Automatically Translate WordPress: A Step-by-Step Guide
Those looking to expand overseas have no time to waste. Agility is key to succeeding in international markets, and delaying product launches and website updates can see your brand lose out on sales and engagement. Automating translations is a key tactic in the bid to remain competitive, bringing with it the following advantages:
- Cost savings: By minimizing the need for professional translators, businesses can translate large volumes of content quickly and affordably, freeing up resources for other critical areas.
- Speed and efficiency: Automated translation enables you to update your website in real-time. This is particularly beneficial for ecommerce sites that need to translate product descriptions or promotional content rapidly.
- Consistency: Automated tools ensure that terminology remains consistent across all translated content. This is crucial for maintaining brand voice and clarity, especially when dealing with technical or industry-specific language.
So how to automatically translate in WordPress? By using a dedicated translation management solution, of course!
Weglot was designed explicitly for the task in mind, offering a powerful solution that automatically translates your content, enabling you to create a multilingual platform in just a few minutes. With Weglot, you can easily translate 100% of your website, including posts, pages, and even ecommerce elements like WooCommerce.
This article will walk you through the process of setting up Weglot to configuring your language preferences – follow our guide and you too can accelerate your expansion efforts!
How to Automatically Translate your WordPress Site with Weglot
Weglot offers a premium solution for an automatic translation of your WordPress site, allowing you to create a multilingual website in just a few minutes. To get started, first register for a Weglot account and install the Weglot plugin from the WordPress.org repository.
Once installed, navigate to the new Weglot section in your WordPress dashboard. Here you will need to:
- Enter the API key provided upon creating your Weglot account.
- Select the default language of your site (e.g. English).
- Choose the languages you want to translate your content into (you can select multiple languages).
After making these selections, click Save Changes. Weglot will then utilize machine translation to automatically translate 100% of your site’s content, including posts, pages, and even content from themes and plugins. With Weglot, you can have a fully functional multilingual website operational within minutes, with high-quality machine translated content.
To check your translations, you can use the front-end language switcher in the bottom-right corner of your site:
Weglot employs advanced translation technology that combines multiple machine translation providers, primarily DeepL, Google Translate, and Bing. This ensures high-quality translations that are contextually relevant. Be aware that the first time a user visits a translated page, there may be a slight delay as Weglot processes the translation. However, subsequent visits will load instantly as the translations are cached.
Additionally, Weglot enhances your website’s SEO by automatically generating dedicated URLs for each language version and implementing hreflang tags. This means that search engines can index your translated pages effectively, improving your visibility in international search results.
How to Manually Refine Automatic Translations
While Weglot provides automatic translations through machine learning, you may want to refine these translations for accuracy and style. Once you’ve completed the WordPress auto translate phase, Weglot offers several options for manual refinement:
- Manage translations via the Weglot dashboard: This interface allows you to view and edit translations easily. You can see the original text alongside its translated counterpart, making it simple to make adjustments.
- Create translator accounts: If you wish to collaborate with freelancers or colleagues, you can create special ‘Translator’ accounts with limited access to your Weglot dashboard. This way, others can help refine translations without having full control over your account.
- Outsource translations: Weglot also enables you to outsource translations directly to professional services. This option is ideal if you require expert-level translation for specific content.
Additionally, Weglot features a Visual Editor that allows you to see live previews of your site while editing translations. By hovering over any text on your website, you can click an icon to make changes directly in context. This flexibility ensures that your translations are not only accurate but also connect well with your audience.
To edit a translation, you can hover over any text on the live preview of your site and click the pencil icon:
That will open a popup where you can make your desired changes:
Another useful feature is the Translation Glossary, which allows you to set rules for specific terms – ensuring consistency across all translations. For example, if there’s a particular term that should always be translated in a certain way (or not translated at all), you can define this in the glossary settings.
Weglot also gives you some other helpful tools to adjust your translations. For example, you can automatically search and replace a specific word or phrase across your entire site, which is helpful if you want to adjust one specific aspect of your machine translations:
Enable Users to Automatically Translate Content on the Front End
To enhance user experience on your multilingual site, Weglot provides an intuitive front-end language switcher. This feature allows visitors to select their preferred language easily and is crucial for engaging a diverse audience.
You can customize the appearance and placement of this language switcher according to your site's design preferences. Options include:
- Displaying it as separate menu items or a dropdown.
- Using it as a WordPress widget.
- Implementing it through a shortcode.
- Adding it directly into your site's HTML.
By enabling this functionality, you empower users to navigate your content in their chosen language effortlessly.
Such automatic translation capabilities not only make it easy for users to find content in their preferred language but also contribute significantly to increasing customer satisfaction and potential sales. With Weglot's straightforward setup and robust features, you can open your website up to a global audience, minus any technical know-how.
Take Your WordPress Site Global with Automatic Translation
If you’re looking to expand your reach and engage a global audience, time is of the essence, and automatic translations are a must-have.
As we’ve seen, our Weglot plugin makes it easy, allowing you to auto translate 100% of your WordPress site’s content within minutes, including content from your themes and plugins. For refinement and accuracy, a Visual Editor allows you to make manual refinements directly on your pages, ensuring all translations fit into your designs. And our nifty language switcher gives multilingual speakers full control over which site version they see.
To explore the benefits of automatic translation for your WordPress site, sign up today for a 10-day free trial of Weglot and take the first step toward going global!