Creating a multilingual website can be confusing for website developers and users. Many questions and misconceptions get raised when first figuring out how to make your website multilingual, from technicalities to search engine optimization (SEO) and site management.
What is a Multilingual Website?
A multilingual website serves the same content in multiple languages.
According to the region or browser preference settings, it can automatically redirect to a language. Or the user can change the language manually.
Multilingual website = Multi-language website.
For example, abcd.com is a multilingual website serving content in four different languages — English, Hindi, Japanese, and Spanish.
If a user from the USA visits abcd.com, then it will serve that user with English content according to the user’s region. But if someone from Japan visits abcd.com (or the same page as the US visitor), then that Japanese user will automatically get the content in the Japanese language.
But if the Japanese user wants to read the website in English, Hindi or Spanish, he can change/choose that manually.
Creating a Multilingual Website with WordPress
To build a new multilingual website or turn your WordPress website into a multilingual website, you can use a plugin like Polylang. You can also use one of our WordPress hosting plans, which includes one-click install and built-in security.
It comes with a free plan and a paid plan (more features). A free account will be enough to get started because you can upgrade to a paid plan anytime later if it is required.
If you use this plugin, you just need to:
- Install this plugin on your website
- Configure it according to your requirements
- Add the languages from the plugin to make your website multilingual
That’s it!
It will add multilingual functionality to your website. You can translate everything from the menus to widgets to categories to tags.
Here are some other plugins in case you don’t want or like to use Polylang:
- WPML
- Multisite Language switcher
- GTranslate
- qTranslate
- MultilingualPress
You can also use a custom setup to create a multilingual website. You can install a multisite WordPress website or turn your existing site into a multisite website.
But using a plugin like Polylang is the easiest method to create a multilingual website.
Advantages of a multilingual website
There are lots of advantages to having a multilingual website for your business. Here are few of them:
Enter new and global markets
A multilingual website helps you to become an international brand by increasing your website reach. It opens the doors of new markets where you can find better opportunities and less competition.
SEO
One of the advantages of having a multilingual site is SEO. Most of the content on the internet is in English. That’s why the English market is very saturated and ranking higher on Google is quite hard.
Translating content can help you rank higher because of the low competition in other languages.
As a result, your website traffic and visibility climbs.
User experience
Providing content in the native language automatically provides a rich user experience. A better user experience always helps to improve conversions and time on site and reduce bounce rate.
Trust and credibility
When it comes to marketing, it is important to speak in the customer’s language. People feel more comfortable in their native languages. That’s why reaching out to them in their native language helps you get more trust and credibility.
Creating a multilingual site can seem confusing in the beginning. But by following this post, you can improve your chances of succeeding with your multilingual site.
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