Globalization and worldwide internet access have made one thing clear – featuring English language content on your website is no longer enough. People have grown accustomed to UX features such as localization, translation and the ability to use their favorite platforms and services in their native languages.
According to Shutterstock, 60% of customers rarely or never buy products and services from exclusively-English platforms, with 80% more likely to do business with a company which provides them with a personalized, multilingual web experience.
This is where a multilingual WordPress website can come into play as a de facto solution to your internationalization growth pains. However, building a website with translation in mind can be tricky if you approach it from the wrong angle. With that said, let’s dive into how you can create a multilingual WordPress website step by step in order to ensure your business’ appeal, longevity, and organic growth.
Advantages of Creating a Website through WordPress
It’s worth noting why WordPress is the ideal CMS for a multilingual website regardless of its business model or industry. According to 99 Firms, 33.9% of all websites use WordPress as it is available in 162 languages and features over 55,000 plugins created for the end-user’s convenience.
This alone makes WordPress a far better option than its contemporaries such as Joomla and Drupal which lack the support and customization options featured in the WordPress community. Aside from that, the benefits of relying on WordPress for your multilingual website include but are not limited to the following:
- A plethora of WordPress themes to choose from
- User-friendly back-end management w/o coding knowledge
- Straightforward content creation, uploading, and management
- Ability to add, remove and modify featured languages on the go
- Intuitive content optimization for SEO regardless of the number of languages
- High return on investment compared to single-language WordPress websites
Creating a Multilingual WordPress Website
- Define your Website’s Goals
The first task in terms of creating your multilingual WordPress website is to clearly define its main goals and purpose. Do you want to use your website for online sales of your products and/or services? Or do you intend to run a blog with a growing community of like-minded followers? Your blog’s purpose will determine how you integrate different languages into your CMS once the first content pieces are published.
For example, an eCommerce-like website will only require you to translate or localize product descriptions with added SEO. However, a blog may require more hands-on work, collaboration with native speakers or use of professional writing services such as Top Writers Review or Evernote respectively. Define your website’s goals early on and the development process will become an afterthought as a result.
- Choose your WordPress Theme
While UI and UX may not seem as important in terms of content translation, they play a pivotal role in its presentation. Premium WordPress features to distinguish themselves from the basic UI which CMS comes equipped with through some visual and functional changes.
You can choose a theme that suits your content style (news, storefront, blog, etc.) or pick a theme based on your target audience’s preferences (professional, colorful, based on nature, etc.). Don’t treat your choice of WordPress theme as an afterthought. Pick the right theme early on and your multilingual website will be much easier to manage down the line.
- Settle for your Languages
In terms of technical functionality, WordPress does not support a multilingual work environment out of the box. However, multilingual WordPress plugins curated by the original CMS creators will do the job for you. It’s essential that you settle for the languages you wish to optimize your content for as early as possible.
This will ensure that your WordPress site’s creation goes smoothly and that you don’t have issues with additional languages later on. Whether you settle for the traditional choice of English, German, Italian, Spanish and French, or choose niche options such as Greek or Chinese doesn’t matter. What matters is that your languages complement the target audience you wish to attract with your content once the website is operational.
- Arm Yourself with Content Tools
Once your multilingual WordPress website goes live, you should dedicate your time toward original content production. Whether you choose to write opinion pieces, helpful blog posts or place products on sale, the content you create should always be localized into all languages. Selective translation won’t help your goals to attract an international audience, especially if they notice the discrepancy between different languages.
Platforms such as Hemingway can be used to proofread, format and edit any written content for your multilingual WordPress website. In addition to that, a content platform such as Canva can be used to create complementary visuals, charts, and infographics for your website to mix up the materials presented to your audience. Choose several content tools to rely on going forward and your content production will be more straightforward as a direct result.
- Build with Multilingual SEO in Mind
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important aspect of content optimization due to its close connection with search engine algorithms. In terms of multilingual content, SEO should be handled on a per-language basis. This means that you will have to optimize your WordPress website and content in every language separately if you want to achieve maximum market coverage.
Platforms such as Google Keyword Planner offer a great service in regards to lending users assistance to find trending words, phrases and content options for their SEO. Don’t rely on DIY SEO and dedicate the same amount of time to each language to attract as much organic traffic as possible.
- Look for Visitor Feedback
Lastly, the best way to improve your multilingual WordPress website over time is to interact with your audience. Your followers will undoubtedly be of mixed origins and come from across the globe – use that fact to your advantage.
Engage them through comments, calls to action and email polls to gauge your success at running a multilingual website. This will help you eliminate grammar mistakes, localization errors and other problems in your translation efforts and create a pro-user environment for your WordPress site.
In Summary
Creating a multilingual WordPress website is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg – managing it is another matter entirely. Treat each language with care and attention just as you would your native language.
Over time, you will attract a sizable audience to your website which will prompt you to add even more languages to the selection. Take it one step at a time and don’t stretch your resources too thinly through content localization. Let the website grow organically day by day and your efforts will pay off in spades.
