In today’s world, technology has made everything much easier. This includes what would have constituted language barriers. One may wonder how WPML WordPress translation plays a role. According to research, English is the most common language on website pages globally. It makes up about 54% of the content on websites. Ironically, users who make up the audience for an English web page just make up roughly 26% of netizens.
This means that if your website is exclusively in English, your audience will be limited to those who only read that language. This is why creating a multilingual WordPress site is key to expanding your website reach.
Before we go into the process of using this plugin for your website translation, you should know the advantages of using it.
The Advantages of Using this WPML for WordPress Translation
- WPML WordPress translation makes it easy to translate all your website content within the WordPress admin dashboard
- Your website will have more visibility thanks to an expanded target audience.
- Great for global brands because they can translate their website content into as many languages as they want. There are no limits to the number of languages you can translate your content into
How to Use WPML?
The process of using this plugin is outlined in the steps below:
Step 1: Install And Activate WPML
- Log in to https://wpml.org/account/.
- Visit ‘downloads’.
- Install the OTGS Installer plugin.
- Now login to your website and go to the plugin section in the WordPress admin.
- Select “add new”.
- Click “upload plugin”.
- You’ll see options, choose the ZIP file you downloaded in the third step above and click “install”.
- Activate the installer plugin”.
- Click “register WPML” and the option that will enable you to get the key from its site. You’ll be redirected to Wpml.org to get the site key.
- Now, you should download the WPML multilingual CMS plugin and activate it.
Step 2: WPML Basic Configuration
- This is the next phase. Here, you’ll set up your plugin. It comes with a setup wizard that will guide you on what to do. The first thing to do is choose the existing language(s) of your website.
- Next, pick the language(s) you want your website content translated into by checking the boxes as seen in the image below.
- Select where you want to add the language switch tool. This is what your users will use to change the language of the website if they want
- Add the plugin key and conclude the process. Your WPML has been successfully configured.
Step 3: Translating WordPress Content
- To do this, go to any page or post on your website and tap the side menu. You’ll see the “language section,” which is a recent addition thanks to the installation and activation of the WPML plugin.
- Select “duplicate” in your preferred language. This will cause the page to refresh. You’ll see a duplicate page in “translations” with a pencil icon.
- Click the pencil icon to take you to the duplicate page, where you can edit the website content. Repeat this for other posts or pages that you want to translate.
- The next time you visit your pages, you’ll see a selection of various languages and content that has been converted into another language.
N.B: Please note that, in this step, you should not tap "+" beside any content yet to be translated. Doing that will convert the page content to your preferred language, but you'll lose the original page. This is why duplicating is better.
Step 4: Translating Menu Items
You can either do this manually or automatically. For the manual method:
- Go to “appearances” in WordPress and select “menus.”
- To translate it, tap the “+” beside the target language. This will create another menu in the language. The plugin will recognize it as a translated menu of the original one.
- Add the pages, categories, or menu items that you want under the translated menu. For easier navigation, save it with the translated names as in the image below.
Conclusion
The most significant perk of the WPML WordPress translation process is that everything is done in one place. This tool will be of great use to companies who want to expand their target audience and, consequently, their target market. To recap, install and activate the plugin, configure the plugin, translate the WordPress content for creating a multilingual WordPress site, and, lastly, translate menu items.