Multilingual WordPress sites can provide a variety of significant benefits for companies doing business on an international level. WordPress (WP) has been the most popular blogging platform for years, but today it’s also one of the most frequently used platforms for creating company websites, thanks to its great flexibility and ease of use. Unfortunately, WP itself is not a multilingual tool, creating a problem for those customers who wish to offer content in more than one language. Many plug-ins can solve this problem, but not all language functionality plug-ins are created equally.
The Popularity of WordPress
Experts estimate that more than 75 million websites now run on the WP platform, comprising about 20 percent of the world’s sites. The WP engine itself is free and open-source, highly adaptable, flexible and reliable. Users love WP for these reasons, but also because they can select (or design) what is known as a WP theme to customize their site’s appearance and functionality. In addition to themes, users can select from more than 30,000 plug-ins. Plug-ins offer additional and specialty functions of all types, including contact forms, client portals and search engine optimization.
Multilingual WordPress Sites Can Benefit Your Business
You can use a multilingual WP site to build or expand your business in many ways. You may want your site visitors to be able to choose from two or more languages when they arrive, or you might want to translate your existing website into a different language and use that site to target international customers within a certain region.
You must consider several variables when performing site translation, each of which can influence the ultimate success of your expanded site. The size and complexity of your website can influence both the cost and success of the translation, as can your level of technical prowess. Perhaps most important is how effective different translation tools may be.
Choosing the Best Way to Localize a WordPress Site
With a WP site, you can change your theme to one that offers multilingual functionality, or you can install a multilingual plug-in. This approach is cost-effective, but unfortunately you’re going to get automatic machine translation, which may not make sense. You can choose from among a few hybrid and human translations, but these are reported to have extremely limited accessibility and support.
Many of the free or inexpensive options can effectively translate the functionality of your site, but when it comes to your content, you need a different approach. If you’re serious about expanding your business into new markets, experts recommend using a professional translation and localization service to render your content for your new site. The cost of this service will quickly be recovered once your overseas site goes live and customers connect with you through it.
For WordPress translation as well as your other localization needs, Verbatim Solutions offers a valuable suite of services to businesses and other entities that need assistance with their international operations. Contact them today and ask how they can help you with your multilingual WordPress needs.
