🌍 How to Create a WordPress Multilingual Site Easily 🚀

there are several ways to create a multilingual (multilingual) sitewith WordPress. you can set up a single website to support multiple languages so that visitors can view your content in their preferred language.

1️⃣ 3 Ways to Create a Multilingual Site

the top 3 ways to create a multilingual WordPress site:

method	description	recommended for
use a plugin	the easiest way, automatic translation support	🔹If you want to make it fast and easy
use multisite functionality	you can run separate sites for each language	🔹If you need complete independent translation
manual translation (utilizing subdomains / subdirectories)	create separate pages for each language	🔹If you want the best SEO and performance

create a multilingual site with 2️⃣ plugin (easiest way)

💡 Recommended plugins:
wordPress has many powerful multilingual plugins.

plugin	price	features
WPML	paid	the most powerful multilingual plugin (SEO ready)
Polylang	free / Paid	simple and lightweight plugin
TranslatePress	free / Paid	enables real-time front-end translation
Weglot	paid	AI automatic translation support

the easiest way: use TranslatePress or Polylang 🚀

✅ Method 1: Create a multilingual site with Polylang (free)

📌 Features:

• powerful features even in the free version
• simple to use and offers a language switcher (toggle button)
• requires you to manually enter the content to be translated

📌 Installation and setup

1️⃣ Add WordPress Plugins → Search for Polylang and install it
2️⃣ Settings → Add Languages

• add the desired language in Settings → Languages(e.g. Korean 🇰🇷, English 🇺🇸, Japanese 🇯🇵, etc.)
  3️⃣ Add content to translate
• pages → Create a new post, then copy the existing page to create the translation
  4️⃣ Add language switcher (switch button)
• widgets → Add language selector (can be placed in menu or sidebar)
  5️⃣ SEO Settings
• Use withYoast SEO or RankMathfor multilingual SEO optimization

✅ Method 2: Create a multilingual site with TranslatePress (free)

📌 Features:

• real-time translation on the frontend (site screen)
• Supports AI translation (Google Translate API)
• easy to use even for beginners

📌 Installation and setup

1️⃣ Add WordPress Plugins → Search for TranslatePress and install it
2️⃣ Settings → Add Languages

• set default language + additional languages in Settings → TranslatePress
  translate live on your site at 3️⃣
• click “Translate Site” in the top bar and translate directly
  4️⃣ Automatic translation (optional)
• Support automatic translation when connected to Google Translate API
  5️⃣ Add Language Switcher
• add to menu or widgetin Settings → Language Switcher

✅ Method 3: Create a multilingual site with WPML (Paid)

📌 Features:

• most powerful multilingual plugin (recommended for businesses)
• WooCommerce (shopping mall) multilingual support
• Excellent SEO features

📌 Installation and setup 1️⃣ Purchase and install the WPML plugin
2️⃣ Settings → Add Language
3️⃣ Translate your content

• translate manually or utilize the translation manager feature
  4️⃣ SEO optimization
• Use with Yoast SEO, RankMath

3️⃣ Multilingual SEO optimization (search engine optimization)

sEO optimization is important when running a multilingual site.

✅ Set up your URL structure (SEO optimization)

• subdirectories (recommended): example.com/en/, example.com/en/, example.com/en/
• usesubdomains: en.example.com, ko.example.com
• use separate domains: example.kr, example.com

✅ Add the hreflang tag

you need to add the hreflang tag so that search engines recognize the correct language page.

example:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/ko/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/en/" />

✅ Use an SEO plugin

• Yoast SEO or RankMath plugin offers multilingual SEO optimization

4️⃣ Multilingual site performance optimization

multilingual sites can become slow due to the large number of translated pages.
use the following methods to optimize speed

1️⃣ Use a caching plugin → LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket
2️⃣ Apply a Content Delivery Network (CDN) → Use Cloudflare
3️⃣ Optimize images → Smush or ShortPixel plugin
4️⃣ Remove unnecessary plugins

5️⃣ Recommendations for building a multilingual site

recommendation	description	recommended for
Polylang	simple free plugin, requires direct translation	🔹Personal blogs, small sites
TranslatePress	real-time translation support, AI translation available	🔹Enterprise sites, easy to translate
WPML	powerful features, WooCommerce support	🔹Large businesses, shopping malls

👉 Easiest way to get started: TranslatePress + Google Translate API 🚀

🔥 Final Summary

✅ Easiest way: use Polylang or TranslatePress plugin
✅ Need automatic translation? Use TranslatePress + Google API
✅ Want a fully multilingual site? Use WPML
✅ SEO optimization is a must: add hreflang tags, utilize SEO plugins
✅ Optimize for speed: apply caching, CDN, image compression

🚀 Now you can create a multilingual site with ease! 🌍