3 Reasons to Make Your Drupal & WordPress Sites Multilingual

For those of you operating under the huge misconception that English is the lingua franca of the global marketplace, listen up. A Gallup survey of language preferences found that Internet users in 23 EU countries prefer consuming digital content in their own languages. The people surveyed were your ideal demographic—big Internet users. Large majorities were on the Internet every day. “In almost all EU Member States...at least 80% of Internet users said they had used the Internet on a daily basis in the four weeks prior to the survey.” In Italy, 73% were on everyday, Belgium had 80%, and 91% of the survey takers from Slovenia visited the Internet everyday.

There are a lot of reasons to make your site multilingual, but the three most important ones are global customers don’t visit websites, browse the Internet, or buy on sites that aren’t in their native language. They aren’t searching Google in English either.

1. Multilingual Sites Get More Visits

A huge majority of those surveyed—90%—said they always visited a website in their own language. Providing multilingual content is more important than ever in today’s global marketplace. Building brand loyalty is more than making a sale, it’s about establishing a relationship. And it’s hard for customers to feel an emotional connection to your brand if they can’t consume your content in their native language.

2. A Multilingual Site Improves SEO

Google knows no borders, neither does AdWords. The same survey found that 19% never browse in a language other than their own, and that more than half of all Google searches are made in a language other than English. Control your messaging and keep your distinctive SEO value—whether you’re in California or Croatia—by enabling multilingual searching of your website. Localizing your SEO drives business. This industry survey confirms that users who don't have access to content in their native language won't buy.  

3. Sell More Products and Services

Bottom line best reason for making your Drupal or WordPress site multilingual? Selling more products and services. The survey shows that 42% never purchase products and services in other languages. Localizing your site increases the number of site visits, which in turn drives more leads and sales. By increasing community engagement with your site’s multilingual capability, you’re going to create an environment that encourages more participation in your online communities. This will help you collect and nurture those important brand ambassadors who are key to boosting sales with referrals, product information, and positive reviews.

Making Your Site Multilingual Is Easier Than You Think

If you want your Drupal or WordPress website to resonate with consumers around the world, it’s time to go multilingual. And it’s not as hard as you think. Translating web content using an integrated, cloud-based tool isn’t just superior to the old model of translation, it’s the only way to keep up. The Lingotek - Inside Drupal Module (Available for both Drupal 7 and Drupal 8) integrates with Lingotek’s automated, cloud-based translation management system (TMS) to give users access to professional-grade translation tools directly within Drupal.

There is a Lingotek - Inside WordPress Plugin that works with the Polylang plugin to make it easy to create a multilingual WordPress site. The plugin includes machine, professional, and community translation solutions that let you translate into as many languages as you want. It can also translate posts, pages, categories, tags, media, menus, and more.  

These translation tools make it easier for Drupal and WordPress users to create the multilingual content that’s going to engage a global audience that’s partial to searching, shopping, and buying in their own language.  

For more information about Lingotek | The Translation Network, please visit www.lingotek.com.