In today’s interconnected world, having a multilingual website can significantly expand your reach and engage a wider audience. Translating a WordPress site involves making the content of your website accessible to users in different languages. It allows you to reach a wider audience and engage with visitors from various regions.
In this blog post, we will guide you through the steps involved in translating your WordPress site, ensuring that your content is accessible to users around the globe.
Let’s dive in and explore the various approaches you can take to achieve a fully multilingual website using the WordPress plugin.
Translation Plugins
WordPress offers numerous translation plugins that can simplify the translation process. Plugins like GTranslate, WPML (WordPress Multilingual Plugin), Polylang and Loco Translate plugin provide a user-friendly interface and advanced features to manage translations efficiently. These plugins typically offer automatic translation options using machine translation services or integration with professional translation services for high-quality results.
When it comes to installing plugins in WordPress, there are several different methods you can use. If you’re looking for a comprehensive guide on the topic, check out this helpful blog:
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Different Ways to Install a Plugin in WordPress
You can customize your WordPress site to suit your specific needs and enhance its functionality by exploring different installation methods.
Configure a Translation Plugin:
If you choose to use a translation plugin, the first step is to install and activate the plugin of your choice. In this tutorial will going to use Loco Translate and GTranslate WordPress plugins.
Get Started with Loco Translate Plugin
Loco Translate is a free Open-Source powerful WordPress plugin that simplifies website translation by providing a user-friendly interface within the WordPress dashboard.
It allows users to effortlessly create, update, and manage translations for their website’s core content, plugins, and themes. With features such as search, filter, and real-time previews, Loco Translate streamlines the translation workflow.
Compatible with various file formats and offering centralized translation management, it is an essential tool for creating multilingual websites and delivering a seamless multilingual experience to users.
Install Loco Translate Plugin
You can find this plugin on WordPress.org page or you can search this on your wordpress plugin directory to install activate.
Loco Translate Configuration
Once activated, go to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to “Loco Translate” in the left-hand menu.
To start, go to “Loco Translate >> themes” and select the one you want to translate. I am going to select “Gutenify Base” for this tutorial.
Loco Translate provides a convenient default setting that displays both the active and installed themes on your site for translation. This means you can easily translate themes even if they are inactive.
Now click on “New Language”.
In the next step, choose the location:
Author:
The “Author” location in Loco Translate refers to the directory structure within the theme or plugin’s folder. In this case, the translation file “ar.po” for the “gutenify-base” theme is located at “themes/gutenify-base/languages/ar.po”. It follows the convention of storing the translation file within the theme’s directory.
Other:
The “Other” location option allows for a custom directory path outside the theme or plugin’s folder structure. In this case, there are two possible “Other” locations for the “gutenify-base” theme translation: “languages/loco/themes/gutenify-base-ar.po” and “languages/themes/gutenify-base-ar.po”.
These paths indicate that the translation file “gutenify-base-ar.po” can be found either in the “languages/loco” directory or directly in the “languages” directory.
These different location options offer flexibility in organizing translation files based on the theme or plugin’s default structure (Author) or custom directory paths (Other) specified by the user.
Click on “Start Translating”
Once you’ve configured the location settings, locate and click on the “Start Translating” button. This action will initiate the translation process for the selected theme or plugin.
Manual Translating
You can see the bundle of strings in your theme template file or can search through the “Filter Translations” string.
From here you can put your specific translated text in “Context” and click on save button after doing the necessary changes.
GTranslate
Access the WordPress dashboard, navigate to the “Plugins” section, and search for your GTranslate plugin.
After clicking on the activate button now go to its settings for configuration.
In the GTranslate settings page, please pick up your preferred languages, and choose the preferred languages for optimal website viewing by our visitors.
Next, you’ll need to select the appearance of your widget. You can do this by choosing the “widget look” option from the available choices. It’s recommended to use a dropdown style for a more compact and streamlined display.
To showcase the translation button in the header of your website, you’ll want to position it on the primary menu. This can be accomplished by clicking on the “primary menu” option in the settings.
Once you’ve made these selections, don’t forget to save your changes by clicking on the “save changes” button.
This ensures that your chosen widget look and the placement of the translation button in the header are applied and saved for your website.
To observe if the language selector button appears on the primary menu of your website, you can visit your site and perform a few checks.
This process allows you to make your website multilingual, enabling visitors to choose their preferred language by providing a language selector button on the primary menu.
Bottom line
Making your website multilingual opens up opportunities to reach a wider audience and enhance user experience. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can effectively translate your WordPress site. Whether you choose to use automated translation with plugins like GTranslate or opt for manual translation, it’s important to ensure the accuracy and quality of the translated content.
Remember to review and refine the translations to provide a seamless browsing experience for visitors who can effortlessly switch between languages using the language selector button. Embracing multilingual capabilities on your site empowers you to connect with diverse audiences and make a lasting impact on a global scale.
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