How to Translate Your WordPress Blog and Explode Traffic Levels Overnight

Creating a global audience can dramatically enhance your blog traffic and spread the word about your content like a viral campaign.  Yet in order to go global, your blog needs to be translated into multiple languages.  The problem is that professional translation services are expensive and can be very slow.  Machines such as Google Translator or Language Weaver often misunderstand, mix things up and generally make content pretty difficult to read.  So what’s the solution?

You need to choose one of the latest WordPress translation plug ins.  We’ve put together some of the fastest, most effective and inexpensive options to create a website in multiple languages.  All you’ll need to do is write once in your native language, then the plug in allows you to publish in multiple languages, without spending a fortune on translation services every time you create a new post.  All of these plug ins are available completely free on our resources page

Worldwide Lexicon Translator Plug In

Launched just a couple of weeks ago, this brand new plug in is the latest WordPress translation tool and ideal for serious bloggers who want to create a website with an international profile.  It’s a collaboration between Worldwide Lexicon and SpeakLike and gives bloggers the ability to quickly and easily publish their blogs in up to 35 different languages, using professional translations by real people. 

This plug in gives you great flexibility and control over your translations.  You can still opt for a machine to do the job, using Google, Moses and Language Weaver, or you can access professional, business quality translation for as little as 6 cents per word through the SpeakLike community of real translators.  Languages available include Spanish, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic and many more.  The final option is to use your own reader community to translate for you. 

Once the plug in is installed, the translation process is automatic.  You choose the languages you want to translate into, allowing millions more readers to access, interact and engage with your blog in their own tongue and hopefully spread the word to their friends.  The translation process doesn’t slow down your blog either, because translated pages are cached locally and indexed by search engines as unique documents.

Imagine the millions you could reach with this simple plug in?  This tool is ideal if you want to create a website that speaks to the world. 

Global Translator

This plug in has been downloaded over 180,000 times and is still very popular with WordPress users for quick, free translation.  It uses Google, Babel Fish, Promt or Free Translation to translate into up to 41 different languages automatically, with built in SEO friendliness and a fast caching system.  All you do is write your post, then choose the languages you want it translated into. 

Google Translator

This makes translating extremely easy for your visitors, adding a widget to the sidebar so that they can choose whether they want to translate into their native tongue by selecting their language from the drop down menu.  You need WordPress 2.5 or higher for this plug in.

Google AJAX Translation

Another very popular plug in that allows you to create a website with the option to translate, without having to transform every post into multiple languages.  Visitors simply click on the “Translate” widget underneath every post, page or any content on your site.  They can then choose the language they want to translate into.  Another great feature of this plug in is its ability to detect the browser’s preferred language and offer this as the first language in the drop down menu on the widget.

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About the Author

Melanie Citron

Melanie Citron is a freelance writer and self proclaimed “techie” who lives in Denver with her husband, Glenn, and their three dogs Ralph, Sam and Billy. Melanie has become the “go to person” for creating online businesses for her friends and family. “I do it every day so I may as well write about it” Her knowledge has appeared on websites, in local newspapers and in person as a public speaker. In her spare time Melanie loves the outdoors and hikes and cross country skis.