A Guide To Multilingual WordPress Sites

What a fantastic time to be in business! It’s a truly global market, which means your business can cater to customers worldwide. But you must show potential customers that you value them, part of which means speaking to them in their native language. That’s where WordPress multilingual sites come in.

By setting up a multilingual WordPress site, you can install WordPress in more than one language and let a plugin switch between them. That means you can serve customers in the language of their choice instead of limiting your business to an English-speaking market.

Benefits of Having a Multilingual Website

Believe it or not, it wasn’t that long ago that all businesses were brick-and-mortar and could only serve the people who were physically there. Of course, all that changed with eCommerce. But still, there are a ton of eCommerce businesses that aren’t embracing global selling. It’s today’s version of limiting yourself to the customers who can physically reach your store. You’re missing out on major benefits if you’re not connecting with potential customers in their native languages.

Benefits of multilingual websites include:

• Wider Reach. The most obvious benefit is the one we’ve already discussed most — global reach. Opening up your website worldwide means you have about 5 billion potential customers instead of 311 million. A global market could make a huge difference for your business.
• Improved UX. It sends a strong message to potential customers if they can’t read your website. That message is, “This business isn’t for me.” Reading a website in their native language sends the opposite message. It says, “This business values me and wants me as a customer.” This improved customer experience can result in purchases and loyalty.
• Increased SEO Opportunity. Offering your site in multiple languages gives you new, unique opportunities for search traffic. You aren’t just targeting keywords in English anymore.
• Competitive Advantage. If you offer multilingual versions of your website and your competitors don’t, it gives you a clear advantage.
• Greater Conversion Rates. Global reach means more potential customers. More contact will result in greater sales, therefore growing your business and its profits.
• Stronger Brand Image. Because reaching a global market is possible in today’s business environment, brands that take advantage of this opportunity tend to have a stronger brand image. Embracing global reach means more trust, value, and loyalty, especially among the 70% of internet users that aren’t native English speakers.

What’s more, you don’t have to build a unique website to reach this global audience. Sites in different languages aren’t penalized for duplicate content, so you can still maintain a strong search ranking for essentially the same content.

Learn More About WordPress Multilingual Sites

Clearly, a multilingual website has a lot of potential benefits for your brand. But there are multiple ways to make a global website happen and some considerations before jumping in. Want to know more about launching your WordPress Multilingual website?

Download our e-book, “WordPress Multilingual Sites: How Multilingual Sites Can Improve Your Search Traffic and Business.”