How to Create a Multilingual Website in WordPress (2025 Guide)

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Learn how to create a multilingual website in WordPress step-by-step. Reach a global audience by translating your site into multiple languages using the best plugins and practices in 2025.

Creating a website that speaks only one language can limit your reach — especially in today’s global digital world. If you’re looking to scale your website, attract international visitors, and boost conversions, then you must learn how to create a multilingual website in WordPress.

This guide provides a step-by-step roadmap to create a fully functional multilingual WordPress site using the best tools, plugins, and optimization techniques available in 2025. 🌍

✅ What is a Multilingual WordPress Website?

A multilingual website is one that offers content in more than one language. Instead of targeting just one linguistic group, your site can attract a global audience by displaying pages in the visitor’s preferred language.

Creating one in WordPress is easier than ever with the help of translation plugins and themes that support multi-language content.

🎯 Why Should You Create a Multilingual Website?

If you’re wondering why you should learn how to create a multilingual website in WordPress, here are compelling reasons:

🌎 Reach a wider, international audience
📈 Improve SEO in multiple languages (Multilingual SEO)
🛍 Increase conversions by speaking your customers‘ language
🤝 Build trust with non-English-speaking visitors
📢 Boost brand visibility globally

🛠 Tools Needed to Create a Multilingual WordPress Website

To master how to create a multilingual website in WordPress, you need:

✅ WordPress (self-hosted)
✅ A compatible theme (Astra, Kadence, OceanWP)
✅ A reliable translation plugin (like WPML, Polylang, or TranslatePress)
✅ SEO plugin (Rank Math or Yoast)
✅ A caching plugin (for performance)

🚀 Step-by-Step: How to Create a Multilingual Website in WordPress

🔹 Step 1: Install WordPress

If you haven’t already, install WordPress on your hosting account using cPanel or your hosting dashboard’s one-click installer.

🔹 Step 2: Choose a Translation Plugin

This is the heart of how to create a multilingual website in WordPress. Here are the top 3 plugins for translation:

🧩 1. WPML (Premium)

Most popular
Translate posts, pages, custom post types, menus, and theme strings
SEO friendly

🧩 2. Polylang (Free & Pro)

User-friendly
Manual translation management
Works well with most themes

🧩 3. TranslatePress (Free & Premium)

Visual translation on the front-end
Google Translate or DeepL integration
Easy interface

👉 For this guide, we’ll use TranslatePress (Free + Pro version available).

🔹 Step 3: Install & Configure TranslatePress

Go to WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New
Search TranslatePress and install
Go to Settings > TranslatePress
Choose your Default Language (e.g., English)
Add other languages (e.g., Spanish, Hindi, French)

🔹 Step 4: Add the Language Switcher

TranslatePress automatically adds a floating language switcher on your site.

You can customize its:

Position (bottom-right, top-left)
Style (flags, language names)
Menu integration (via WordPress menus)

🔹 Step 5: Translate Your Website Content

Now let’s start translating your content:

Go to the page you want to translate
Click the “Translate Page” tab on top
A live editor opens on the front-end
Click on any text and enter the translation
Save changes

You can translate:

Text
Headings
Buttons
Menus
Meta tags (with SEO plugin support)

🔹 Step 6: Multilingual SEO Settings

To fully master how to create a multilingual website in WordPress, multilingual SEO is a must.

TranslatePress (and WPML) supports:

Different URLs per language (e.g., /fr/, /es/)
Translation of meta titles and descriptions
hreflang tag implementation
Sitemap indexing by language

Use Rank Math SEO for better multilingual integration.

🔹 Step 7: Translate Media (Optional)

You can translate:

Image ALT texts
Video captions
Media titles and descriptions

This improves SEO and user experience.

Use TranslatePress Media Add-on for advanced features.

🔹 Step 8: Test Your Multilingual Website

Before launching:

Visit each translated version
Check language switcher functionality
Validate meta tags in each language
Use Google’s Rich Results Test
Submit language-specific sitemaps in Google Search Console

🧠 Best Practices: How to Create a Multilingual Website in WordPress

✅ Use human translations for important content
✅ Avoid machine translation for legal or medical info
✅ Stick to 2-3 primary languages at launch
✅ Use flag + text in the language switcher
✅ Optimize each language for its own keywords
✅ Set correct hreflang and canonical URLs

⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

❌ Not translating the entire website
❌ Using multiple translation plugins (conflicts!)
❌ Ignoring SEO settings for each language
❌ Forgetting to translate URLs and slugs
❌ Not testing translations before launch

💡 Extra Tip: Auto vs Manual Translation

Automatic Translation – Fast but error-prone
Manual Translation – Accurate and SEO-friendly

If you use auto-translation (e.g., Google Translate API), always review the output manually.

🧩 Multilingual WordPress Themes

Choose themes that support multilingual plugins like:

Astra
Kadence
Neve
Hello (for Elementor)
Blocksy

These themes are optimized for multilingual content and provide fast performance.

📊 Multilingual Website SEO Checklist

✅ Language switcher placement
✅ Meta title/description translated
✅ Hreflang tags set up
✅ Language-specific sitemaps submitted
✅ Mobile-responsive translations
✅ Fast-loading pages in all languages

✅ Conclusion

Now you know exactly how to create a multilingual website in WordPress. Whether you’re a blogger, business owner, or eCommerce store, offering content in multiple languages is the key to global success in 2025.

WordPress + TranslatePress (or WPML/Polylang) make it incredibly easy to implement. Follow the step-by-step instructions, follow SEO best practices, and you’ll be ready to welcome visitors from all over the world! 🌎💻