How to build a multilingual website
Are you ready to start tapping into the multilingual market? Use this guide to help you get started.
1. Define your expansion goals
The first step is to decide which languages you will add to your website. The choice will depend on your geographic appetite (and audience), budget, and resources.
To update the site regularly, you will need people with a strong command of the desired language. Finding the right resources might be challenging—especially in our English-centric world where every other ad screams, “Improve English online.”
So, before building a multilingual website, answer these questions:
- Do you want to aim at a specific country or need to translate your website without specific regional targeting?
- Is there a market for your products? If so, can you compete on price, quality of service, and brand name?
- How many languages are you able to budget?
2. Choose your domain strategy
You can build a multilingual website in two ways: a subdomain approach or a separate domain approach. That means you can either have a single website domain with other-language linked pages or use separate domains to host the multilingual versions of your content.
Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. The subdomain approach is affordable—you won’t need to pay for dozens of URLs and domains—but it has a much higher risk of broken links. A separate domain approach is faster to set up and less risky in terms of bugs but much pricier.
3. Choose the right software
The next step is to pick a CMS—a content management system to help you create and manage digital content for your multi- or bilingual website.
Two commonly used CMSs are WordPress and Joomla. Both are self-hosted, open-source CMSs that have been around for more than ten years.
The first has great extensibility, a huge support community, and relatively low development costs. The second has more advanced user management and flexibility for displaying non-standard content types.
But if we’re talking about building multilingual sites, you need to know that Joomla has inbuilt multilingual options. Meanwhile, WordPress requires installing a plugin. You’ll want to check that your content management system serves your multilingual needs and budget.
4. Pick a plugin
If you choose a CMS that requires a plugin for multilingual content, you’ll need to pick a website translation tool before moving on. Fortunately, many options exist, such as Weglot, GlobalLink, and Smartling.
While many of these tools will help you translate your content automatically without the help of translation services, some provide options for manual translation as well.
One thing to keep in mind while selecting a CMS tool is that it should be compatible with the WCMS your website is built on.
5. Translate
The biggest misconception about building a multilingual website is that installing a plugin automatically translates all the content, but that is only partially true.
Yes, the tools mentioned above will allow virtually any content on a website to be translated, but they can only help with the literal translation.
Do not rely solely on automatic translation tools and services. Has your content been translated or at least checked by a real person? Even though it is not the most practical solution, hiring a group of freelance translators is the way to go. Human translators can analyze language from an emotional and contextual point of view, giving your text a more accurate translation.
6. Choose a place for the language selection menu
As with any website, functionality and overall user experience (UX) must be at the core of every decision you make. So one of your essential tasks is to choose how users will select a language on your site.
One of the smartest and most effective ways to offer language selection options is in a conveniently-placed drop-down menu.
Usually, these menus are located in the top-right corner of the homepage. That is the most universally recognized and obvious place to put them—users will instinctively take a glance there.
