products, offers or general information in different languages on WordPress offering has numerous advantages and businesses and bloggers can benefit from this option in the long run if you make your website multilingual. Since WordPress is designed to stick to the basic features at its core, multilingualism is not one of the standard features. However, as you've come to expect from WordPress, there are several ways to retrofit the multilingual feature.
Build WordPress multilingual
Visitors prefer intuitive and clear pages and if a website is offered in several languages, the translation of the current page should also be displayed during the language change. In some cases, only the most important subpages are translated into the respective foreign language, so care should be taken to ensure that the structure of the subpages is as identical as possible. If you are blogging in a foreign language, you should not disregard the fact that you should also display the Keywords and categories. Multi-language plug-ins can affect the link structure, which can lead to 404 errors, i.e. dead links, if not used correctly.
Use Multilingual Plug-In
As one of the most widely used plug-ins, the WPML Multilingual Plug-In offers several options in its basic settings. In the first step, you can configure the desired languages, the design of the language selection and the order of the languages. The URL structure can be selected and it is possible to display the current language in the form of a directory, as a domain or even as a parameter. A very practical feature of WPML is that the language recognition of the visitor's browser is automatic. WPML is oriented towards this language and automatically displays the translated pages. Posts and pages can be translated using the edit or plus symbol. A big advantage of WPML is the option "Transfer content".
If a page already exists in German or in the standard language, this content can be integrated into the translation. Especially with regard to the Pagebuilder plug-in, the annoying rebuilding of the page structure is unnecessary and only the translated texts have to be integrated. Keywords, categories, widgets and menus can also be easily translated. Particularly practical: Most theme manufacturers ensure that the theme and plug-in are compatible, since WPML is one of the most widely used language plug-ins. The change to another language therefore fits very well into the design. Polylang offers many of the WPML features as a free alternative. In the course of the first installation steps, the desired languages can be selected immediately and are added to the pages and subtitles of the website adapted in these languages. For all posts, pages and categories, the translations can be created manually. Menus and widgets are created in the different languages and then their position in the theme is arranged. With Polylang, however, some compromises have to be made. For example, the page structures can not be adopted from the standard language and must be rebuilt.
Further possibilities
WPGlobus is also a free multi-language plug-in that can score points after installation via a screen from which it is explained how to proceed further. Users receive links to the manual and the FAQ. In the basic settings, the desired languages can be selected directly and easily put in the desired order. The language selection and its position within the theme are also determined at the beginning. WPGlobus is very clearly arranged. Regardless of whether it's a post, page or category, the translations are displayed in tab form. This is particularly practical because all translations are always within one page and all content can be transferred quickly and easily from one tab to another. The menu is translated directly at WPGlobus, which means that each page in the menu has titles in the different languages.
Multisite installation - advantages and disadvantages
All mentioned plug-ins require only a standard installation of WordPress. Regarding the multisite installation, it is possible to create as many subpages as desired with only one instance of WordPress. So for each language a separate website is created. These websites are then linked by the free plug-in Multisite Language Switcher or the paid plug-in MultilingualPress. The advantage here is that all languages are separated from each other on their own websites, which minimizes the susceptibility to errors. Furthermore, it is possible to design the different languages differently. The disadvantage, however, is that two websites have to be created and people who want to use one webshop must take into account that two different web shops must be operated.
