Method #2: Using WPML to Translate Your WooCommerce Store
The WPML plugin is a very popular premium translation plugin for WordPress. It has an easy-to-use interface, allows you to connect your site to third-party translation providers, and can even provide automatic machine translation.
Firstly, you need to sign up for an account on the WPML website. You’ll need the multilingual CMS plan for translating WooCommerce.
Then, you need to install and activate the WPML plugin.
Upon activation, click the ‘Register Now’ link that you will see on your plugins page. Then, you need to enter your site key. You will find this under your account on the WPML website.
Next, visit the Plugins » Add New » Commercial page.
Here, it’s easy to install the other WPML plugins you need. These are:
- String Translation
- Translation Management
- Media Translation
- WooCommerce Multilingual
Simply check these 4 plugins in the list.
Then, scroll down and check the ‘Activate after download’ box. Next, go ahead and click the Download button. Your plugins will be automatically downloaded, installed, and activated for you.
You should see an ‘Operation complete’ message.
Now, visit the WPML » Languages page in your WordPress admin. This will show the WPML setup options.
You need to choose the language for your current content, then click the Next button.
Now, it’s time to choose the languages to enable for your site. Just check the box next to the ones that you want to use.
The language options on your site will appear in a language switcher.
WPML will ask you to choose an order for the languages. You also need to choose what to do if a translation is missing for a certain page or product.
Below this, you can add the language switcher to your navigation menu. Alternatively, you can add it to a widget or the footer area of your website.
Lastly, you have the option to link to translations at the top or bottom of your content. If you enable this option, you can choose how these translation links will look. You will also see a preview.
Tip: This text will appear along with the description for your product and on your site’s pages, not just on blog posts. You can change the text to ‘This content is also available in’ or similar.
When you’re done, click the Next button to move on.
WPML will then ask you whether you want to send themes and plugin information to WPML.org. This can help speed things up if you need support.
Now, you need to enter your site key if you didn’t do so before. If you’ve already entered it, simply click the Next button.
Then, you will see some recommendations for other components to install. If you didn’t already install and activate the extra WPML plugins earlier, you can do so here.
Then, click the ‘Skip and Finish’ link to close the setup wizard.
You should now see the WooCommerce Multilingual setup wizard. Just click the ‘Let’s continue’ button to start setting up your WooCommerce store translations.
First thing, you will be prompted to create missing translations for your store pages. Just leave the ‘Create missing translations’ box checked and click to continue.
On the Global Attributes tab, simply click the Continue button.
WPML will ask you if you want to enable several currencies. If you do, check the ‘Enable the multi-currency mode’ box before clicking the Continue button.
Under Translation Options, WPML will ask you whether you want to show products even if they’re not translated. Choose whichever option you prefer then click the Continue button
On the next tab, just go ahead and click the ‘Close setup’ button.
Next, visit the WooCommerce » WooCommerce Multilingual tab in your WordPress admin. You should see your list of products in the product table. There will be a new column that shows the languages you selected when setting up WPML.
To translate a page, simply click the + icon for your chosen language. You will then see the product translation screen. You can copy fields from the original or simply type in the translated text.
Below this, you can also translate any other text for the product.
Once you’ve finished the translation, scroll to the bottom of the page. Here, you need to check the ‘Translation is complete’ box and then click the ‘Save & Close’ button.
Now, you will see your list of products again. The + icon for your translated product and language has turned into a pencil icon. You can click this to edit the translation.
Now, you can go ahead and translate your product into the other languages in the same way. We translated our suit jacket product page into French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
To add images to your translated pages, visit the WPML » Media Translation page on your WordPress admin.
Then, click the + icon for your chosen image. You will see a popup where you just need to type in the name for the image. You could also select a different image to use for the translated version.
When you’re ready, click the ‘Save media translation’ button.
Tip: To translate your product categories, simply click on the ‘Categories’ tab and translate them in the same way as your products.
After you’ve translated your product, users can view it in their own language on your website. WPML will automatically translate WordPress-generated text like ‘Add to cart’ into the user’s language, too.
Automatically Translating Your WooCommerce Store Using WPML
If you don’t want to create the translations yourself, there are lots of other options.
You can add other users as translators, use a translation service, or translate content automatically. To do this, simply visit WPML » Translation Management in your WordPress dashboard.
Firstly, you need to run through the setup wizard. This allows you to choose who will translate your site. If you want to let other users translate content, or if you want to use a translation service, you can do that here.
We’re just going to use the automatic translation on our site.
Next, you will see some details about the Advanced Translation Editor. Lust click to continue. You will then see a Summary, where you just need to go ahead and click the ‘Done!’ button.
After that, you will be taken to your translation management dashboard.
Here, you need to click on the ‘Translation Tools’ tab then the ‘Sign up for free’ button to set up automatic translations.
Tip: You get 2,000 words/month of machine translation for free.
You will then be prompted to enter your billing details.
When you’ve done that, click on the ‘Translation Dashboard’ tab. Here, you need to select all the items to automatically translate.
First thing, you need to choose ‘Product’ from the content type dropdown, then click the ‘Filter’ button to show just your products.
Next, simply go ahead and check the box next to your chosen items. You need to check the box to translate the image, too.
Below this, select the languages to translate your products into. This will default to all languages. Now, simply click the ‘Add selected content to translation basket’ button.
You will now see a new Translation Basket tab. Go ahead and click on this. After that, check that the content you want to automatically translate is correctly listed here. Once you’ve done that, simply click the ‘Send all items for translation’ button.
Your content will be prepared and sent. You will see a popup letting you know that the media files have been sent for translation. Just click Continue here.
Now, simply click on the Translation Tools tab and automatically translate your content.
Then, select everything you want to translate then click the ‘Translate automatically’ button.
You will now see a message letting you know that the jobs have been added to the queue for translation.
You can click on the Translation Jobs tab to check that your translations have been completed. To edit any of the automatic translations, use the WooCommerce » WooCommerce Multilingual page.
The translated pages are also already live on your site, too.
You can now visit your WooCommerce store to see the translated pages.
We hope this article has helped you learn how to translate your WooCommerce store.