Using Transifex to Translate Your Website

The first thing to understand about Transifex is that it’s a SaaS, or Software as a Service. The service is completely separate from your WordPress site, and there’s no plugin to install. However, you’ll need to add a snippet of JavaScript to your site.

To get started with Transifex, you need to create an account on their website. It’s free to create an account — they offer a 15-day free trial with no credit card required.

Once you have an account created, you can create a new project or try their demo project. For this article, I’m going to demonstrate creating a new project, which is what you would do when translating your WordPress site.

How Transifex Works

When you add a new project, you have some choices to make. The first choice is to decide what your project type will be. There are three types to choose from when creating a project:

• File-based
• Live
• Native

When using File-based, you need to start with a prepared language file, such as a po, yml, or xliff that contains the contents you want to be translated.

The Live option allows you to enter the URL of your website and let Transifex auto-detect strings.

Native is an SDK solution that you can use to integrate with JavaScript, React, Python, or other languages used in developing software.

Since we are talking about your WordPress site, the logical choice would be to use the Live option.

You can then select to assign your project to a team, so you can work with others on localizing your content.

The next step is to select the languages you’ll be translating. First, you choose your source, and then you’ll select all the languages you want to have your strings translated into. You can add as many languages as you need.

When finished adding languages, you can click the Create Project button.

Translating Your Site Using Transifex

The next step is to enter the URL of the site you want to translate. Transifex adds this to your Resources.

There are two ways to translate your site using the Transifex service: using the Live Translation tool in your account on the Transifex site, or on your own site. Translating on your own site requires that you add a snippet of JavaScript on each page you’d like to translate.

It’s easiest to use the Live Translation tool. However, to publish the translations to your WordPress site you’ll need to install the JavaScript snippet they provide for your project. Correctly installing JavaScript on WordPress page headers can be complicated. It’s easiest to use a plugin, but you’ll need to find one that allows you to place the snippets on specific pages rather than within the entire site’s header.

The Live Translation tool brings up a preview of your site in the window. To begin the process of using Live Translation, you need to select any strings on the page and click the checkmark to approve them for translation.

Once you’ve selected all your strings, you can click the Order Translations button. This is exactly how it sounds: you need to select a service and order the translations using a paid third-party service. Some of the services available will only translate European languages, so you need to be careful about which one you choose — especially if you wish to translate your strings into Korean or Swahili, for example.

Once you create an order and make payment, you can publish your translation. Again, you’ll need to have the JavaScript snippet installed correctly on your WordPress site to make this work.

Pricing for Transifex

As I mentioned, there’s a 15-day free trial of Transifex. After that, you’ll need to choose a pricing tier that fits your budget.

Basic

This is a starter plan for smaller teams, billed annually at $70 per month. It includes the basic functionality I outlined above, and you get unlimited projects and files. It also includes up to 50,000 words, and you can select more words if you need them — the price will adjust as you increase the volume.

Premium

If you need more advanced features like automations, bulk string actions, or advanced translation memory, you can choose the Premium tier. Premium is billed annually at $105 per month. It includes all the Basic features plus the advanced features I just mentioned. Same as Basic, pricing starts at 50,000 words, and the price increases as you add more to your plan.

Enterprise

You’ll need to contact the Transifex sales team to get pricing for the Enterprise tier.

The prices I’ve outlined here don’t include any translation services you use under the Live Translation tool. Those are billed separately according to the service you choose.

Best Transifex Alternative for WordPress

I’ve covered the basics of Transifex, so let’s compare it with our translation tool, TranslatePress. While Transifex is a solid service, it may be best suited for static websites or software applications. If you’re running a WordPress site — or managing several WordPress sites — TranslatePress is a much better fit. Let me explain why this is a good Transifex Alternative.

Ease of Use

The first advantage of using TranslatePress is that it’s easy to use. Once you install the plugin, all the features and tools are accessible from within your WordPress Admin Dashboard. It’s also a no-code solution. There are no JavaScript snippets to put in your site’s header — the plugin is all you need.

Configuring TranslatePress is easy and virtually painless. The initial setup screen is simply laid out and easy to navigate.

In the settings menu under the General tab, you can select your site’s default language and add as many alternative languages as you like.

And, there’s no reason you need to worry about uploading PO or YML file formats. All the functionality of TranslatePress is built right in, and you can do everything from your WordPress dashboard. In fact, you can use either the Visual Editor or String Translation Editor to select and translate strings — without ever leaving WordPress.

The TranslatePress Language Switcher

A fantastic feature of TranslatePress is the language switcher. You can give your visitors the power to select their preferred language on the front end. There are three language switchers available, so you can use whichever one(s) works best for your site’s design. You can use:

Shortcode: Allows you to place a language dropdown in a widget.

Menu item: Put your language dropdown right in your nav menu.

Floating: Places a button in any corner you like, where users can click and select a language.

Setting up a language switcher is super easy, and your visitors will appreciate the ability to choose their preferred language — which means they’ll spend more time on your site!

Cost

The cost difference when comparing TransplatePress with Transifex is clear.

The lowest tier starts at just €7.99 per month, with the highest tier topping out at €20.99 per month, billed annually. In addition to the core functionality of the TranslatePress plugin, you also get multiple Add-ons and Premium Support.

There are no additional translation costs unless you choose to use third-party paid translation services from Google or DeepL.

Is TranslatePress a Good Transifex Alternative?

Again, Transifex is a good service for translating strings in a static website or app you’re developing. It might be a good fit if you’re technically savvy and comfortable with installing JavaScript on your site.

We believe TranslatePress is the best alternative for WordPress sites, especially if you need an easy, no-code solution. You get unlimited language support and a powerful visual editing tool. You can use it for free on your own site today.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

The post The Best Transifex Alternative for WordPress Sites appeared first on TranslatePress.

• Menu Dropdown
• Widget or Footer Dropdown
• Floating Selector

In this post, I’ll show you how to use all of them. But first, let’s talk about what makes for an effective language dropdown.

Designing an Effective Language Dropdown

Like any aspect of your website’s design, it’s all about the user. And when we’re talking about a language dropdown — or switcher — the main thing you need to be conscious of is how your site’s visitors will view and interact with it.

One significant design choice you can make is whether to display the languages in your site’s native language, or the specific language being shown. For example, on an English language site, rather than display the language as “Spanish,” you can display it as “Español.” This helps users easily identify their language and helps them feel instantly comfortable browsing your site.

Another visual guide that can be helpful is to display the flag of the country next to the language. Showing the Korean flag next to the language text in the switcher makes it instantly recognizable to a Korean visitor.

As you plan the layout of your site, it’s also important to think about the placement of the language dropdown. Every site is unique, so the best placement for your site may be different from another’s. Again, think about how your visitors will interact with your site. Consider where the most obvious place might be to display the dropdown. It could be in the bottom right, but if you have other important content there, you may want to consider moving it to the left of the page.

If you place the language dropdown in your footer, will visitors spot it easily? Consider also putting language switchers in multiple areas, like the sidebar, or even in your navigation menu.

The most important factor in displaying your language dropdown is how you imagine your particular users will best find and interact with it.

Now that we’ve covered the design aspects, let’s go over how to put it all into action!

Your Language Switcher Settings

Once you’ve installed the free TranslatePress plugin from your WordPress dashboard (Plugins → Add New), the first thing you need to do is visit your settings. You can find them in your WordPress dashboard menu under Settings → TranslatePress. Scroll down in the General tab to find the Language Switcher section.

You’ll see three options, each with its own settings:

• Shortcode
• Menu Item
• Floating language selection

For each option, use the dropdown menus to choose how the language names will appear. For example, you can choose Full Language Names, Short Language Names, Flags with Language Names, and more.

Additionally, the Floating language selection gives you the choice of a Dark or Light theme, as well as positioning on the page.

Once you’ve made your selections and saved your changes, let’s move on to displaying the dropdown on the page.

Displaying Your Language Dropdown

Again, displaying your language dropdown is an individual choice. You may need to experiment with different settings and display options until you find the best fit for your site.

Shortcode

If you use the shortcode [language-switcher] option for your language dropdown, you can display the switcher virtually anywhere on your site that accepts the shortcode Gutenberg block. The best places for using the shortcode are typically in a widget — which you can place in a sidebar or footer.

If you’re using a block theme and full site editing, you can also add the shortcode in your footer very easily.

On the front end, your visitors can use the dropdown to select their preferred language.

Menu Item

If you like, you can display the language dropdown in your navigation menu. TranslatePress automatically adds the option to WordPress to make it easy. When you edit your Menus, you’ll see Language Switcher in the list of menu items you can add.

First, select Current Language and any languages you want to be displayed in the dropdown. Click Add to Menu. Then, arrange the languages as sub-items underneath Current Language.

Once you save your menu, you need to make sure the appropriate menu is selected in your site’s header — this will depend on your theme. On the front end, your language dropdown will appear in your navigation menu.

Floating Language Selection

If you want to have a language dropdown always available on every page, no matter where the user scrolls, you’ll want to use the Floating Language Selection.

If you’ve enabled this option in your TranslatePress settings as we covered earlier, then it will automatically appear wherever you’ve designated — there’s nothing else you need to do!

On the front end, the floating language switcher appears as a professionally polished button. Clicking expands the options for all languages you’ve made available.

If you’re using the premium version of TranslatePress, you can display as many languages as you like. However, if you only need one extra language you can use the free version.

Make it Easy for Your Visitors with a Language Dropdown

There’s a lot you can do to make choosing a preferred language easy for your visitors. As you design your translated site, think about these choices:

• Native language name display or your site’s language;
• Using flags to help users quickly identify their language;
• Placement of the language dropdown.

The better you make the experience for your users, the more likely they are to stay on your site — and return!

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

If you have any more questions on how to setup your own language dropdown, don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments!

The post How to Create an Effective Language Dropdown in WordPress appeared first on TranslatePress.

In this post, we’ll show you a tutorial on how to use the Loco Translate plugin and then compare the features and functionality with an alternative: TranslatePress.

Translate Your Site Using Loco Translate

Loco Translate is a free, open-source translation plugin for WordPress. It helps you edit WordPress translation files in your browser, and provides integration with automatic translation services such as Google, DeepL, Microsoft, and Lecto AI.

The plugin uses built-in WordPress locale codes and a protected language directory for saving custom translations. There’s also developer support with Gettext/localization tools.

Download and Install Loco Translate

Before we get into the tutorial, Loco Translate is available for download on their WordPress.org plugin page. And of course, you can simply search for it from your WordPress Add Plugins screen. Install as you would any other plugin, and activate.

Loco Translate Configuration

Before configuring anything in the Loco Translate plugin itself, it’s important to run a quick check to make sure that your WordPress site can switch languages. In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings → General. Scroll down until you see Site Language.

This is where you choose the default language for your site. From the dropdown list, choose a new language, such as Italian. At the bottom of the page, click Save.

In your dashboard, you should see the language of your site change to Italian. Any core strings included in WordPress will change to Italian for all visitors. However, any text you’ve added — like pages or posts — will still appear in the language in which you originally wrote them. Also, the language of some plugins may not change, either.

You’ll need to create custom translations for those strings, which is where a translation plugin like Loco comes in. Before we start doing that, go ahead and switch your language back to the default.

Creating Custom Translation Folders

Now you need to set up some protection for your custom translations. During an automatic translation or theme update, those can get overwritten and you’ll lose all your hard work.

To do this, you’ll need to get into your WordPress site’s files and folders on the server via FTP. If you’re not familiar with how to do this, you can check with your web host. They can show you how to access your files.

Once you have access, navigate to the wp-content/languages folder. Inside that folder, you need to create a folder called loco, then within that folder, a folder called themes. When finished, the full path will look like this:

wp-content/languages/loco/themes

Loco Translate will store custom translation files here rather than in your theme’s folders, which will prevent future updates from being deleted.

Check for the POT File

While you’re still in your site’s folders there’s one more thing to check. Navigate to your theme’s languages folder. The path will look like this (substitute your_theme for your theme’s name):

wp-content/themes/your_theme/languages

There should be a file in there with the extension .pot, like your_theme.pot. If there is, all is good. If not, you may need to switch themes to make sure it’s going to be compatible with Loco Translate.

Add a New Language

The next step is to add a new language to your site.

You need to make sure that you have Custom selected and that it shows the path to the folder we created earlier. Click Start Translating to go to the editor screen.

Translate a String Using Loco Translate

You’ll see a list of strings included in your theme’s template file. Select one from the list, or you can search using the Filter Translations field. In our example, we searched for the “Leave a Reply” string, which we are going to translate into Italian.

In the field below Source Text — in our case Italian translation — enter your translated text. You’ll need to do this manually for each string you’d like to translate. If you’re not fluent in the language you’re translating into, Google Translate comes in very handy here.

Click Save.

To test that it worked, go back to Settings → General and switch the language to your translated language — Italian, in our case. Since we translated “Leave a Reply”, we’ll look at the bottom of a blog post. Sure enough, the string is translated.

The other string in the field “Add Comment” still appears in English because it hasn’t been translated yet. At this point, you can go back into the Loco Translate editor and translate that string, as well as any other strings you like. Just repeat the steps above.

Automatic Translation

If you find translating strings manually a tedious task, you can automate the process. Loco Translate provides support for automatic translation services. You’ll need to sign up for those services and obtain an API key. Some provide their service for free and others may charge a fee.

Pricing

You can install Loco Translate and use it for free. That gets you up to 2,000 translations, or 1,000 translations per project — limited to 2 projects. If you need more translations and manage more projects, they offer tiered plans.

Multilingual Sites

While Loco Translate can successfully translate strings into any language you’ve added, only one translation can be activated at a time. That’s because the plugin relies on the core WordPress language switcher. To show translated strings to your visitors in a particular language, you need to select that language as the default in your site’s settings.

Best Alternative for WordPress

Now let’s compare Loco Translate vs TranslatePress, our own WordPress translation tool. We feel it’s the best alternative for translating your WordPress site, and we have some solid reasons to share!

TranslatePress Configuration

If Loco Translate seemed like a complicated process, there is a much easier solution that doesn’t require getting into your site’s files. Setting up TranslatePress is super easy.

Once you have the plugin installed and activated, the initial setup screen is intuitively laid out.

On this one screen, you can select your site’s default language and add as many alternative languages as you like. There’s no need to switch your WordPress core settings to a different default language.

There’s no reason you need to access your site’s files via FTP or worry about PO or MO file formats. All the functionality is built-in, and you can do everything from your WordPress dashboard.

String and Visual Translation Editors

TranslatePress has a great string translation tool, and you can filter (search) the list of your site’s strings to find exactly what you’re looking for.

When you select a string, you’ll see it appear on the left along with a list of languages you’ve chosen to display on your site. Simply fill in each field with the translation and save.

Using this method, you can easily isolate string types by switching to Slugs, Gettext, Emails, and Regular.

While the String Translation method is useful, where TranslatePress really shines is in its Visual Editor. Just like it sounds, you can choose and edit translations visually by selecting them on the site’s page.

This makes it easy to find and select the exact strings you want to translate as you’re looking at the page.

Automatic Translation

TranslatePress also comes with the option to automatically translate your WordPress site, just like Loco Translate. All you need to do to set it up is fetch an API key from either DeepL or Google Translate, add it to your site, and see the magic happen while you refresh all your website pages.

A Truly Multilingual Site

Translating your WordPress site is really about making it easy for any visitor to navigate and read your content. Rather than choosing only one language translation to display at a time, you can put the power in your visitor’s hands and allow them to choose their own language.

TranslatePress allows you to display a language button on the front end of your site, which shows a list of all available languages. As soon as a visitor clicks on their preferred language, your site is magically translated for them.

Summary

Loco Translate is a functional plugin that will help you translate your site into multiple languages. Particularly, it offers support for theme developers and those comfortable working in the back end of their WordPress site.

We believe TranslatePress is the best alternative for WordPress site translation, especially for users who need an easy out-of-the-box solution. It’s a foolproof and intuitive solution that does not require any previous technical skills. You get unlimited language support and a powerful visual editing tool. If you’re fine with adding just one extra language to your site you can try it for free and see just how well it works without any fuss.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

If you have any questions about Loco Translate and how it compares to TranslatePress, feel free to leave a comment below.

The post Loco Translate Tutorial & Best Alternative for WordPress appeared first on TranslatePress.

While WooCommerce is amazing out of the box, there are several ways you can enhance your abilities to make your online store even better for you and your customers. There’s a huge volume of free WooCommerce plugins out there that will help you achieve your goals. In fact, the list is so long that it can be hard to tell what’s worth trying.

I’m here to help you narrow down the list. In this article, I’ll share the best free WooCommerce plugins for your online store.

The Best Free WooCommerce Plugins

I’ve listed the plugins in categories to make it easy for you to go through them or jump straight to the category you’re interested in. No matter how you operate your WooCommerce shop or WordPress site, there’s something in here you can use.

SEO

If you want to get sales, you need to get the word out. One of the best ways to do that is by optimizing the SEO of your site. The best plugin to help you do that is Yoast.

Yoast SEO Free has amazing tools out of the box to help you manage your site’s SEO. One of the first steps after installing Yoast is to answer questions about your site. Yoast takes that information and creates structured data for your site that helps search engines better understand your content. In turn, that helps boost your rankings for your particular product or service.

In addition, provides features like:

• Advanced XML site maps;
• Better control of your site’s breadcrumbs;
• In-depth schema.org integration;
• Canonical URLs and meta tags.

Yoast also helps increase loading times for your site, which helps make it easier and faster for customers to shop.

Yoast also has a premium plugin that’s even more specifically targeted for WooComerce, but it does come with additional cost.

Currency Conversion

Does your WooCommerce store do business globally? If so, you’ll likely need to help your customers convert currency and make it easier for them to shop.

Currency Switcher for WooCommerce is a free plugin that helps convert your shop’s currency by country or language.

Currency Switcher automatically pulls in the most current exchange rates to show your customers the accurate price in their preferred currency. You can set this for your entire store, or on a per-product basis. That’s helpful if you only offer certain products to certain countries.

There are formatting and placement options to help you customize the switcher and price formats. In addition, there’s a “Make Pretty Price” feature that allows for rounding if exchange rates are used.

The free version allows for up to two additional currencies at a time. The Pro version allows for more.

Currency Switcher for WooCommerce is a barebones plugin that does exactly what it promises.

Translation

It almost goes without saying that by operating a WooCommerce store, you’re dealing in a global marketplace. The magic of running an online store is that you have an enormous customer base. And when that’s the case, it makes sense that you would do well by offering translations for your customers in other countries.

TranslatePress is an easy-to-use and reliable plugin that will help you translate your WooCommerce shop into multiple languages.

You can not only translate entire pages of your WordPress site, but you can also select specific strings and translate the ones you think are most crucial to your visitors. It’s compatible with WooCommerce out of the box, there’s nothing extra to install.

There’s a handy visual interface where translations are displayed in real-time as you input them. And if you need more help, there’s also support for automatic translations, which makes it even easier to offer fully translated pages to your customers.

TranslatePress integrates with Google Translate in the free version and DeepL in the premium plans.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Security

The worst thing to happen to your WooCommerce store is that your site gets hacked and you lose your precious order and customer data. Even if that’s never happened to you, you might imagine how difficult it can be to come back from that — if it’s even possible.

The good news is that WordFence has your back. It secures your WordPress site 24/7, with an easy-to-follow setup. The even better news is that you get a ton of features and security for free.

WordFence offers superior login security, including 2FA, brute force protection, reCAPTCHA, and IP access control. Even as a free user, you get full access to WordFence Central, their template-based security configuration management tool.

The WordFence folks are experts in online security, and they maintain the largest WordPress-specific malware database in the world. With the combination of their malware scan and firewall services, your WooCommerce shop is safe from just about anything hackers can throw at it.

Customer Profiles

The default WordPress user registration and profile page are functional, but you have to admit it’s pretty boring. Especially when you go through all the trouble to build a great-looking WooCommerce shop, you want the customer profile page to look just as good.

Profile Builder offers a free plugin for your WooCommerce site that helps you create login, registration, and profile pages that look great and are a pleasure to use.

By creating a new page and adding a simple block in the Gutenberg editor, you can provide a better registration and profile editing experience for your customers. They’ll appreciate the improved interface, a much more flexible method for both registering and updating their user profiles.

On the back end, you can restrict content based on user roles or logged-in status — including WooCommerce shop pages and products. This can come in handy if you’re selling a private course or making certain products available on a limited basis.

You can also choose which user roles can view the Admin Bar when logged in. And if you want to keep certain profile fields hidden from public view, there’s a setting for that, too.

The plugin is GDRP-compliant and there is also a Pro version of Profile Builder available with even more features, such as:

• Extra user form fields;
• Front-end user listing for creating member and business directories;
• Custom WooCommerce redirects after login or logout;
• Admin approval of new users;
• Social login;

…and more!

Memberships and Subscriptions

Are you looking for a complete membership solution that also integrates with WooCommerce? Particularly if you run a high-traffic WordPress site, you can generate recurring revenue by creating premium content and offering it to member subscribers for a fee.

Paid Member Subscriptions is a free plugin that allows you to accept member payments, create subscription plans, and restrict access to premium content based on those plans.

The plugin works perfectly with WooCommerce. If you have specific products that you want to offer only to members, you can restrict access using Paid Member Subscriptions. You can also offer special discounts, free trials, sign-up fees — and offer all of it as part of the WooCommerce checkout process. In addition, you can accept payments through PayPal and even Stripe if that’s your preferred method.

You can easily offer multiple, tiered membership levels with Paid Member Subscriptions. Using Gutenberg blocks you can add registration and other important user pages, so users can sign up for your subscription plans and also upgrade their plan, renew, or cancel. The Restrict Content feature allows you to display content based on login status or membership level.

If you use Elementor to build your site, the plugin integrates with the page builder, allowing you to set up your plans using the visual interface.

To take your membership site to the next level, you can also go for a premium plan of Paid Member Subscriptions and offer your users pro-rated upgrades and downgrades, group memberships, invoices, or even dripped content.

Free and Powerful

You don’t have to spend a fortune to expand the capabilities of your WooCommerce store. And while it can seem like there are almost as many options as there are stars in the sky, this list narrows things down considerably. In addition, free WooCommerce plugins aren’t all created equal, and in this article, I’ve only shared the best ones currently available.

Talk to us! What free plugins for WooCommerce have you discovered and loved?

The post Best Free WooCommerce Plugins for Your Online Store appeared first on TranslatePress.

Translating your header and footer is an easy process, whether you built your site using a standard WordPress theme or a page builder like Elementor or Divi. In this article, I’ll show both methods.

Translate the Header and Footer of a WordPress Theme

The first step in translating your site’s header and footer is to install and activate the free Translate Press plugin. You can download the free plugin from WordPress.org, or search for it in your Plugins menu in your site’s Admin Dashboard.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, you can watch this short video if you’re looking for a quick tutorial:

Installing the TranslatePress Plugin

When you’ve activated the TranslatePress plugin, navigate to Settings → TranslatePress. You’ll need to choose which languages you’ll want to use for translation.

Before you choose those languages, you need to set your site’s default language — the original language of your content.

Once you’ve set your default language, you can use the dropdown list under All Languages to select which languages you want to add. The free version of Translate Press allows you to choose one additional language. For unlimited languages, you can upgrade to the premium version.

There are more options you can set, such as whether your site displays languages in your default language or its native language. Or you can even choose how your front end language switcher would look like.

Remember to click Save at the bottom when finished!

Translating the Content

TranslatePress features an Automatic Translation tool, but for this article, we’ll be focusing on translating your header and footer manually.

While still logged in to your WordPress site’s admin, navigate to the front page of your site. In the top menu bar, you’ll see an item called Translate Page. Click that to open the Translation Editor.

Now that you’re in the editor, you will select the strings on the page that you want to translate. To do this, all you have to do is hover your mouse over a piece of content and click the pencil icon that appears. Then, in the left sidebar, enter the translated text for each language you’re providing.

Click the Save translation button at the top, and your translations will be saved in your site’s database. Repeat these steps for any strings in your header that you’d like to translate. It’s that easy.

Now, when users visit your site they can select their preferred language from the language switcher, et voilà — the strings will be translated into their preferred language.

To translate the footer of your site, repeat the steps above, selecting any strings in your footer you’d like to have translated for your visitors.

Translate the Header and Footer of an Elementor Site

That covers translating your header and footer using a classic WordPress theme. But what if you built your site using the Elementor page builder? You can also perform manual translations of your custom-built headers and footers in Elementor.

You can do this just as easily. Once you have your custom header and footer built and saved using Elementor’s Theme Builder, simply navigate to your site’s front page. Once again, click the Translate Page button in the top menu bar. You’ll see the Translation Editor menu as before.

Select the strings in your header or footer that you’d like to translate and enter the translated text in the appropriate fields below each language. Click Save Translation.

Now, visit your site and choose a language from the language switcher you’ve added.

Just like that, your footer content is now multilingual, accessible to any visitor whose language where you’ve provided a translation.

Translate the Header and Footer of Any Other Page Builder

There are many page builders available to WordPress users these days. Using the TranslatePress plugin and the Translation Editor, you can translate the header and footer content of any website built with Divi, Brizy, Oxygen, Beaver Builder, and more, using the exact same approach.

Using Automatic Translation

As I mentioned previously, TranslatePress also provides an automatic translation tool. It even works with multiple page builders. You can learn how to translate your header and footer automatically in this post on How to Automatically Translate a WordPress Site.

That means that rather than providing your own manual translations, you can lean on the power of TranslatePress to help you translate your entire site with a minimum of effort.

All you have to do is fetch either a Google Translate API or a DeepL API and enable automatic translation on your site.

Translate the Header and Footer of Your WordPress Site Today

So, whether you’re using a WordPress theme for your site or any popular page builder, TranslatePress can help you translate its header and footer in no time. And with no technical skills required.

But apart from this, using TranslatePress you can also take the matter into your own hands and translate all of the content on your WordPress site, including:

• Images
• Widgets
• Menus
• SEO elements
• WooCommerce products
• And even hidden strings that are only visible from the back end.

Download the free version of TranslatePress from the WordPress repository or unlock the full features by choosing one of the premium plans.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

What questions do you have about translating the header and footer of your WordPress site? Ask us in the comments below!

The post How to Translate the Header and Footer of a WordPress Site appeared first on TranslatePress.

I’ll show you a few different ways to translate web pages in this article. They’re all easy and free.

Methods to Translate Webpages

First, let’s talk about the two different methods for translating a web page: dynamic and static. Each scenario has its use, and understanding the difference will help you choose the best method for your needs.

Dynamic translation means that it’s temporary. For example, when you come upon a web page written in another language and want to understand it. In this case, you would use a dynamic method to get a quick translation.

A static translation is more permanent. Suppose you want to translate a page on your own website to share with someone else. You can send them a link to your translated page that they can access anytime. Another example is if you’d like to translate your entire website, making it multilingual. This would be part of a process called website localization.

Now that you understand the basics, I’ll walk you through the steps for translating web pages both dynamically and statically.

1. How to Dynamically Translate Any Webpage Quickly

There are multiple methods for dynamically translating parts of a web page so you can read them. A smooth and easy way to do this is to use the free Website Translation Tool from TranslatePress.

Using this free tool, you can translate unlimited web pages without signing up for an account. There are over 100 languages currently available. It’s super easy to use, and it’s instantaneous.

Type or paste in the URL of the page you want to translate. Choose the Original language and the Target language, then click the Translate button. The translated page will open in a new tab. You’ll notice that it uses the Google Translate engine to manage translations. If you want to send the page to someone, copy the URL in your browser window. When they open the link, they’ll be viewing the pre-translated page. It’s that easy!

2. How to Translate Webpages of your Own Site

The free Website Translation Tool is great for dynamic, one-page translations. But what if you want to translate pages on your website and make them static?

The solution is to host your website using WordPress and the TranslatePress plugin. Let’s walk through the basic setup, from installation to configuration.

Find and Install TranslatePress

There are a couple of places to find TranslatePress. If you want the full plugin with all its pro features and add-ons (including unlimited languages and multilingual SEO), you can download it directly from the website.

After you’ve downloaded the plugin zip file, navigate to the Admin Dashboard of your WordPress site. Select Plugins → Add New. Click Upload Plugin and browse for the .zip file you saved. Click Install Now, then activate it.

But if one additional language is enough for your site and you’d prefer not to spend any money, you can go for the free version of the plugin. In this case, you can search for the plugin from within your WordPress dashboard. Select Plugins → Add New, and, in the search bar, look for “TranslatePress”. You’ll see it appear as an option. Click Install Now, then activate it.

In your WordPress admin dashboard’s left-side menu under Settings, you’ll see a new item called TranslatePress. This is where you’ll find all the options for the plugin.

Now that we have TranslatePress installed let’s walk through some configuration settings.

Configure TranslatePress

The first tab you’ll see in the TranslatePress Settings is the General tab.

In this area, you can set your default language and add any languages you’d like to use for translation. To add a language, select Choose… and in the language list, select the language you want your site translated to, then click Add.

Moving down the General menu, you’ll see more language settings. These options will determine how the translation tool appears to your site’s visitors.

For example, you can decide if the Language Switcher button will show Flags with full language names, short names, just names, or just flags. You can also choose the location of the button on your site.

Remember to click Save Changes once you’ve made your choices.

That’s it for installation and basic setup! Now, let’s start translating your pages.

Translate Your Web Pages Permanently

TranslatePress will allow you to translate any page on your site and store the translated version in your database. That way, the translation will be ready to go when a visitor wants to convert a page. The page will only show the translated version to the current visitor. New visitors arriving at your site will see it in the default language. From there they will have the chance to switch to the translated version using the language switcher.

There are two ways to accomplish website translations: manually and automatically. Let’s start with the manual method.

Manually Translate Your Webpages

As long as you’re logged into your WordPress site, you’ll see the Translate Site or Translate Page menu item in your top toolbar.

Clicking that will open up a visual translation editor. You’ll see a translation sidebar on the left of your screen, and a live preview of your page on the right. You can select any text string on the page either by clicking it or from the second dropdown menu on the left.

Once your string is selected, move to the field for the preferred language to which you want to change it. Enter the translated text in the field, then click the Save button at the top.

Close the editor to go back to your site’s front end. Now, when you click the Language Switcher on the page and choose the preferred language, you’ll see that the text string has changed. Presto!

You can continue with this method for any pages or strings of text you need to translate on your site. You may think this could take a while — particularly if you don’t know the preferred language. And especially if you have a lot of pages or text, you might want to automate the process.

Let’s go over how to do this automatically!

Automatically Translate Your Webpages​

Going back to the WordPress admin dashboard, navigate once again to Settings → TranslatePress. Move to the Automatic Translation tab. You’ll want to ensure that Enable Automatic Translation is set to Yes.

There are two translation engines you can choose from: Google Translate and DeepL. For this article, we’ll focus on DeepL. There are advantages to using DeepL, which are covered in more detail in this DeepL Translator review.

First, you’ll need to create a free account with DeepL so you can be given an API key that you’ll use on your WordPress site. Once you have your API key, enter it in the DeepL API Key field in the Automatic Translation tab of the TranslatePress settings. Click Save Settings at the bottom of the page.

The connection can take a few minutes to resolve over the internet. Once it does, you’ll see a green checkmark next to the DeepL API Key field. You can also try flushing your website cache using a caching plugin.

Now, when browsing your site, you can click the language switcher, and the entire page will automatically be translated into the selected language. Using this method, any visitor to your site can choose their preferred language and read pages easily.

As I mentioned previously, the translated pages are stored in your own database which cuts down your page load times. It also keeps your translation costs down, as DeepL only counts the first time it’s translated against your account limit — or budget if you have a Pro account.

In addition, because your translated pages are stored in the database, visitors can bookmark the translated URL and visit any time they like to view the page in their preferred language. For example, if someone uses the language switcher for French, they will browse your website using the URL https://yourdomain.com/fr.

Translate Your Webpages for All Visitors

Now you can see how easy it is to translate web pages quickly and also how to make your own website accessible to anyone around the world. The methods I’ve shown you are all free and don’t take much time to set up. You don’t have to know how to code, and you don’t even have to know multiple languages to make your site available for a global market.

Using WordPress and the TranslatePress plugin, your site can be multilingual and serve a much wider audience.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Still have questions about how to translate webpages? Let us know in the comments!

If you found this post helpful, please check out our YouTube channel, where we constantly upload short & easy-to-follow video tutorials. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter to be the first to know each time we post.

The post How to Translate Webpages (for your WordPress Site or Any Other Website) appeared first on TranslatePress.