
As the demand for globalized content continues to grow, the quest for inclusivity extends beyond mere text. A website's ability to visually communicate across borders and cultures hinges on its effective use of image translations. Empowering multilingualism isn't just about adapting textual content for different regions; it’s about ensuring every image speaks the same language as its viewer.
In this article, we navigate the essentials of image translation and explore top-notch tools that breathe life into this concept, ensuring your website resonates with audiences worldwide.
Before delving into the specifics of image translation plugins, it's essential to grasp the concept of image translation at its core. Image translation goes beyond merely changing the text within an image; it encapsulates a deeper understanding of cultural nuances, symbols, and the significance of visual cues across different regions.
It’s important to note that these days the English-speaking world represents just a quarter of overall internet traffic, despite well over half of web content being published in English.
Here are the top five languages used in online content in 2023:
Of course, the languages you need to translate your content and media into will depend on your audience, but, as you can see, there’s a clear discord between the language web content is currently published in and the user base that it could appeal to.
An image language translator is a solution that can help you to meet this demand. It can translate your media to accommodate visitors who speak a different language, an important aspect that shouldn’t be overlooked when localizing your website for international visitors.
While translation software localizes the text on your site, an image language translator extension will help ensure every image across your site is ready for your visitors, whichever country they’re visiting from.
In particular, this benefits you by:
Since the right image translator extension can help attract more visitors to your site from around the world, keep the following three points in mind when choosing which one to install:
With those points in mind, let’s take a look at some of the most popular image translator extensions you have to choose from.
Weglot stands out from the rest as a comprehensive solution to website localization challenges. Not only does it translate text across pages and blog posts, but its built-in image language translator ensures complete image localization, making it a prime example of true multilingual empowerment.
Key features of Weglot:
Paid plans start from €15 a month, Weglot provides a comprehensive solution that caters to all aspects of website localization. From text to images, its robust features ensure that you offer an unparalleled user experience, irrespective of the language preference of your audience.
Linguise is another contender in the realm of website localization, particularly when it comes to translating images and other media. It aims to improve your website's international presence through quality translations and enhanced SEO.
Key features of Linguise:
Linguise is a comprehensive solution for businesses aiming to globalize their online presence. By merging quality translations with potent SEO tools and a user-friendly interface, it ensures that brands can communicate effectively with international audiences. Prices start from $15 a month.
TranslatePress is another tool in the domain of website localization, and in terms of image translation. This WordPress translation plugin is not just limited to textual content, but also provides an interface for translating images, thereby allowing businesses to cater to a diverse international audience.
Key features of TranslatePress:
TranslatePress offers a number of features tailored for businesses looking to localize their web content. Pricing starts from €7.99 a month.
4. WPML Media Translation Add-on
WPML is designed to simplify the process of establishing and managing multilingual websites. Its Media Translation add-on allows users to upload and display variant images for different languages on their WordPress site.
Key features of the WPML Media Translation add-on:
By ensuring that media content, particularly images, are localized in alignment with the audience's expectations and culture, this tool helps foster stronger connections and enhance user engagement. Pricing starts from €39 a year.
So far we’ve talked through image language translators, what to keep in mind when choosing one, and how to use one for your site. But that functionality is just one part of a translation plugin, and it’s important to consider such an app in its entirety. A list of functionality to keep in mind is included below.
Here at Weglot, we’ve designed our plugin to be easy-to-use, to translate every element of your site, while also giving you flexibility. With this in mind, it’s our intention that you benefit from:
All in all, with features like automatic content detection, neural machine learning for real-time translations, and support for various platforms and over 110 languages, you can rest assured that you’ve found an effective website localization solution.
Now let’s go through the process of setting up and using Weglot for localizing your site’s images.
Step 1: Install the Weglot translation solution on your site. See the platforms we support here – Weglot is compatible with all CMS and non CMS platforms.
In WordPress, simply add it as a plugin and activate:
Step 2: Open a free Weglot account and create your first project in your Weglot account.
Step 3: Copy and paste the API key you’re given in your Weglot Dashboard into the Weglot tab in your WordPress admin.
Once you’ve completed those steps, your website will be fully translated.
In your Weglot account, you can review the automatic translations, which also includes image metadata and ALT text:
You can edit the translations manually if you want to make any edits to the automatic translations:
Let’s now talk through how to use Weglot to translate your website images.
It’s important you have the option of changing the image for different languages.
In many cases, one image across multiple languages works fine. But let’s say in English you’re showing an example of a famous American landmark (the Statue of Liberty, for example), in French that landmark may be replaced with an image of the Eiffel Tower. This helps maintain accurate context across all translations. Otherwise there’s the risk of confusing your international visitors, which may encourage them to leave your site.Here’s how you can choose alternative images for different languages, using the Weglot Visual Editor – simply click the pencil icon next to an image:
Unless the text is part of the image itself (and if that’s the case a replacement image would need to be created), text overlaying an image can be automatically found and translated.
Once the automatic translation has been created, having the option to manually edit the text further can certainly be helpful. With our plugin and its built-in image language translator functionality, you can use the Visual Editor to further edit any translations on your site in context.
A pencil icon appears next to any editable elements:
Clicking the pencil icon then shows you the automatic translation, which can then be edited further if you choose:
All image metadata, including alt text, captions, and descriptions, are important to translate. That text not only offers more context to visitors but can also help attract more international search traffic from Google image search.
When it’s first installed, Weglot scans your site and automatically translates what it finds. As you then add or edit pages and posts, those changes are automatically translated as well. This built-in image language translator functionality helps keep your site and its images localized across all languages, at all times.
Perhaps you’re making changes to a page by replacing one image with another image that’s more relevant. As soon as you click Publish, Weglot automatically finds all metadata for that image and translates it. This can then be reviewed and edited further if you choose.
For example, in the WordPress Media Library, if you choose to edit an image, all metadata is also displayed:
Weglot’s built-in image language translator automatically translates the text it finds, which can then be reviewed and edited further the following way:
By clicking on See details, more information can be seen about the translation (including all previous translations of the phrase):
Here’s an example using the MetaSlider plugin for WordPress – a simple slider has been created with three images and captions:
This slider is then added to a page, using the WordPress Gutenberg editor in this example:
Upon publishing, the slider text is automatically translated. In Weglot, the built-in image language translator allows you to edit the translations multiple ways, including by using the Visual Editor
And just like with standard images, the slider images and slugs can be altered for different languages by again clicking the pencil icon next to any slider image:
Seamless communication goes beyond text; it encapsulates the universal language of visuals. Our exploration of image translation tools underscores their significance in ensuring that every facet of a website speaks directly to the heart of a global audience.
Among these, Weglot emerges not only as a reliable solution for complete website translation but also as a pioneer in image localization. As you venture further into how you can make your website more inclusive for a global audience, consider trying out Weglot’s 10-day free trial.
Ready to get started? Sign up for our free trial and check out our paid plans to learn more.