will work just fine, but you'll likely want to customize it to match your store design.

The Settings > Language Switcher section within the Weglot dashboard will give you some customization options.

Here, you can modify your switcher's appearance. You can choose between drop-down menus, side-by-side buttons, or full language names with flags. You're also able to adjust colors, positioning, and visibility to integrate the switcher into your store's design.

Once you complete the technical implementation, you can focus on optimizing your content translations. While the combination of AI translation and Weglot's AI language model will get your translated website live and multilingual instantly, you may choose to make further edits to key conversion pages to enhance the overall quality.

If your store has established terminology, Weglot's glossary ensures you can translate brand terms, product names, and technical vocabulary with consistency. The lets you specify exact translations for specific words or phrases to maintain consistency throughout your store.

Similarly, the translation exclusion tool enables you to identify content that shouldn't get translated, such as brand names or standardized product codes.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

There are a few aspects in this post we don't cover, although it's still important information to know. Here are a few popular questions and answers about adding a language switcher to PrestaShop using Weglot.

What timeframe can I expect to add a language switcher to my site?

Adding Weglot to your PrestaShop store takes around 10 minutes. After, you have immediate site translation and options for you to refine them over time according to your schedule and priorities.

How do multiple languages impact my store's performance?

PrestaShop's native multilingual system might introduce a performance overhead as your store size increases. Weglot minimizes performance impact through its CDN delivery and efficient code implementation. In testing, sites typically maintain speed metrics with minimal changes to page load times.

What level of translation accuracy can I expect from Weglot?

Weglot uses AI translation from leading providers including DeepL and Google Translate. For paid users, you can further enhance this translation quality through Weglot’s AI language model feature that adjusts the translations based on your tone of voice, industry, previous edits and glossary of terms. For many this level of accuracy is enough.

However, you'll always want to carry out an accurate 'human' review for technical terminology, specialized product descriptions, and legal content.

Can you maintain certain content in its original language?

You can exclude content from the translation process with both methods we provide. Weglot lets you exclude content through its dashboard. It's useful for content such as brand names, product names, and standard terminology. With custom glossaries, you can ensure consistent translation of these specific terms across your store.

How do multilingual systems handle content updates?

PrestaShop's native system requires manual updates to translations when the original content changes. Weglot automates this detection and updates translations without the need for your input.

Do language switchers work with accessibility technologies?

Weglot's language switcher implementation includes accessibility features that support screen readers and keyboard navigation. The system follows WCAG guidelines to ensure all your users can access language selection functionality regardless of ability.

Expanding Your PrestaShop Store to Global Markets

PrestaShop's built-in multilingual capability does offer an entry point if you are starting your international expansion with modest needs. You get basic functionality, but you'll need to carry out manual translation management and implement technical SEO elements.

Weglot is a website translation tool that allows you to scale, without any of the work you'd typically associate with such a task. It uses automated content detection, AI translation, integrated multilingual SEO implementation, and a simplified workflow to provide friction-free translation. What's more, adding a language switcher is automatic too.

If you want to add a PrestaShop language switcher using Weglot, you can take the translation tool for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.