You’re on your way to upgrading your WordPress site from single-language to multilingual. In this guide, we explain some best practices based on our extensive experience.
Given that WordPress sites are made up of many different components, there is room for error that can cause businesses frustration. The goal is to make sure your site is multilingual-ready before translation work starts.
Top considerations for building multilingual sites
- Don’t underestimate the scope and complexity of running a multilingual website.
- Avoid having too many technologies running on your site.
- Make sure your site is updated and well maintained.
1. Get the right people onboard
Like any other engineering profession, building good websites is a craft. Building multilingual websites requires additional expertise, which not all developers have.
If you are already developing your site now, you can always involve an expert from WPML. It is not a prerequisite, but it can reduce iterations and save time and money across the project.
2. Pick well known WPML-compatible themes and plugins
WordPress sites typically use one theme and a combination of plugins. The theme determines the visual appearance and the plugins add functionality. Make sure both the theme and plugins are ready for multilingual sites.
3. Decide what parts of the site require translation
Often, you can go live with marketing campaigns in other languages without translating every page. WPML allows you to set translation priority for different pages, so you can send only the right pages in each batch.
4. Conduct tests to make sure that all works as expected
WPML offers a free review service for partner clients. Their team will review the software running on your site and analyze if any additional configuration or development work is needed.
Use this link to submit a request: https://wpml.org/home/translation-ready-review/?tsName=OneDocument
Furthermore, before you send a large amount of content for translation, do a test translation. This way, problems can be identified on a small scale and corrected quickly.
5. Keep WordPress, the theme and all plugins up-to-date
Once your site is multilingual and translated, maintain it on a regular basis. If you are running a mission-critical website, test updates on a staging environment before going live.
If you need technical help, WPML has a multilingual support forum and OneDocument clients receive priority support through the partnership.
