If you are working hard as a WordPress owner, you may also want to be active in other countries. You may have started in the Netherlands with a webshop and it is getting better and better. You also have the feeling that your products abroad could also do well. Beautiful ambitions that you should of course definitely get started with. A very good reason to set up your WordPress website multilingual if you have ambitions to be active abroad.
What is multi language?
Multi language means ‘multilingual’ or ‘multiple languages’. It is possible to provide a WordPress website with multiple languages, so that you as a visitor can choose your own language. Ideal if you are looking as a visitor for a specific product that is only available abroad. And if you find this product as a visitor, for example, on a German website, it is very nice if you can switch to, for example, Dutch. But the other way around, it means the same thing.
Your website in multiple languages
If someone from Germany is looking for a product that you sell on your website, the chances are very high if this visitor wants to take in the information in German. WPOnderhoud.nl has a lot of experience in this field. We can ensure that your website becomes multilingual, with which you can also start working internationally. Check out our WordPress Maintenance Packages.
Keep in mind that research has shown that visitors stay on a website twice as long if they can read the content in their mother tongue.
How to create a website in multiple languages?
You can choose to use plugins to make your website multi-language. We have seen several plugins for multiple languages on one website. Only with us wpml stands out head and shoulders above this, read on quickly. A good plugin that you can use for this is the WPML plugin.
WordPress plugin for multiple languages
WPML is a plugin that you can use for multiple languages. This plugin ensures that you go through steps in a pleasant, structured way to get your website available in multiple languages. Every page, every message has to be translated separately at WPML, so that you are consciously busy with the translation of your entire website. This also keeps you an overview, so that you do not find out afterwards that you have forgotten something. Wpml can choose a main language for the entire website. Check out our blog about a WordPress multisite.
WordPress translation plugins
If you offer multiple languages on your website, the languages must be there. You have to set it per language. The easiest way is a translation plugin. We have listed a number of them for you here:
Qtranslate
With the Qtranslate plugin you have access to many buttons and there are multiple settings possible in the field of multilingualism. Here too, the possibility is offered that you choose a standard language for the entire website. This will be Dutch in this case at a Dutch parent company.
Translatepress
TranslatePress is a plugin that gives you the ability to create a combination between automatic translations and human translations. Texts are translated automatically, but they can also be easily adjusted. This way, you can translate your entire website post by post and page by page without accidentally skipping anything.
Findability SEO
If you have made your website multi language, you naturally want to be found on the internet. And in that area you now have many more opportunities. Because if you have made your website available in four languages, for example, this also means many more opportunities in terms of findability. Keywords can be incorporated into the texts in Dutch, but you can now also work with keywords in foreign texts.
Seo translation in native language
Important when processing the right keywords in another language is that you can not just translate everything literally. That is why it is advisable to involve someone who has the other language as their mother tongue and who (preferably) also knows SEO. By paying attention to the findability of your website and products, you increase the chance of success in an international market.
Deliver content in native language
This also applies to placing blogs on your website in another language, for example. Blogs that are about a specific topic in a certain country can be seen by Google as valuable and therefore your website will be ranked higher in this country. Which will improve the findability of your site. Need help with the SEO of a WPML website? Ask our WordPress specialists and check out WordPress SEO.
Translate manually or automatically?
An important consideration that you have to make is whether you have the texts translated by a professional, whether you are going to translate them automatically or whether you want to do this translation yourself.
Only one of those ten visitors buys a product in a webshop that is not in his/her own language. That means that nine out of ten people who buy something do so in their own language.
Take into account the search intent
Having texts translated by a professional has the advantage that you can transfer the texts on your website well to the visitors of your website. Especially when it comes to selling products, hitting the right chord is essential. A good translator will also be able to add details to the texts, so that the text really arrives at the visitor in the mother tongue, exactly as this text is intended.
Automatic translation
Automatic translation of texts has the advantage that it is cheap, and very fast. The big disadvantage is that translation in this way is done in a fairly crude way. Texts are literally translated so that you can get strange, crooked sentences. Visitors to your website will notice that the texts are automatically translated and this can scare visitors away. As a result, they often do not feel welcome on your website because automatically translated texts are not really inviting.
Translate yourself
Translating texts yourself is of course also a possibility. Realize that you have to be really good at mastering the language to be able to do this yourself. Especially if you decide to translate your website into, for example, four languages, this can still be quite difficult. The moment spelling errors occur on your website, this can scare off visitors. If there are spelling errors on the website, it is often thought that the products will also be defective. And of course you don’t want to radiate that as a company.
Advice WP Maintenance
WPonderhoud is happy to advise and support you in this process to make your website multilingual. By making the right choices that fit your ambitions, but also your budget. So that you can take the next step with your WordPress website and break through internationally!
Contact us
Do you not yet know whether a WPML website suits you or are you not good at translating the content of your WordPress website? Contact our WordPress specialists, they will help you a step further. You can reach us on 030 20 72 488 or start a chat with us. Also check out our WordPress Maintenance Packages Fixed. See you again!
