Top 13 WordPress Multilingual Plugins & Themes for 2020

It is necessary for your website to be multilingual, especially if you get international visitors. For multilingual WordPress websites, several solutions have been developed. There are plugins created by the WordPress community to help you in creating a multilingual blog easily. Running a multilingual blog is all about making it available in multiple languages and allowing the plugin to switch between them.

What is a Multilingual WordPress Site?

As the name itself explains, a multilingual WordPress site serves the same content in two or more languages. Typically, it automatically redirects users to their regional language, or users can select the language they’d like to view the site in using a dropdown link.

Why Should You Create a Multilingual WordPress Site?

We often consider English the “language of the internet,” but how real is the fact? There is no doubt English has been dominating the Internet for years, but this is now gradually changing due to a massive representation of other languages on the web. To better understand the most common languages used on the Internet, just look at the graph below:

As you can see from this distribution, English, despite being the most popular language online, makes up only one-fourth worldwide internet users. While it’s true English is still the most representative language online, it’s always wise to make your WordPress site accessible in multiple languages. More languages mean more global visitors, more engagements, and, eventually, more profits. And to become global, a multilingual WordPress site is the key.

What Are the Benefits of Having a WordPress Multilingual Site?

Imagine if you’re able to expand your business without flattening your wallet. Sounds funny, but it ain’t a joke. You can enhance your business prospects by creating a multilingual business website. There have been many instances where businesses have gained substantially from translating their website. Here are some of the chief reasons to have a website which has multilingual capacity:

#Saves money big-time:

With a multilingual WordPress website, you can expand the scope of your business by spending too less. A global marketing strategy seems like a great idea but can be very expensive. By adding translation capacity to your WordPress site, you can gain substantially. You only need the services of expert developers to get a multilingual site that not only looks amazing but also performs ably.

#Boost your sales:

Multiplying sales happens to be an important aspect of every business. In fact, it won’t be erroneous to say that it is at the core of the heart of every business. By translating your website you can easily achieve the same. Several businesses have benefited immensely after making their websites multilingual. The reason is that customers usually make a purchase are seeing websites in their own language. So, multilingual websites can have a positive impact on your bottom line as well.

#Lure non-English audience with ease:

It is being observed that the majority of internet users across the globe don’t want to browse websites in English. So, it is advisable not to make the do so or else you will be the loser. It is wrong to assume that majority of population across the world are comfortable with English disappointed. For example, only 39% of people speak English in France and there are countries where the percentage is even lower. Hence, a multilingual WordPress site is vital to lure overseas clients.

#Enhance SEO potential:

SEO is an integral part of all WordPress websites as it improves the site rankings on search engines. This also increases the visibility of website. Hence by enhancing the SEO potential of your WordPress site for different languages you can easily break into new markets. With multilingual SEO at your disposal, search engines such as Google will be in a better position to understand in which languages your pages are and to whom to target with particular languages.

Do I Actually Need a Multilingual WordPress Site?

Confused whether or not you need a multilingual WordPress site? Well, the first thing you need to check if your WordPress site is already getting any international traffic. Simply go to Audience >> Geo >> Language in Google Analytics.

After that, move to Audience >> Geo >> Location.

Now, you would have a clear idea of how much international traffic your WordPress site is already getting. If it’s huge, you really need to translate your WordPress site.

Does WordPress Support Multilingual by Default?

No, WordPress does not support the multilingual functionality out-of-the-box. However, it offers a multitude of plugins to help you make your WordPress site multilingual easily.

What Are the Approaches to Offer Multilingual Content in WordPress?

Generally speaking, you can offer multilingual content on your WordPress site in four different ways:

• One Language Per Post: You can assign a single language per post using a multilingual plugin. Different translations of the same content are then linked together. Users can select the post’s language and add translations as new posts.
• All Languages in a Single Post: : All language alternatives for each post are stored and edited in the same post.
• Automatic Translation: : You can connect your WordPress site to external translation services that automatically translate your site’s content. Editing the translation is optional, depending on the plugin.
• Multisite Solution: : Lastly, using a WordPress Multisite installation, you can set up a separate site for each language. All the sites need to use the same theme and multilingual plugin so users can ping back and forth between different language versions.

How Do I Make My WordPress Site Multilingual?

There are basically three ways you can turn your WordPress site into multilingual:

• Manually with the Help of Human Translators: You can manually translate all the content yourself or hire professionals to do that.
• Automatically via Plugins & Themes: You can use WordPress multilingual themes and plugins to translate your site into multiple languages.
• Custom WordPress Multilingual Setup: This is a WordPress multisite approach that will require some custom development. If you’re not able to do it yourself, you can always hire expert WordPress developers to do this for you.

Top 6 WordPress Multilingual Plugins

As for plugins, it eventually boils down to your needs. It is always advisable to select the plugins depending up on your requirement from a website. In this endeavour, we have provided six of the best plugins for you with which you can showcase your content in several languages.

#TranslatePress:

TranslatePress is a relatively new plugin, providing a better way to translate your WordPress site in real-time directly from the front-end. The plugin comes with a user-friendly interface using which you can easily translate the entire page at once, including outputs generated by forms, shortcodes, and page builders. TranslatePress even works out of the box with WooCommerce.

#Babble:

Babble happens to be an open source and a fast plugin which can be freely downloaded from GitHub repository. The plugin is known to work faster than other plugins, and without much hassles. Post activating the same, enable the new language in the settings and then place the mouse or cursor on any page or post that you want to translate.

#Translate WordPress with Gtranslate:

Translate WordPress with GTranslate depends on Google’s translation service to decipher the 104 languages of the website. This makes your website accessible to close to 99% of the traffics. It utilizes automatic and human translations to get the job done. Post translation It makes the Google top frame invisible and it also offer the option of better translations.

#Polylang:

This plugin is based on self-translate-only option. This implies that the person in charge of the translation part should have strong command over English to translate the content. In case, you are not good enough with your English then hire someone possessing similar skills. However, the plugin is quite user-friendly and this makes the Polylang ideal for anyone wanting to create and manage a multilingual website. And this comes free of cost.

#Weglot Translate:

Weglot Translate relies on the intuitive API to find content on your website, and translates it into one of 60 languages. The automatic translation has the primacy, but you can personally edit the same with the help of a Contextual Editor in your Weglot account. It is perfect for content heavy sites as it is possible to mark phrases as reviewed. This saves time by keeping duplication of translation at bay.

#WPML:

This is one of the famous WordPress multilingual plugins, that offers a full year of premium support. Through this you can develop multilingual sites quite easily. With WPML you can translate your pages, posts, create custom post types, and menus into any language of your desire. On the performance front, it is simply flawless and the plugin is very simple to manage and offers great degree of flexibility when to users.

#Multilingual Press Pro:

Multilingual Press Pro stands for good performance. It also has the capability to include language links into WP navigation menus. The plugin can deal with 174 languages and can easily translate posts, pages, categories, tags, etc. It is very user-friendly and offers good flexibility as well.

Proven Tips to Fully Translate Your WordPress Site

Once you have installed and activated your favourite WordPress multilingual plugin, there are a few things you should pay special attention to in order to translate your site to the fullest. Let’s take a look at them:

• Posts: Cross check whether or not each post of your site has been translated. Most plugins, including WPML and Polylang, create entirely independent posts for each language, which you can access directly from the post listing.
• Metadata: After translating a post, don’t forget to translate all post metadata as well. Replicate any information that you stored as custom fields in a post. Luckily, most translation plugins automatically duplicate the post metadata. And if you’re using a theme having built-in custom fields, chances are it will do all the work for you!
• Attachments and Featured Images: You need to translate post attachments and featured images as well. In most cases, you’re not required to upload the same files to the translated post as the plugin automatically reuse the media file to create multiple attachments. For example, the WPML Media Translation addon automatically translates image captions and titles. However, you are required to manually translate any text inside images.
• Widgets: This is the trickiest part of translating your WordPress site. Since most plugins don’t have an in-built solution for this, you have to either install an additional plugin, such as Widget Logic, or seek help from a WordPress developer to make your widgets multilingual. Using this nifty little plugin, you can add conditional statements to and active widget in order to detect and change the current language.
• Menus: The translation of WordPress menu translations follow nearly the same procedure as posts. So simply check if your menus are consistent from one language to another after creating translations.
• Theme Options: This is another difficult part of making your WordPress site multilingual. Most WordPress themes nowadays come with an options page that allows you to configure the styling and appearance of your site. However, it is up to the theme author whether or not he keeps the options page multilingual. Hence, if you’re planning a multilingual WordPress site, it is highly recommended you opt for a multilingual compatible theme.

TOP 6 Multilingual WordPress themes

In case you need to project your content on your website in multiple languages, there are some very good options in terms of WordPress themes. Given beneath are some of the best multilingual WordPress themes which are very convenient to use with lot of scope for customization.

#Ave:

Ave happens to be one of the new-age multilingual WordPress themes, containing various styles of homepage layouts, which can be utilized to create diverse types of websites, including agencies, small businesses, freelancers, gym, medical, blogs, and more. The theme has over 200 different ready-made templates that are compatible with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads and, multilingual plugins including WPML, qTranslate.

#Kolaso:

Kolaso is one of the contemporary multilingual themes for WordPress sites which has 5 varieties of homepage layouts for developing websites for agencies and small businesses. The theme gels well with WPML plugin for the purpose of multilingual support and is packed with WPBakery page builder and Slider Revolution plugins as well.

#Voda:

Voda contains nine one-click demos to facilitate swift launch of your multilingual WordPress website. After importing a demo, you can customize it with the help of the theme options and with the Visual Composer page builder. Irrespective of what you want, a regular website or an ecommerce store, this comes packed with several features to accomplish any task.

#Covercase:

Covercase is one of the valuable themes to build any kind of WordPress website. This comes with several useful features as well, including the choices of 60 layouts. It is compatible with popular WPML multilingual plugin and can translate your WordPress website and its content in more than a single language.

#Rogan:

Rogan is a powerful, beautiful, and pixel-perfect multipurpose multilingual WordPress theme suitable for freelancers, startups, agencies, Saas, and digital marketing companies to showcase their online presence most creatively and professionally. The theme supports WPML out-of-the-box.

#Finax:

This is one of the multilingual WordPress themes, having an imaginative and a stylish design for portraying the services and the features of your business in a professional manner. The Finax also allows you the liberty to select from 5 homepage layouts, which can be customized easily via WPBakery page builder. The theme also helps you out with multilingual facility through WPML plugin.

Things to Keep in Mind While Selecting WordPress Multilingual Themes and Plugins

As they say, “first impression is the best impression”. And this apples greatly to your multilingual WordPress or other websites as well. If your website fails to make an impact upon the visitors then you may lose potential traffic. That is where choosing the right multilingual plugins and themes for your WordPress website go a long way in multiplying the brand value of your business.

There are innumerable number of themes and plugins available for your WordPress site. So, it can be a bit daunting to select the appropriate one. To make the job easier for you here are some criteria you should consider before taking a final call on the WordPress themes and plugins.

#The Cost:

The money can be a huge factor while opting for plugins and themes, especially for start ups. There are paid and free highly customizable WordPress themes and plugins. It all depends on your requirement. In case you require only a functional website then why should you pay for themes and plugins unnecessarily. However, if you require a state-of-the-art website then premium variants of these can be considered. Hence, consider your requirements before loosening your purse strings.

#Reputation of the developer:

As discussed earlier WordPress themes and plugins are important in the smooth functioning of your website. So, it is better to opt for the offerings of a reputed developer. In case you opt for a lesser known then chances are high that your website might develop some snag or the other. In contrast, themes and plugins of renowned players are tested for quality and you can count on their assurance to a great extent. This prospect of running into any problems immediately upon installing and activating the theme and plugins is almost zilch.

#Avoid themes and plugins with unwanted features:

It is always best to opt for those plugins and themes which have only features that you require. However, if the theme and plugins have numerous features that you don’t require then complications might arise. In case you feel that you don’t require extra features, then simply opt out of such themes and plugins.

#Read reviews thoroughly:

Always make it a point to read the reviews of themes and plugins. A plugin or a theme that has good reviews has lesser chance of hampering the functioning of your website. It’s natural for plugins and themes to have negative reviews, however, if they are invariably bad, then avoid those products like a plague. It is a must to read all the reviews rather only a few to get a clear idea on the themes and plugins.

Some Other WordPress Multilingual Questions Answered

Which WordPress multilingual plugin is the best?

All the plugins listed here are the best. However, they differ from each other in terms of features and capabilities. While WPML is a comprehensive translation solution for advanced users and online stores, Polylang proves to be the best option if you’re looking for a free alternative. Likewise, TranslatePress is perfect for beginners due to its live editor that makes translations a breeze.

How to translate my WordPress admin area for users?

WordPress facilitates each user on your site to select their favourite language for the admin interface. They simply need to go to “Your Profile” under “Users,” and an option is provided there to change the language.

How do I translate my WordPress theme?

Most of the plugins listed here let you automatically fetch theme translations. You can also translate a theme by yourself or get help from a professional.

How do I translate a WordPress plugin?

While many of the popular plugins are translation ready, they may not support all languages. You can use WPML or TranslatePress to easily translate strings within the interface of a plugin.

Conclusion

There are many themes and plugins which are ideal for WordPress websites. However, choosing that one that suits you can be challenging. Through this article our endeavour is to help you out in selecting the appropriate themes and plugins. In case you are looking for a trusted development partner to build a multilingual WordPress site, feel free to contact us.