How to Build a Multilingual Website in Minutes Using Avada and WPML

We invited the WPML team to demonstrate how to set up a multilingual website that caters to all of your audiences, no matter what language they speak. This article will cover three quick and easy steps to creating a website using Avada and WPML.

To get started, we’ll import one of the stunning Avada prebuilt websites – which are ideal for beginners and professionals alike. They can be imported at the click of a button and then fully adapted to meet the needs of your company or brand.

Using the new ‘Translate Everything’ mode available in WPML 4.5, we’ll then show you how you can turn your website into a multilingual powerhouse in minutes.

A multilingual site is proven to boost site traffic, increase sales, and improve support satisfaction. It also helps that it’s a remarkably cost-effective marketing strategy.

Ron Henry, a finance blogger, and author tested this by translating thirteen of his articles. Within three weeks, he saw a 25% increase in traffic – the kind of results that would typically take several months and come at a significantly higher cost.

Celebrated marketing blogger Neil Patel also recognized the benefit of going multilingual. When he translated his website, his global traffic increased by 47%.

These results aren’t hard to come by. It’s never been easier to make a WordPress website multilingual, mainly if you’re using a powerful duo like Avada and WPML. Let’s show you how.

Avada is an impressive, all-in-one WordPress website builder that gives you complete control over the design of your website. It comes with all the tools you need to create and customize beautiful websites, including WooCommerce stores.

With Avada, you can build virtually any design and layout that you can imagine – your imagination is the limit. Avada has a visual Drag & Drop interface with a vast resource library of over 90 Design Elements.

But suppose you do need some inspiration to feed your inner creator. In that case, you can get started by using one of their professionally designed, prebuilt websites. There are over 80 to choose from, and they are imported in a few straightforward steps.

We’ll assume that you are using a fresh WordPress install with the Avada theme registered and activated. The next step is to install Avada’s required plugins:

The fastest way to install a prebuilt Avada website is to use the built in Importer tool.

Here’s how:

And that’s it! You’ve installed an Avada prebuilt website in a few simple steps.

In this tutorial example, we will keep the Avada Winery prebuilt website content. Since WooCommerce comes pre-installed, we will use this as an opportunity to show how “Translate Everything” seamlessly handles e-commerce content.

But, in your case, you’ll need to start personalizing and adapting the content of your prebuilt website to make it exactly how you want it—for example, adding products.

When you’re happy with your first iteration of content, it’s time to turn your website multilingual.

The easiest and quickest way to turn your site multilingual is by using a translation plugin like WPML. As one of the most comprehensive and affordable solutions available, it lets you translate your website into multiple languages and works seamlessly with the Avada Website Builder.

Various methods are available to translate your website with WPML. Still, we’ll cover the fastest: Using the ‘Translate Everything’ mode.

As of WPML 4.5, Avada and WPML clients can access the ‘Translate Everything’ mode.

‘Translate Everything’ mode typically reduces 90% of the effort required to translate a WordPress website. In addition, it automatically translates your main site content into all secondary languages as you create or update it.

Although automatic translation is far more accurate than it used to be, all translations can be reviewed on the front-end either pre-or-post publishing. Thus, it gives you peace of mind and lets you – or a professional reviewer – make any immediate changes to the translations if needed.

We’ll use our prebuilt WooCommerce website to show you exactly how to translate your site in minutes using WPML’s ‘Translate Everything’ mode.

You’ll need a WPML CMS or Agency account to get started. Once purchased, install the following WPML plugins:

After activating these plugins, you’ll need to configure WPML. A simple setup wizard will take you through the steps, which involve determining your chosen secondary languages, activating your WPML site key, and deciding how you want to translate your site.

We’ll work with ‘Translate Everything’ mode for this guide, which will automatically translate any content as you publish or update it. You can choose whether you’d like to publish your translated content immediately without review, publish it and review it later, or review it before publishing. The choice is yours.

Since using a WooCommerce starter site, you will be prompted to install WooCommerce Multilingual. This free addon comes with the WPML package and ensures that product pages, the shop page, the cart, the checkout pages, and more get translated.

Complete the setup wizard for WPML before moving on to complete the setup wizard for WooCommerce Multilingual (WCML).

You’ll be taken to the Translation Management dashboard after finishing the setup wizard for WPML and WCML. You’ll see that WPML has already started translating your site in the background. You’ll be notified when it has done its work, and the content has been translated into all secondary languages.

Depending on which review option you choose during setup, you can either review your translated content immediately or at a later date. You can do this or someone more familiar with your secondary languages, like a local translator.

And that’s it! Your primary website content has been turned multilingual. Don’t worry if you need to change your content over time. Updates you make in your original language will get translated automatically into your secondary languages.

While WPML’s ‘Translate Everything’ mode translates everything from pages, posts, and custom fields, to taxonomies and WooCommerce products, it can’t translate more minor texts like those in menus, widgets, and form fields, for example.

There isn’t enough context for automatic translation to translate minor texts accurately. Follow the steps in this guide to help you translate any such content.

If you need any further guidance about specific Avada settings, including how to translate Avada Sliders and Forms, check out the following “Building Multilingual Avada Websites Using WPML” help file.

If you would like to create different designs for different languages, WPML and Avada also have you covered. Here’s an overview of how to to do it using WPML’s manual translation option:

For more information and to view WPML’s full step-by-step instructions, follow these guidelines.

As you can see, Avada and WPML are a powerful combination. Everything you need to build a multilingual website that’s ready to drive business and capture leads is right at your fingertips. You can also see how it’s easier than ever to make your WooCommerce store multilingual and push your products and services to a global audience!