Expanding overseas? These are the 5 best translation plugins

The 5 Best Translation Plugins For Multilingual Websites

If your budget won’t stretch to the professional translation of your website, that doesn’t necessarily have to bring an end to your plans to sell to customers overseas. If your website is built on WordPress, then translation plugins can provide a viable alternative. Although automated translations certainly have their limitations, they could prove to be an effective stopgap measure that allow you to enter foreign markets while you consider making an investment in professional translation.

In this article, we’re going to take a look at five of the best translation plugins for WordPress websites and explore some of the features that may make them the right choice for you.

1. TranslatePress

TranslatePress gives you the option to translate your web pages manually, assign a ‘Translator’ role to any user without giving them full access to your admin area, or use Google Translate to produce automated translations. This makes it a versatile tool that can support you, however you want to work.

Uniquely, it also allows you to translate posts and pages directly from the front-end of your website, so there’s no more switching between the editor, string translation interfaces or badly translated plugins. There’s also full support for WooCommerce and a range of site builders.

The plugin costs $139 a year for business use on three websites, which represents good value when you think about the potential benefits it could bring.

2. WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML)

WPML is one of the most used WordPress translation plugins, allowing you to perform automated and manual translations in more than 60 languages. Plans start at just $29 for blogs and $79 for full-feature websites, making it a cost-effective solution to your multilingual translation needs. You can choose to produce your automated translation using Microsoft Azure, ICanLocalize and Cloudwords or perform back-end translations manually.

3. Google Website Translator

In terms of simplicity, the Google Website Translator cannot be beaten. Not only is this automated translation tool extremely easy to use, but it’s also free, allowing you to provide multilingual content in more than 100 languages without spending a penny.

This tool allows you to install a widget on your site that visitors can click to view your content in the language of their choice. Unfortunately, the quality of the translations is not always perfect and the translated pages are not indexed by the search engines, so they won’t appear in the search engine results pages for foreign language searches. Those are two significant drawbacks, so if you want to take your overseas expansion seriously, you might decide it’s worth spending a bit of money for a better product.

4. Polylang

Polylang is a popular automated WordPress translation plugin that allows you to create multilingual websites in as many languages as you like. The language packs are downloaded and updated automatically, giving you quick and easy access to foreign markets. Importantly, this plugin is compatible with popular WordPress plugins such as All in One SEO and Yoast SEO, so your translated content will be indexed and appear on the search engine results pages for foreign language searches.

5. Multilingual Press

If you want to go the self-translation route, then the Multilingual Press translation plugin is an excellent choice, as it allows you to connect multiple versions of your website that are hosted on different domains. For example, by connecting your UK, German and French websites, your visitors will receive a seamless browsing experience and you’ll be able to edit them all in a much faster and more efficient way.

Multilingual Press is also compatible with plugins such as WooCommerce and Yoast SEO, so you’ll be able to offer native-language ecommerce functionality and your websites will rank for foreign language searches. Unlike other translation plugins, Multilingual Press will also give your website’s performance and page loading times a boost, helping to improve your multilingual SEO.

Ready to expand your business overseas?

At Linguistica International, we offer word-perfect translation services in more than 200 languages to make your business shine overseas. Give us a call on 02392 987 765 or email info@linguistica-international.com today.