How to Make Your Site Multilingual: WPML vs. Multisite
Diversity makes the world beautiful and having a multilingual website encourages the beauty of diversity. For a brand, business or organization thinking of going global having a multilingual website would be beneficial to its growth. Global brands are aware that it is not just enough to understand its target audience but to know their various locations and give services tailored to their needs (by displaying website content in their respective local languages) that will make them satisfied.
Having a multilingual website not only increases ranking on search engines which increases traffic flow (and possible leads that can be converted to sales), it also improves the experience of new or existing users (clients of the brand or business) and invariably increases their satisfaction level (which is vital for winning over their continued and loyalty). Brands or businesses with multilingual websites have the greater opportunity to experience growth in different countries.
Any business that has a website is built on WordPress and is considering adopting a multilingual site, the choice of whether to use a WPML plugin or a Multisite might be a dilemma. With the help of a reputable WordPress web design agency, you can ensure that only the most efficient and suitable plugin is correctly installed on your site. But first, here is some information on both plugins that can help further your decision.
What is WPML and how does it work?
WPML, also known as the WordPress multilingual plugin, is a special plugin available to all WordPress websites which makes it easy for brands and businesses to create a multilingual website by translating website pages, tags, categories and themes to different human languages. WPML is a very popular and simple translation management plugin. It comes with a feature that gives website users the option of switching to different languages that they wish to read and interact with the contents on a website.
Over 400,000 websites currently use the WPML which is a paid plugin. Website owners would have to install and activate the plugin on their website after which the settings have to be edited to suit the business or brand. WPML can automatically detect the sites current language, but it is important to make sure it is properly indicated in the settings area of the plugin. There is also the option of choosing as many languages for a business’ or brand’s target audience location. The languages selected can be updated either to remove or add languages in the future. WPML also comes with a widget called a language switcher which allows users to select the language they want to view the website content in. This widget has to be activated for it to appear on the website.
What is Multisite and how does it work?
As the name implies, multisite, which is also a WordPress feature, gives brands and businesses the opportunity to create and manage multiple websites in one place. These websites are actually subdomains of a root domain. Just like the root website, the subdomains will have administrative areas where website managers can access the back end of the subdomains. For example, blog.paintball.com or paintball.com/blog, club.paintball.com or paintball.com/club (which are all subdomains) and paintball.com can be managed on a WordPress multisite network without interfering with each other.
For brands or businesses looking to create a multilingual a website with multisite, they can create as many sites in the different languages of audiences they are targeting. For example, paintball.com/en (English language) or paintball.com/no (Norwegian language).
With the root domain, which is usually the super admin, website managers have access to both the root domain and the subdomains, and they can install as many plugins or themes which will be made available to other subdomains in the network. The admin area of the subdomains doesn’t have the power to install plugins; it has to rely on only what has been pre-installed by the super admin.
Using a multisite makes it easy for website managers to update the critical files, plugins, and themes since it is shared unlike having to update, individually, all the subdomains of the root domain. There is also a network admin area where the network of all websites on the WordPress multisite network is managed.
Unlike WPML that is a paid plugin which has to be installed and activated, multisite is simply a feature that comes with WordPress which only needs to be enabled in the user portal area for the feature to work. This action will automatically convert the single website to a multisite. The multisite feature is only available on professional, business or other custom plans on WordPress.
WPML vs. Multisite: Which is better for your business?
A multisite and WPML can be used to create a multilingual website. Brands or businesses can decide to use both or use either one. In order to choose the one that would be of great benefit, brands or businesses have to understand their target market, be sensitive to the analytics of their website.
If a brand or business is getting a lot of traffic from countries that are not English speaking and wishes to convert the traffic to profitable leads, having a multilingual site that is inclusive of the language of such countries is crucial. In this case, rather than use a multisite to create a network of subsites with content in specific languages, the brand or business can simply use the WordPress multilingual plugin (WPML).
With this, website users, upon getting to any page or content area of the website, can choose (from a visible language menu option) which language they’d prefer to read the content in. This option is best for brands or business with target audiences that cut across various countries in the globe, speaking different languages. A great example of this is IKEA where users are directed to the option of selecting the native language of their country.
A multisite site, on the other hand, would be very useful to a brand or business that wants to acquire a new set of non-English speaking target audiences; they can separate their multilingual content individually. Meaning that each subsite will be curated specifically for the language of the target audience they are trying to get.
Users can also select to view any of the subsites with languages they are comfortable with. For example, a simple food blog curating contents for Spanish people might want to break into the mainstream with an English-speaking audience. So they can have the root domain in Spanish and a subdomain in the English language.
Using either option still boils down to the primary objective of the brand or business.