Questions
Translating a WordPress site: the real questions
The questions people ask before translating their site, with short, dated and sourced answers.
Before you start
- Translating a WordPress site without losing your SEOOne page per language, the right tags, nothing changes for the original version: the five rules for translating WordPress without losing anything on Google.
- How much does it cost to translate a WordPress site into 3, 5 or 10 languages?Per word, per licence or by site size: how the price of a WordPress translation is worked out, what to check, and an example with real figures.
- A hotel, a campsite, a holiday let: which languages should you translate first?Where do your guests from abroad come from? Four places to find out, and how to choose the first languages for your accommodation website.
- Translate it yourself or have it translated?Writing your translations by hand with a free plugin, or having them done automatically: the time, the cost and the result on Google.
Google and languages
- Why Google can't see translations done in the browserA language button that translates in the browser, under a single URL: visitors see the translation, Google doesn't. How to check.
- hreflang explained simplyWhat hreflang tags are for, what they must contain, the four most common mistakes, and how to get them right on WordPress.
- Translated URLs: are they worth it?/our-rooms/ or /de/unsere-zimmer/? What a URL in the visitor's own language changes for Google and for them, and how to get it on WordPress.
- Is machine translation penalised by Google?What Google's rules really say about machine translation, what they actually target, and the four precautions to take.
Special cases
- Translating a WooCommerce shopProduct pages, cart, shipping, payment: what needs translating so a customer from abroad can buy without landing back on a page in another language.
- Switching translation plugins without starting from scratchMoving from one translation plugin to another on WordPress: what you keep, what changes, and in what order to do things so you lose nothing.