A Comprehensive Guide to Polylang Plugin for WordPress Website

Publish Date - June 27, 2024
Author by Smackcoders

Are you considering expanding your website’s reach beyond geographical borders? If your business starts to attract global customers, then it’ll be the right time to adjust your website for your global audience. Making your WordPress website multilingual is a fantastic way to connect with wider visitors and showcase your content to the world. This comprehensive guide will introduce you to the Polylang plugin for WordPress that can let you transform your website into a multilingual masterpiece.

Why Go Multilingual?

The benefits of creating a multilingual WordPress website are huge:

Reach a Wider Audience: It lets you connect with visitors from all corners of the world. You can attract new customers, build a more diverse community, and establish yourself as a truly international brand.
Boosting SEO: Multilingual websites can potentially rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords in different languages. This can lead to an increase in organic traffic and website visibility.
Enhanced User Experience: Providing your visitors with the comfort of browsing in their native language fosters trust and improves overall user experience.

Introducing the Polylang plugin for WordPress

Polylang is a powerful yet user-friendly WordPress plugin designed specifically to create multilingual websites. You can translate your posts, pages, media, categories, tags, comments, custom post types, taxonomies, menus, and more. The plugin uses only the WordPress core features. Here’s what makes them stand out:

Beginner-Friendly Interface: Polylang boasts a clean and intuitive interface, making it easy to navigate even for those with limited technical knowledge.

Lightweight and Efficient: The plugin is known for its minimal impact on website performance, ensuring your site remains fast and responsive for all visitors.

SEO Optimization: Polylang helps you manage multilingual SEO by creating hreflang tags, which tell the search engines that your website is available in different language versions. It is compatible with major search engine optimization plugins.

Flexibility: Polylang offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tailor the language switcher, flags, and overall multilingual experience to your website’s design and branding.

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Getting Started with Polylang: A Step-by-Step Guide

Now that you’re familiar with the benefits of Polylang, let’s dive into the process of setting it up:

1. Installation and Activation

Purchase the Polylang Pro plugin and download the plugin’s zip file. You can also get Polylang for free from wordpress.org. Navigate to your WordPress dashboard’s Plugins section. Click ‘Add New’ and upload the Polylang plugin you’ve downloaded from their website or search for ‘Polylang’. Click Install and activate the Polylang plugin.

2. Adding Languages:

Once activated, it automatically redirects to the setup wizard where you can configure the languages. Or you can configure it by visiting the ‘Settings > Languages’ in your WordPress dashboard. Click Add New Language. Choose the languages and add it to your website.

Translating Content with Polylang

Polylang makes translating your website content a breeze. Here’s how:

Translating Posts and Pages: While creating or editing a post or page, you’ll see a “Languages” meta box below the editor. Click on the language you want to translate and enter the translated content.

Translating Other Content: Polylang also allows you to translate categories, tags, menus, and other website elements like plugins and theme strings. You’ll find similar “Languages” options when editing these elements.

Adding a Language Switcher

A language switcher allows visitors to easily switch between different languages on your website. Here’s how to add one with Polylang:

Go to ‘Settings > Languages’ in your dashboard.

Click on the ‘Language Switcher’ tab.

Choose the display mode for the switcher (flags, dropdown menu, etc.).

Select the location where you want the switcher to appear on your website (header, sidebar, etc.).

Click ‘Save Changes’.

To know more about the language switcher, check out our blog for Polylang’s advanced features.

Polylang Pro: Take Your Multilingual Experience Further

The free version of Polylang offers exceptional features. However, Polylang Pro unlocks even more powerful functionalities, including:

Automatic translation tools: You can connect Polylang to translation services like Google Translate for faster content translation.

Translation management tools: Easy to assign translation tasks to team members or external translators that streamline your workflow.

Compatibility with WooCommerce: Polylang is compatible with the WooCommerce plugin. If you have a WooCommerce store. Then you need to install the Polylang for WooCommerce plugin to optimize your online store for a multilingual experience.