Why translate a website?
Your website is meant to be read by your target audience. What good does it do if your customers can’t read it?
What language does your target audience speak? English? What if your customers speak a different language? If your business serves customers or clients across multiple languages, it might be time to expand to a multilingual website!
How does website translation work?
If your website is built with WordPress (most of ours are), we can translate it with affordable third-party software called WPML (the WordPress Multilingual Plugin). It’s one of the most popular translation plugins available and works seamlessly with WordPress, Divi and most major plugins.
- Choose your languages. First, set your primary language (the language your website is already in), then check a box for each language you’d like to add. Most local businesses only need 1–2 languages. A Mexican restaurant, for example, might offer English and Spanish. Would Greek or Italian be necessary for a site like that? Likely not.
- List your translators. These are the multilingual people (likely employees on your team) who will translate your website. You can translate it yourself, but most business owners have a multilingual team member handle it.
- Translate the content. The software pulls every line, word and sentence from the website, and your translators log in and translate it, one page at a time. Don’t forget the menus, images and footers! WPML doesn’t miss a single word.
How can we help translate your website?
As your webmaster, we set up the translation software and configure it for your needs, including your unique plugins and theme, your languages and your translators.
Since we at Pioneer Media are not multilingual, you’ll have two options:
- Translate it in-house. Translate the website yourself or have someone on your team do it.
- Hire a translator. We can hire a third-party translator to translate your website.
Either way, someone fluent in both languages needs to translate each page. That takes time, but once the website is translated, it only needs new translations when content changes, such as new pages or blog posts.
Conclusion
If you serve customers across multiple languages, it’s crucial to have your website available in their native language. Fortunately, it’s easy with the right software, and at Pioneer Media, we have the tools and expertise to guide you through translating your website.
About the author
Leighton Smith is Pioneer Media’s website designer, web developer and webmaster, based in East Tennessee. As a solopreneur, he is each client’s one point of contact and has built hundreds of websites since learning to code in 2006.
