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Multilingual WooCommerce: Reaching International Customers with a WordPress Shop in Multiple Languages

Written by Kevin Kyburz

Updated on

Multilingual WooCommerce with Weglot

A multilingual WooCommerce store may seem complicated at first glance, but with the right tools and plugins, this challenge can be easily overcome.

A multilingual online store offers numerous advantages. Among other things, it allows you to appeal to a broader target group and thus increase your customer base and sales.

In this blog article, we will highlight the most important aspects of a multilingual WooCommerce store. We explain what makes a good translation plugin and show why Weglot is the best choice for your WooCommerce store. 

Multilingual WooCommerce store – Sounds complicated at first

If you're thinking about making your WooCommerce store multilingual, the first thing that probably comes to mind is the headache of having to translate every product description, category, and piece of text on your website into multiple languages. 

But don't worry, this isn't a mammoth task—especially if you have the right tools at your disposal. Also, think of all the advantages that a multilingual WooCommerce or WordPress site offers in multiple languages:

Increased reach and sales

A multilingual WooCommerce store allows you to target customers from different countries and language regions. By offering your products and services in multiple languages, you can reach a wider audience, which can lead to a significant increase in your sales potential.

Improved customer loyalty

Customers prefer to shop in their native language. A multilingual store builds trust and provides a better shopping experience, which strengthens customer loyalty. Satisfied customers are more likely to return and leave positive reviews.

Better SEO performance

With a multilingual WooCommerce store, you can expand your SEO strategy. By translating meta tags, descriptions, and content into different languages, you increase the visibility of your website in the search engines of the respective target markets. This leads to more organic traffic and better rankings.

competitive advantage

In a globalized market, a multilingual store stands out from competitors that only support one language. You show that you care about the needs of international customers and are willing to invest in their comfort.

Flexibility and scalability

A multilingual WooCommerce store gives you the flexibility to tap into new markets without having to create a completely new website. You can simply add new language versions and scale your business step by step. 

What makes a good translation plugin for WooCommerce?

Of course, you should only choose the best translation plugin if you want to create a multilingual WooCommerce store. But what really makes a plugin stand out? Let's take a look at what such a translation plugin should offer:

  1. Easy integration and user-friendliness

A good translation plugin should be easy to install and configure. The user interface must be intuitive and accessible so that even users without technical knowledge can quickly get to work with it. Clear instructions and a smooth integration process are essential.

  1. Comprehensive translation options

The plugin should be able to translate all aspects of your store—from product descriptions and categories to checkout pages and email notifications. It must ensure that no elements are overlooked in order to guarantee a consistent and professional appearance.

  1. SEO-friendliness

An outstanding translation plugin automatically optimizes SEO for each language. This includes the translation of meta tags, URL structures, and other SEO-relevant content. This ensures that your multilingual shop is well positioned in the search engines of your target markets and generates more organic traffic.

  1. Automatic and manual translations

The best translation plugin offers both automatic and manual translation options. Automatic translations are ideal for quick and comprehensive implementation, while manual translations give you control over the quality and accuracy of the content. A combination of both offers flexibility and precision.

  1. Support and regular updates

A good plugin comes with excellent customer support and regular updates to ensure that it is always state-of-the-art. Support should be able to respond quickly and competently to inquiries in order to resolve issues promptly and continuously provide improvements and new features.

  1. Compatibility with other plugins and themes

It is important that the translation plugin is compatible with other WooCommerce plugins and your theme. This prevents conflicts and ensures that your shop runs smoothly. A good plugin should be tested and updated regularly to ensure compatibility with the latest versions.

Weglot – The ultimate solution for your multilingual WooCommerce store

Weglot is one of the leading translation plugins, specially designed to make your WooCommerce store multilingual in a particularly simple and highly efficient way. 

Let's take a look at how Weglot meets the criteria mentioned above:

Re (A): Easy integration and operation

Integrating Weglot into your WooCommerce store takes just a few minutes. There's no need to perform complex manual translations or install multiple plugins. Weglot automatically detects and translates any new content you add or modify. This ease of use saves you a lot of time and effort.

From practice:

Imagine you've just added a new product to your store. Without Weglot, you'd have to manually translate each product description and all relevant text into the different target languages. With Weglot, this process is automated: the plugin instantly detects the new content, translates it, and displays the translated text in your store without you having to lift a finger.

The desired languages and the number of translated words are visible within the Weglot dashboard.

Re (B): Comprehensive translation options

Weglot supports over 110 languages, allowing you to easily translate your store into your desired target languages. It translates not only the basic texts of your store, but also specific WooCommerce content such as product pages, shopping cart and checkout pages, emails, and widgets.

From practice:

You want to make your WooCommerce store available in German, French, and Italian to reach all customers in Switzerland. Weglot will translate all content, including product descriptions, shopping cart page text, and other relevant pages. 

Re (C): SEO friendliness

One outstanding feature of Weglot is its SEO-friendliness in the area of e-commerce. The plugin automatically translates meta tags, URL structures, and other important SEO elements. It creates language-specific subdirectories and adds hreflang tags to ensure that your translated pages are optimally recognized and indexed by search engines.

From practice:

If you have a German version of your website, Weglot automatically creates a new URL structure, adds the appropriate hreflang tags, and translates the meta tags and meta descriptions. This helps search engines correctly index and rank the different language versions of your pages, resulting in improved visibility in search results.

Re (D): Automatic and manual translations

Weglot offers you a first level of machine translation with leading providers such as Google Translate, DeepL, and Microsoft. You can manually edit these translations via your Weglot dashboard or bring in professional translators to further optimize quality. This flexibility allows you to customize the accuracy and tone of your translations.

From practice:

After your shop content has been automatically translated, you can review the translations via the Weglot dashboard and make manual adjustments if necessary. If a specific product name or description has not been translated correctly, you can edit it quickly and easily. You also have the option of hiring professional translators to ensure that your texts meet the highest quality standards.

Weglot WordPress glossary entry
Thanks to the glossary, words that have several variants in translation can be defined more precisely, ensuring that the word is always translated exactly as desired.

Re (E): Support and regular updates

Another key advantage of Weglot is its excellent support team. It is always available to answer your questions and resolve any issues, ensuring that your store runs smoothly. In addition, the plugin is regularly updated to remain compatible with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce and to offer new features and security enhancements. This ensures that your store is always up to date with the latest technology and delivers optimal performance.

From practice:

If you ever encounter a problem with a translation or integration, you can rely on Weglot's support team. They will provide you with fast and competent assistance. In addition, regular updates ensure that new features and security enhancements are automatically integrated into your store without you having to take any additional action.

Re (F): Compatibility with other plugins and themes

Weglot ensures seamless integration and compatibility with a wide range of plugins and themes. Regular testing and updates ensure that Weglot always works with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce, so your store always functions optimally and all extensions work together flawlessly.

From practice:

You use a special theme and several plugins to extend the functionality of your store. Weglot ensures that all these elements are compatible with each other and work together seamlessly. You don't have to worry about conflicts or malfunctions, as Weglot is continuously tested and updated to ensure that your store runs smoothly.

With Yoast SEO and Weglot, you can easily translate the meta data of a page.

Other outstanding features of Weglot

Visual editing of translations

With Weglot, you can edit translations directly in the context of your website. The visual editor shows you how the translations fit into the design and structure of your page. This allows you to ensure that the translated texts are seamlessly integrated into the layout.

Weglot Visual Editor
In the Visual Editor, you can see the website and your shop and easily translate individual texts.

Support for custom languages

In addition to supporting over 110 languages, Weglot also allows you to create custom languages. You can add specific language variants, such as Swiss German or dialects, to target your audience even more precisely.

Team collaboration features

Weglot allows you to add team members to your translation project. You can assign tasks, monitor progress, and collaborate on translations. This improves efficiency and coordination within your team.

Professional translation services

In addition to machine translation, Weglot also offers access to professional translators. You can order professional translations directly from the Weglot dashboard to ensure that your content meets the highest quality standards.

Easy management via a dashboard

All translations and settings can be managed centrally via the Weglot dashboard. You have a complete overview of your translations and can 

edit and monitor without having to switch between different platforms.

Customizable language switchers

Weglot offers customizable language switchers that you can design according to your needs. You can customize the design, position, and display options to seamlessly integrate the language switcher into your website's design.

Weglot Customizable Language Switcher

These additional features make Weglot a very powerful and versatile tool for managing multilingual WooCommerce stores. All of these features help improve the user experience for your website visitors, optimize SEO performance, and increase the efficiency of your translation projects. You couldn't ask for more from a translation plugin. 

How much does Weglot cost and how do I set it up?

Weglot offers various pricing plans tailored to your needs. These plans are generally based on the number of words on your website and the number of languages you want to integrate.

Weglot's free offer includes translations for up to 2,000 words in one translated language, which is ideal for smaller websites that want to offer their content in English, for example.

A paid plan is required for websites with more than 2,000 words. These start at €15 (CHF 14.50) per month or €150 (CHF 145) per year.

You can find a current overview of the price plans on theWeglot website. Here is just a guide.

Weglot prices

How to set up Weglot in 4 easy steps

  1. Create a Weglot account: Register on the Weglot website.
  2. Install the plugin: Search for Weglot in the WordPress dashboard, install and activate the plugin.
  3. Add languages: Add your API key and select the source language and the desired target languages.
  4. Make adjustments: Use the visual editor and dashboard to review translations and make manual adjustments.

With these steps, your WooCommerce store will be multilingual in no time and ready to delight an international audience. Weglot is the perfect solution for expanding your store globally while keeping translation management simple and efficient.

this:matters – Weglot's official partner for your multilingual WooCommerce store

If you want to make your WooCommerce shop multilingual and optimally prepare it for international markets, this:matters is your ideal partner. As an official partner of Weglot, this:matters brings extensive experience and expertise in the implementation and optimization of multilingual online shops.

We offer tailor-made solutions that are precisely tailored to the specific requirements and goals of your business. From selecting the right languages to fine-tuning the translations, we ensure that your shop is perfectly tailored to all Swiss and international customers.

We help you optimize your content for the search engines of your target markets. We ensure that all important SEO elements such as meta tags, URL structures, and hreflang tags are implemented correctly.

With this:matters at your side, implementing a multilingual WooCommerce store will be a successful project. Trust in the expertise and support of the official Weglot partner.

Here is a brief overview of all the advantages of Weglot

  • Easy integration
  • Support for 110+ languages
  • SEO-friendliness
  • Automatic and manual translations
  • Regular updates and support
  • Compatibility with plugins and themes
  • Visual editing
  • Team collaboration features
  • Multilingual SEO optimization
  • Professional translation services
  • Customizable language switcher and glossary
  • Free plan available

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Weglot translate WordPress URLs?

Yes, Weglot enables the translation of URL slugs so that search engines and users can easily find content in different languages.

Can I use Weglot on more than one website?

Yes, depending on the plan you choose, you can use Weglot on multiple websites. Check the specific plan details on the Weglot website.

Does Weglot offer support for Swiss German?

Yes, Weglot allows you to create and integrate custom languages, so you can add Swiss German to target your audience even more precisely.

Kevin Kyburz

Kevin Kyburz

Founder and CEO

From my very first steps on the internet, I was overwhelmed by the unlimited possibilities. Twenty years have passed since then, and my interest has not waned in the slightest. Today, I combine my passion for SEO, marketing, and WordPress within this:matters.