How to make a Multilingual website with WordPress

 

To make your WordPress website multilingual, ther are 5 options listed here. Option 5 with the multilingual plugin is mostly used. At this moment I am useing option 1 for my own website.

 

The 5 options are:

  1. Buy domain names with different extensies (.nl , .de, .com)
  2. Use a subdomain (https://en.voorbeeld.nl)
  3. Use the www and non www version  ( meijwebdesign.com & www.meijwebdesign.com)
  4. Use the WordPress Multisite option
  5. Use a WordPress multilingual plugin (WPML)

 

Every possibility has its pros and conts. I will explain them in detail below.

 

1

Different domain  extensions
(.nl , .de, .com)

 

If your company has customers in different countries then this option would probably be the best. Mostly because the customer are looking at the extension of your website and knows that the website belongs to their country.

This will be a thrust benifit. The best example is Google. Google has for every country their SERPS and per country the website with the extensions from that country have an higher preference for the rankings.

Of course there are exceptions like dropbox and amazon

I am using this option with my website: I have the English version on https://meijwebdesign.com and the Dutch version on https://meijwebdesign.nl

I have both the servers in the Netherlands as my customers are here.

 

Disadvantage of 2 different domains:

  • Multiple WordPress installations
  • Multiple hosting servers, or one hosting for multiple domains
  • Multiple SSL certificates

Advantage of 2 different domains:

  • Best SEO option, if you have customers in multiple countries
  • You can promote different products on the different WordPress installations
  • Easy to use of different themes, pages, posts
  • Even if you have the websites in one country, 2 websites will have different content and with the links to each other they will enhance the seo performance of each other

 

2

Use of a sub-domain (https://en.voorbeeld.nl)

 

The biggest advantage is that this solution is free of charge. Normally you can easily copy the main domain into the sub-domain and start the translation. You can use this in any country where your customers are multilingual (like in the Netherlands and Belgium)

Disadvantage:

  • Multiple WordPress installations
  • Multiple SSL certificates
  • Didn’t found a plugin yet to connect pages with each other, so this has to be done by hand

Advantage:

  • You can promote different products on the different WordPress installations
  • Easy to use of different themes, pages, posts
  • WordPress, themes, plugins can be updated automatically
  • No extra SEO issues

3

Install WordPress at 2 url’s of same domain
(www.meijwebdesign.com & meijwebdesign.com)

 

Till now I have not seen this solution. But basically every domain name has 4 domains.

  1. HTTPS with the www version
  2. HTTPS without the www version
  3. HTTP with the www version
  4. HTTP without the www version

Option 3 and 4 cannot be used anymore in Europe as the GPDR regulations more or less makes the SLL certificate mandatory. 

Disadvantage:

  • 2 WordPress installations

Advantage:

  • Same domain name
  • You can promote different products on the different WordPress installations
  • Easy to use of different themes, pages, posts
  • No extra SEO issues

4

Use the WordPress Multisite option

 

Option 2 and 3 are a form of a multisite on your domain. But this option is baked into a WordPress installation. WordPress.com and other companies use this multisite option to sell lot’s of websites. You can spot free websites like yourwebsite.wordpress.com. Of course you can do the same with your  domain.

Disadvantage:

  • Not every theme and plugin is compatible with WordPress multisite
  • Database becomes larger and more complicated 

Advantage:

  • There is only 1 WordPress installation
  • Use of 1 SSL certificate
  • You can promote different products on the different WordPress installations
  • Easy to use of different themes, pages, posts
  • WordPress, themes, plugins can be updated automatically

5

Use the multilingual plugin WPML

 

The most used multilingual plugin is WPML. It is not free. I am now using this version for all my clients. Mainly because I think it has the best performance for the SEO side of your website.

Besides that, the client can make easily translations.

I have used the plugin WPGLOBUS also once. They have a different system of earning their money. I starts free, and after that you can buy addons. If you think you need an addon then I think the WPML plugin is a better option for you.

 

Multilingual WordPress