While your monolingual website might serve local, regional, or national markets effectively, translating your content is essential for tapping into new international markets. The growth of online languages like Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and French presents significant market opportunities.
A translated website is essential for businesses selling goods or services online. According to a survey about the importance of language on global websites, 75% of respondents preferred shopping online in their native language, and 60% rarely or never purchased from English-only websites.
With this in mind, let’s examine the options for adding languages to your Webflow website.
How to enable multi-language under Webflow
Solution | URL | Pros | Cons |
---|---|---|---|
Manual Method | N/A | – Full control over translation content and customization | – Time-consuming to manually translate and maintain content |
Weglot | https://weglot.com/ | – Easy setup and integration with Webflow | – Monthly subscription fees |
Bablic | https://www.bablic.com/ | – Automatic translation with customizable options | – Limited free plan with feature restrictions |
Localize | https://www.localizejs.com/ | – Seamless integration with Webflow | – Can be costly for high traffic websites |
Polyglot | https://www.polyglot.page/ | – Quick setup and easy management of multiple languages | – Limited customization options |
Lokalise | https://lokalise.com/ | – Advanced translation management features | – Can be complex for beginners |
Webflow or Webglot approaches in details
In Webflow, several options for incorporating multilingual functionality into your website are available. Let’s explore them.
1. Duplicate websites and pages
A common suggestion on the Webflow forum for implementing multilingual features is to duplicate your website or create multiple pages. This solution may be suitable for very small websites with limited word counts, but it can be time-consuming and tedious.
Using static pages, you can duplicate collection items. This approach involves duplicating all your website pages and creating folders for each language. However, duplicating pages or websites necessitates additional work, as you must manage multiple pages as well as your original website. Consequently, this method may not be ideal for some users.
Consider the time it takes to manage your primary website; you must also update your duplicate pages every time you update content in the original version.
When creating duplicate websites, you can establish language subdirectories. However, search engines may penalize you if you do not add hreflang tags. These tags inform Google about pages with similar content but targeting different languages, as they would otherwise be considered duplicate content. You will need to manually add hreflang tags to your pages.
The second drawback of this process is that you must also handle the translation of your website’s content in addition to creating duplicate pages. This will require working with a translator if you do not speak the desired language and manually adding the translated content to your site.
2. Use the Weglot integration
Weglot is a Webflow translation solution designed to streamline the numerous manual steps required by the above option. As a no-code solution, you can have a multilingual website up and running with minimal effort on your part.
Weglot scans your original page’s content, detects visible and non-visible content (such as metadata), and replaces it with translations. You will receive an initial layer of automatic translation, which can be edited, managed, and fine-tuned through your Weglot dashboard. Professional translators are also available if needed.
There is no need for manual page-by-page translation or duplicate pages or websites—Weglot handles all the technical aspects of a multilingual Webflow website. Your focus can remain solely on your content.
Once installed, Weglot provides separate language subdomains, crucial for SEO and considered one of the key components of Google’s best practices for multilingual SEO.
Weglot also automatically adds a front-end language switcher for users, allowing them to choose their preferred language.
To begin, you will need to [create a Web
To begin, you must create a Weglot account and choose your desired languages. Then follow these steps to integrate Weglot with your Webflow website:
- Access your Weglot dashboard, and go to the "Project settings" tab.
- In the "Setup" section, select "Webflow" from the platform dropdown menu.
- Follow the instructions provided by Weglot, which include adding custom code to your Webflow site’s head and body, and pasting your unique Weglot API key.
- Publish your Webflow site.
After following these steps, your Webflow site will be multilingual, with a front-end language switcher allowing users to select their preferred language. Weglot will handle the translations, content management, and language-switching functionality.
In conclusion, adding multilingual support to your Webflow website is essential for reaching international markets and ensuring a pleasant user experience for non-English speaking users. You can create duplicate pages or websites, but this method can be labor-intensive and may not be ideal for many users. Alternatively, the Weglot integration offers a more streamlined and efficient solution for managing translations and multilingual content on your Webflow website.