How to Add an Elementor Language Switcher

So you’ve successfully set up your WordPress website with the page builder Elementor. But what’s the next step in getting the word out there about your new site and attracting more visitors?

Well, if you think that those who can benefit from what you have to offer probably speak a language other than English, then you’ll want to add a language switcher to your site!

Doing so—and translating your website, of course—will open up your website to new markets in different countries.

Plus, with an Elementor website available in different languages, you’ll benefit from even more SEO opportunities and improved online visibility.

To maximize the benefits of a multilingual website, switching languages on your site must be simple and quick. A good language switcher should provide functionality and fit in cleanly with the rest of your WordPress website.

In this article, we’ll provide a detailed step-by-step guide on how to add an Elementor language switcher to your site and customize it to match your website’s design and layout.

Tutorial: Add an Elementor Language Switcher with Weglot

It only takes a few minutes to add a language switcher to your WordPress site built with Elementor, thanks to the Elementor translation plugin, Weglot.

WordPress multilingual plugin, Weglot allows you to add multiple languages to your site in just 5 minutes. Once installed, it automatically detects your content, translates it, then displays it for you—no code needed. You’ll then get an automatically added language switcher of which you can customize the design.

Weglot also uses the leading providers in automatic translation, like Google Translate and DeepL, ensuring high quality for all your site’s languages.

Plus, Weglot has full compatibility with other theme builders, templates, and plugins that you use alongside the Elementor page builder. It also translates all content nd add-ons on your site, including third-party plugins, menu items and even popups.

In this tutorial, we’ll be adding a language switcher to your website’s navigation. Weglot puts the language switcher to the bottom left of your site by default, but you can easily re-position this. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how to do this, too.

Step 1

First, install the Weglot multilingual plugin (you can also do so by searching “Weglot” in the WordPress Directory). Once you install it, activate the plugin.

Step 2

Then, create a Weglot account to access the Weglot Dashboard. Here, you’ll get your unique API key to complete the integration and manage and edit your translations.

Step 3

Navigate to the Weglot tab in your WordPress dashboard and add your API key.

Here, you can set the original language of your site and your destination languages or the languages in which you want your website to be available. Once you do this, click save.

This step also instantly adds new languages to your website.

Step 4      

Et voilà! You now have an Elementor multilingual site, newly outfitted with a language switcher your users can use to navigate your site in their preferred language comfortably.

Weglot has automatically detected your website’s content, translated it using a first layer of machine translation, and then displayed it for you under language subdirectories.

When you navigate to your website, you can now see a language switcher at the bottom-right corner. Click on it, and a list of your destination languages will appear in a drop-down menu, allowing you to choose which language you want to view your website in.

You can also configure the appearance of your language switcher to better match your website design.

Your site’s default language will always be the first to appear in the language switcher, but you can change the order. You can also specify how to display the language name: abbreviated to the language code, display the full language name, or even display only flags.

Take microSHIFT, for example. It translated its Elementor site with Weglot, designed the language switcher to match the website layout, and repositioned it to sit at the top right corner, in the header.

Enhance Your Elementor Website with an Expertly Built Language Switcher

Translating your Elementor website and adding a language switcher to it takes only a few minutes with Weglot. Not only does it automatically translate your site for you, but it also instantly adds a language switcher to your front-end that you can easily personalize. That means your multilingual website will be ready to go live to your international audience right away!

Plus, you have full editing control over the machine translation you get once installing Weglot. You can then fine-tune the quality, add teammates to your project, or even order professional translations to ensure the best user experience for your visitors.

And, since Weglot continuously translates your website, you won’t have any leftover untranslated content lying around. That includes metadata, as Weglot follows multilingual SEO best practices to ensure visibility on SERPs, such as instantly adding hreflang tags and hosting your translated content under language subdirectories.

Ready to add an Elementor language switcher to your website? Start translating your Elementor site with Weglot’s 10-day free trial, no credit card required.