How to Add a Language Drop Down to a Website in WordPress
If you’re reading this, I assume you’re interested in adding a language drop down to your website. Maybe you’re trying to cater to a global audience or maybe you just want to practice your English. Either way, I’ve got you covered! In this article, we’ll teach you how to add a drop down menu with international options to your WordPress site.
The Steps
Adding a language drop down to a website is super easy. The steps are actually quite similar to those of adding a country select box in WordPress. So, let’s get started!
Step 1.
Open up your WordPress dashboard and click on the Get a Pro Version button in the upper-right corner. This will take you to the WordPress Pro dashboard. From here, navigate to Settings > Options and click on the Save Changes button at the top of the page.
Step 2.
After clicking on Save Changes, you’ll be brought back to the main dashboard. From here, click on the plugins button in the upper-right corner and search for Languages. You should now see a number of plugins available for download.
One of the best WordPress plugins for adding language options is called Language Select.
Click on the Get Plugin button to download the plugin. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, you can click on the Activate Plugin button to install and activate the plugin on your site.
Step 3.
As mentioned above, the next step is very similar to that of adding a country select box. So, let’s get started on that step now. After installing and activating the Languages plugin, you’ll see a new settings page appear in the admin area of your WordPress dashboard.
Go to Settings > Languages and you’ll see a number of options appear on the right side of the page. The next step is to select the language you’d like to represent your website in and then click on the Save Changes button at the top of the page.
If done correctly, you’ll now see a drop-down menu with the languages you’ve chosen appearing just beneath the main menu in the admin area of your WordPress dashboard. You can add more languages to the list by repeating the above process.
If you’re looking for an even easier way to add a language option to your site, you can always try one of the many free plugins available for WordPress. Some of the best free plugins for adding language options and many more are detailed on WordPress.org
Step 4.
After adding your first language, you’ll see a new option appear in the admin area of your WordPress dashboard. This is known as the “locale” option. A locale is a region or a country within which your website is being operated. For example, if you’ve set up a UK website, the corresponding locale is United Kingdom. The best thing about having a locale option in your WordPress dashboard is that it makes it super easy for non-English speaking visitors to find the information they need on your website.
Make sure you add a description for each option in the list as well (eg: United Kingdom). This will make it much easier for people to understand what each option is.]
If you’re looking for even more languages to add to your list, you can always use the Google Translate plugin. With this plugin, all you have to do is click on the Translate button in the admin area of your WordPress dashboard. A window will appear with the currently selected language appearing at the top. Simply click on one of the links below the Google Translate button to translate the page into any other language of your choice. You can select a different language each time you click on the button.
Step 5.
As with adding a country select box, the last step is to visit Settings > Reading in your WordPress dashboard and check the box next to “Enable Reading Options.” Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to adjust things like the columns in your WordPress Reader and the number of posts you see at once in your RSS reader.
Bonus Step.
Finally, let’s take a look at one more thing that’s really useful when it comes to adding language options to your website. If you’re running a business website, chances are you’ll want to add a registration form to the site. For example, you might want to have a “Contact Us” form at the end of this article.
Instead of just having “Contact Us” as the only option in the form field, you can have a drop-down menu with all the different countries’ addresses and phone numbers. This could be a smart move if you’re looking to expand your customer base and make the process of signing up for your newsletter or getting in touch simple and streamlined.
Now, you might be thinking, “Great! This was a lot of work. Now I can add multiple languages to my site without having to code it myself.” And you’d be right! Hiring a professional developer to do it for you would be the best option. But until then, have fun adding languages to your site!