Do you want to automatically translate your WordPress site into other languages?
There are few different ways to translate your WordPress site: you can do translations manually yourself, hire translators, or use AI-powered translation tools that have become quite good over the years.
In this article, we’re going to show you how to automatically translate WordPress using machine learning (the easy method).
Why automatically translate your WordPress site?
With automatic translation of your WordPress site, you can easily serve content in your users’ own languages.
Translating your website manually takes a long time. You can build a multilingual WordPress website and pay translators to help with translations. However, your costs increase as you add more languages or hire more translators.
Automatic translation of your website is quick and inexpensive. You could just translate a few important pages or translate your entire site.
The translation quality may not be as good as manual translations. However, AI-powered tools have gotten much better and offer a faster and cheaper alternative.
Let’s take a look at how you can easily set up auto translation on a WordPress site.
Set up the WPML plugin
The easiest way to automatically translate WordPress is to use a translation plugin. We recommend WPML for this.
WPML is a premium plugin and you need a ‘Multilingual CMS’ plan or higher to do automatic translations.
First, you need to install and activate the WPML plugin. For more information, see our step-by-step guide on installing a WordPress plugin.
After activation, click on the “Register now” link that you will see on your plugins page. You will then see a page where you need to enter your site key. You can find this under your account on the WPML website.
Now go to the WPML »Languages Page in your WordPress administrator. This shows the WPML setup options.
First, just select the language for your current content and then click the Next button.
Now you need to select the languages to be enabled for your site. Just check the box next to the ones you want to use.
The language options on your website are displayed in a language switcher.
WPML prompts you to choose an order for the languages in the switcher. You also need to choose what to do when a translation is missing for a particular page.
Below that you can add the language switcher to your navigation menu. If you want, you can add it to a widget or the footer area of your website.
Finally, you have the option of linking to translations above or below your posts. If you enable this option, you can choose how you want these translation links to look. You will also see a preview:
When you’re done, click the Next button to continue.
WPML then asks you if you want to send topics and plugin information to WPML.org. This can help speed things up if you need assistance.
You will then need to enter your site key if you have not done so before. If you’ve already entered it, just hit the Next button.
After that, you will see some recommendations for installing other components. In this step, install and activate the String Translation and Translation Management add-ons:
Finally, click the “Skip and Finish” link to close the setup wizard.
Automatic translation of your content
In order to translate your content, you have to go WPML »Translation Management Page in your WordPress administrator.
Here you need to choose who should translate your website. We recommend choosing “Just me” here:
Next, you’ll see some details about the advanced translation editor. Just click to continue. You will then see a summary in which you only have to click on “Done!” Have to click. Button.
You will then be directed to your translation management dashboard.
Here you need to hit the “Translation Tools” tab and then the “Sign Up For Free” button to set up automatic translations:
Tip: Get 2,000 words / month machine translation for free.
You will then be asked to enter your billing information.
Then click the Translation Dashboard tab. Here you can choose the content you want to translate. We will translate our info and contact pages.
Just check the boxes next to the selected pages:
Once you’ve selected the content, a word count estimate will appear. This will help you budget the automatic translations.
Then scroll down to the “Select translation options” section. By default, translations of the content you selected are created in all languages. However, you can change the settings if you want.
Once you’ve made your selection, click the “Add selected content to translation basket” button.
You should now see a new Translation Basket tab at the top of the screen. Clicking this will bring up the pages ready to be translated and the total number of words needed.
Click the “Send all items for translation” button:
You should then see a success message.
Next go to WPML »Translations Page in your WordPress admin to see your translation queue.
To use the automatic translator, just click the “Apply and Translate” button next to a version of a page.
You will then see the extended translation editor. Here you just have to click the “Yes, compile automatically” button:
WPML now automatically translates your content into the selected language using machine learning.
Just hit the “Finish” button at the bottom of the screen and you can translate your other pages in the same way.
Display your translated pages on your website
You can visit a page on your website and view the translated versions. This is what our info page now looks like on our demo website:
When we click on the link for the French version, we see the translated page.
Automatic translation of WordPress content in bulk
If you have a lot of content to translate, the fastest way to do it is as a batch. As before, you must first put the content in your translation basket and then send it for translation.
Then switch to the Translation Tools tab. Here you can see the list of translation jobs. Click the check box at the top of the list to select all:
Only 10 elements fit on each side. You must also select jobs on subsequent pages. To do this, simply click on the ‘2’ button at the bottom right of the table.
When you have selected all jobs, click the “Automatically compile” button:
They are automatically translated for you. You can view the finished versions by viewing your site as before.
If you want to edit an automatic translation, just go to Pages »All Pages in your WordPress dashboard. Then click on the pencil icon for that language:
This will start the advanced translation editor.
For more information on WPML, see our article on building a multilingual website.
Change the language of your WordPress administrator
WPML also allows different users to select different languages in the WordPress administration area.
It’s easy to do by walking User »Profile and select your preferred language from the Language drop-down list:
Don’t forget to click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.
Your admin area will now be translated into the language you have selected:
We hope this article has helped you learn how to translate WordPress automatically. You might also like our article on the best translation plugins for WordPress and our comparison of the best online business phone services for virtual teams.
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