Shopify Translate & Adapt: Addressing Key Limitations

Around the world, a staggering 40% of consumers will never buy from websites that don’t offer content in their native language, demonstrating how important an effective translation solution is for brands looking to expand.

Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app is often a go-to choice for Shopify store owners, although it’s not ideal when it comes to more complex multilingual setups. Users encounter significant challenges, including translation limitations, SEO complications, and compatibility issues with third-party apps. So while Translate & Adapt plays an important role within Shopify Markets, it lacks the flexibility needed for expansive growth.

The solution to address these shortcomings can be found through Weglot, a dedicated translation management platform. Compatible with any website technology while combining AI and human translations, Weglot allows you to add 110+ languages; plus, it’s been set up for multilingual SEO, so your store is indexed on international search engines.

Here, we’ll explore strategies to overcome Translate & Adapt’s limitations and highlight the benefits third-party Shopify translation apps can bring.

Shopify Translate & Adapt: Critical Limitations for Multilingual Stores

While Shopify's Translate & Adapt app offers a native solution for multilingual stores, it comes with limitations all store owners should be aware of.

One of the most pressing issues is the two-language auto-translation limit, which restricts those stores targeting multiple markets. The app also imposes a 100,000,000 character limit for auto-translations per year, impacting larger ecommerce brands with a high content output. Store owners must also deal with specific content types that cannot be translated, such as collection filters and manual payment instructions, creating potential gaps in the user experience.

Challenges with bulk translation are evident due to the lack of flexible import/export features, and SEO-related constraints arise when optimizing URLs and metadata. Lastly, compatibility problems with third-party apps further limit the use of Translate & Adapt.

Let’s take a detailed look at these shortcomings below.

Navigating Translate & Adapt’s Content Constraints

A few constraints are worth knowing when it comes to Translate & Adapt’s capabilities with content:

• Two-language limit: Stores targeting multiple languages must rely on manual translations, increasing time and costs for expansion.
• Character limit: High-volume stores may reach the 100,000,000 character cap for auto-translations, necessitating manual updates.
• Content challenges: Certain elements, like collection filters, product page elements, and payment instructions, cannot be translated.
• Workflow management: The absence of a user-friendly CSV import/export feature complicates bulk translations, requiring manual effort for large text volumes.
• Theme updates: Translating content from older Shopify themes is challenging; updates can disrupt consistent translations.
• Dynamic content issues: User-generated content, such as reviews and comments, often remains untranslated.

SEO Challenges, URL Structures, and Metadata Optimization

Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app presents several international SEO-related limitations that can impact a store’s online visibility:

• URL translations: The app cannot translate parts of URLs, notably the ‘products’ segment, meaning there’s no option to localize URLs.
• Metadata challenges: Users face difficulties accessing and modifying meta titles and descriptions within the app, leading to missed optimization opportunities for search engines.
• Hreflang tag limitations: There are constraints in managing hreflang tags, which are needed for indicating language/regional page versions to search engines.
• Default hreflang settings: The app automatically adds hreflang tags that pair languages with countries e.g. en-FR, this can be limiting for instance, in this example, it would exclude English users from other regions. Changing this setting requires contacting Shopify Support.

Third-Party App Compatibility and Tackling Dynamic Content Issues

Integrating Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app with third-party apps can further disrupt the translation process, and content from apps that don't use Shopify’s translatable resource types may not be translated. According to official Shopify developer documentation, this means that many popular apps are untranslatable within the app’s framework.

For example, forms created by certain applications often remain in their original language, creating barriers for international customers. Additionally, apps that generate essential content for international markets – such as currency converters or shipping calculators – may not integrate with Translate & Adapt.

Given these challenges, store owners may find themselves needing alternative solutions or manual workarounds to ensure that all aspects of their site are adequately translated.

Weglot vs Translate & Adapt: A Comprehensive Comparison

As ecommerce businesses look to expand their reach, effective translation solutions are essential. Although Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app may be enough to help a small boutique tackle its first overseas market, brands wanting to make the next level will likely need a more comprehensive solution. And that’s where Weglot comes in.

‍Weglot is a Shopify translation app that handles all of the problems and challenges we’ve discussed. It’s also worth noting that Weglot isn’t limited to just Shopify – the software integrates with any website technology, meaning if you ever choose to change ecommerce CMS in the future, you can still use our translation app.

Our extensive 110+ language support allows businesses to cater to diverse global audiences. Once added to your Shopify store, Weglot scans all the content, including third-party apps, translates it using a first layer of AI translation and then displays that content under language subdirectories or subdomains.

Weglot combines AI translation with human editing, allowing users to make manual edits to translations for accuracy and cultural relevance directly inside your dedicated Weglot Dashboard.

You can also hire professional translators directly through the dashboard. And, alongside automatically created language subdomains or subdirectories, Weglot also implements hreflang tags and translates your site’s metadata, setting up your store multilingual SEO.

Let’s see how Weglot and Translate & Adapt match up in the areas that matter most:

Translation Methods and Quality

As we’ve mentioned, both AI translation and human editing are available through Weglot, made even simpler with our Visual Editor, which allows you to edit in a live preview of your site. This enables users to make real-time adjustments and ensure translations match audience preferences.

In contrast, Translate & Adapt relies on Google-powered auto-translation, which may lack the cultural nuances required for certain markets. While manual editing is possible within Translate & Adapt, it does not have the same level of flexibility or user-friendliness as Weglot’s interface. Not all media elements can be translated, and limited third-party integrations mean some app content will also be missed.

SEO Features

From an SEO perspective, Weglot offers the automatic creation of subdomains or subdirectories and hreflang tag implementation. These features are needed to boost search engine rankings in different languages and regions. Translate & Adapt provides basic SEO features within Shopify’s ecosystem but lacks Weglot’s capabilities. The app doesn’t allow you totranslate product handles in URLs, may miss meta or third-party app content, and has limited hreflang functionality as mentioned above.

Content Management

Weglot’s translation management dashboard allows you to manage and centralize translations across all content types (including media, metadata, and external links), making it easy to track progress and make updates.

You can view your translations either through a Visual Editor, allowing you to make edits in a live preview of your website, or via your Translations List, where you can filter by URL and search by word.

In comparison, Translate & Adapt only offers a side-by-side editor within the Shopify admin interface, which may be less intuitive for users managing large volumes of content. Also worth noting is that you’ll have to invite any translators or teammates to your Shopify admin to make edits to the content of your store.

Other translation management options include Weglot’s built-in glossary, which stores language preferences, ensuring they are used in future translations for consistency. You can also make page or section exemptions from translations, giving site admins full control over what pages are translated and live.

Scalability

When it comes to scalability, Weglot supports multiple languages and diverse content types, making it suitable for businesses planning significant international expansion.

On the other hand, Translate & Adapt’s limitations on auto-translation and certain content types can pose challenges as stores grow. Character and language limits plus a failure to translate all media and app content can lead to gaps on your foreign language pages. It can also mean long delays when pushing new content live, given the need for manual intervention (if you require the machine translations to be edited).

Pricing Structure

Following a 10-day free trial, Weglot operates on a tiered pricing model based on usage, allowing businesses to select a plan that fits their needs as they grow. While Translate & Adapt is free, its limitations may not suffice for larger projects.

Weglot vs Translate & Adapt: A Comparison Table

In summary, the choice between Weglot and Translate & Adapt reflects a store owner’s commitment to international expansion, and their specific translation needs:

• Translate & Adapt serves as a practical starting point for smaller Shopify merchants.
• Weglot is ideal for those that are committed to serious global expansion.

Any choice between the two should reflect your business size and future goals, not to mention your target markets. Look for the solution that will address your future challenges, and the complexities of the task ahead.

Supercharge Your Global Reach with Weglot’s Advanced Solution

While Shopify’s Translate & Adapt app can be a good match for ecommerce businesses embarking on their international expansion journey, it comes with strict limitations. A lack of language options, SEO challenges, and compatibility issues with third-party services combine to position the app as being of most use to smaller Shopify stores.

In contrast, Weglot addresses all these shortcomings by offering  100% store translation, AI translations, complete editing control, automated multilingual SEO, visual translations editing, media translation, and a glossary for consistency.  

Try Weglot’s 10-day free trial, no credit card required.