To reach an audience you have to speak its language, and a website is no exception. If part of your readership or customer base is more comfortable in Spanish, German or Japanese than in English, serving them a translated version of your content is the difference between a visit and a sale, or between a bounce and a subscriber.
WordPress does not do this on its own, but three mature plugins make it routine. This guide explains what a multilingual site involves, compares the current options and walks through a Polylang setup step by step. If you are still at the planning stage, start with our guide to building a WordPress site from scratch and come back here once the English version is live.
Last updated: 2026. Tested with WordPress 6.8 and Polylang 3.7.
What is Meant by a Multilingual WordPress Website?
A multilingual website publishes the same content in two or more languages, each on its own URL, with a switcher that lets visitors move between them. It is different from a site that merely lets the browser auto-translate: each language version is a real, indexable page that Google can rank in the corresponding country.
Language versions are usually organised as subdirectories (example.com/de/), subdomains or separate domains. Subdirectories are the simplest and keep all authority on one domain, so the plugins below default to them. Each page should also carry hreflang tags naming its equivalent in every other language; the plugins add these automatically.
How to Create a Multilingual WordPress Website
There are two approaches to the translation itself. Manual translation means you or a translator write each version; it gives the best quality and is the right choice for sales pages and legal text. Machine translation via DeepL or Google Translate produces a draft in seconds and suits large archives, ideally with a human review before publishing.
Both need a plugin to store translations, link them to the originals, build language URLs and output the switcher and hreflang tags. Beyond posts and pages you will translate menus, categories, SEO titles and theme strings, so check the plugin covers all of these.
The Best Multilingual WordPress Plugin
Three plugins cover nearly every multilingual WordPress site built today:
- Polylang (wordpress.org): free, one post per language linked together, SEO-friendly URLs, built-in switcher. Polylang Pro adds content duplication, DeepL machine translation and WooCommerce support. Lightweight; suits blogs and small business sites.
- WPML: the long-standing premium option, with a translation management dashboard, professional translation ordering, automatic translation credits and broad page-builder and WooCommerce compatibility. Best for large or e-commerce sites with several translators.
- TranslatePress: a visual front-end editor; click any text on the live page and type the translation. Free for one extra language; paid adds unlimited languages, an SEO pack and automatic translation. The easiest to learn.
For the walkthrough below we use Polylang, because it is free, fast and does not change how you write posts.
Creating Multilingual Website Using Polylang
Install and activate Polylang from Plugins > Add New. A setup wizard opens. In the first step add your languages: pick your default language first (the one your existing content is in), then each additional language. Polylang assigns a locale, a flag and a URL slug such as de for each.
The wizard then asks whether to translate media (enable it if captions differ per language) and offers to assign the default language to all existing content; accept, otherwise old posts will be invisible to the language filter.
After the wizard, open Languages > Settings > URL modifications. The default puts the language in the directory name, giving example.com/de/about/. Keep Hide URL language information for default language enabled so your existing URLs stay where they are and current rankings are protected. Leave Detect browser language off: Google recommends letting visitors choose rather than redirecting them.
Finally add the language switcher. Go to Appearance > Menus, tick Language switcher in the left column and add it to your header menu, choosing whether to show flags, names or both. In block themes, add the Language switcher block to the header template instead. A widget and a shortcode are also available.
Translating Your Website Content
Open any post in the editor. The Languages panel shows a plus icon next to each additional language; click it and Polylang creates a new, empty post linked to the original. Write or paste the translation, set the translated slug and featured image, and publish. The switcher now takes readers between the two. Polylang Pro can duplicate the original into the new post and run it through DeepL as a starting point.
Repeat for pages, categories and tags. Create one menu per language under Appearance > Menus and assign each to the matching location. Theme and plugin strings such as “Read more” are translated under Languages > Translations, along with your SEO plugin’s title and meta templates.
Check the result in Google Search Console: each language version should appear in the sitemap and pages should show hreflang links in the page source. If you use Yoast SEO or Rank Math, both integrate with Polylang and generate per-language sitemaps.
FAQs About Creating a Multilingual WordPress Website
Can I translate the WordPress admin too? Yes, without any plugin. Each user can set their own admin language under Users > Profile > Language, provided the language pack is installed under Settings > General > Site Language.
Can I translate my theme? Yes. Themes that follow WordPress standards ship a .pot file and load translations from /languages/. Polylang, WPML and TranslatePress all let you translate theme strings from the dashboard; Loco Translate is a free alternative if you only need theme and plugin strings.
Which Canyon theme fits
Canyon themes are translation-ready, with all front-end strings wrapped for translation and tested with Polylang and WPML. Bloge keeps the header menu compact so a language switcher fits without crowding, and the free Danfe theme is a good way to test a multilingual setup at no cost.
The Wrap Up
Pick a URL structure, install Polylang (or WPML or TranslatePress if their strengths match your site), add your languages, and translate posts, menus and strings one language at a time. Let the plugin handle hreflang and the switcher, verify in Search Console, and use machine translation only as a draft. A multilingual WordPress site is not complicated; it is mostly a matter of doing the translation work.