WordPress plugins that specialize in translating your site make it easier than ever to attract customers worldwide. And optimization plugins can help you improve the performance of your website. But, it\u2019s important to choose plugins that work together to make sure you can deliver a seamless user experience that will keep your customers coming back.<\/p>
In this article, we\u2019ll explore how creating a fast, multilingual store can help drive sales and how WP Rocket and WPML work together to help your WooCommerce site meet the expectations of the modern-day consumer.<\/p>
The Next Level: Why You Should Make Your WooCommerce Site Multilingual<\/h2>
There are no borders in the online world. So why limit yourself to one language and geographical location?<\/p>
By creating a multilingual WooCommerce site, you can:<\/p>
- Reach New Markets<\/strong>. There are millions of customers out there who could benefit from buying your products or services. But they have no way of doing that for one reason – they don\u2019t understand what it is you\u2019re selling.<\/li>
- Improve SEO.<\/strong> With the right multilingual SEO techniques, you can reach new markets and ensure that your customers will find the content they need in the language they feel most comfortable using.<\/li>
- Deliver Better User Experience<\/strong>. Offering your site\u2019s content in multiple languages eliminates misunderstandings caused by language barriers. It also shows your customers that you care. In a highly competitive business like e-commerce, gaining and maintaining the trust and loyalty of your customers is crucial.<\/li><\/ol>
Many sites choose not to go multilingual because they think it will be too complicated or too expensive. After all, there are a lot of elements that need to be translated, including: <\/p>
- Your store pages, product pages, product add-ons, and product variations <\/li>
- Product categories, tags, attributes, and custom taxonomies<\/li>
- Product reviews<\/li>
- Cart and Checkout pages<\/li><\/ul>
To meet the needs of your global customers, you\u2019d probably also like to have the option of setting prices and collecting payments in multiple currencies, as well as uploading different images for product translations.<\/p>
And while there are a lot of translation plugins out there, it can be difficult to find one that ticks all the boxes, fits within your budget, and allows you to meet your deadlines.<\/p>
WPML\u2019s WooCommerce Multilingual<\/a> can handle every aspect of creating a multilingual store. It also allows you to choose between two translation modes: <\/p>
- Translate Everything<\/strong> mode<\/strong> allows you to translate your whole store automatically<\/a> in a matter of minutes. This option also allows you to review the translations before publishing them. This helps ensure that your translations are error-free and localized for the needs of your international customers.<\/li>
- Translate Some mode<\/strong> gives you the freedom to decide what you\u2019ll be translating<\/a>, and who will translate it. If you have any products that you don\u2019t necessarily want to translate, you can opt-out of translating and displaying them. Or, you can choose to display them in your site\u2019s default language.<\/li><\/ul>
After using WooCommerce Multilingual, your customers have a beautifully translated website. Here\u2019s an example of a translated product page with an easy-to-use language switcher and a currency switcher on the front end:<\/p>
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A product page translated with WooCommerce Multilingual
Source: Own screenshot<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Superpower It: Why Optimize Your Multilingual WooCommerce Site<\/h2>
Translating your website with the right plugin is only the first part of the multilingual journey. Next, you\u2019ll need to guarantee your e-commerce site\u2019s performance by making it fast and responsive. <\/p>
Here are some key things to consider:<\/p>
- Bounce Rate<\/strong>. The longer your website takes to load, the bigger the chance that consumers will abandon your site. <\/li>
- Site speed influences SEO<\/strong>. The faster your page loading time, the bigger your chance of being seen. Google places faster sites higher in the search results. <\/li>
- User experience<\/strong>. Cached websites provide a better user experience by saving your user\u2019s bandwidth since static pages are smaller in terms of file size.<\/li><\/ol>
![\"The](\"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/The-influence-of-page-load-time-on-bounce-rates.png\")
The influence of page load time on bounce rates<\/em>
Source: Google\/SOASTA Research, 2017.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>The numbers don\u2019t lie – faster is better. To rank higher, improve user experience, and increase your sales and conversions, you\u2019ll need a faster website.<\/p>
The Importance of Choosing the Right Optimization Plugin for your WooCommerce Site<\/h2>
While all caching plugins promise to make your site faster, not all of them are fully compatible with multilingual e-commerce sites<\/strong>. <\/p>
A caching plugin saves each page so it is ready-to-serve at any moment. It doesn\u2019t need to be compiled by the server every time someone visits it. However, multilingual stores need to allow you to dynamically change the language and currency at any moment. For most of the plugins out there, it is hard to cache things that are dynamic by design.<\/p>
In short, a performance plugin unsuitable for multilingual sites could cause issues. Caching your pages could lead to your customers seeing incorrect prices or having problems with switching currencies.<\/p>
WPML and WP Rocket: Worry-free Compatibility<\/h3>
Using WP Rocket and WPML, it\u2019s possible to have an optimized website that won\u2019t break. <\/p>
These plugins are fully compatible and work together out-of-the-box. You\u2019ll be able to build a fully-functional, optimized multilingual site without installing a bunch of add-ons. With WP Rocket, you’ll see an improvement in page loading time instantly just by using the default settings. You also don\u2019t need to worry about issues with caching your translated pages or dynamic content across all your site\u2019s languages. WP Rocket excludes dynamic pages such as the Cart<\/strong>, Checkout<\/strong>, and My<\/strong> Account<\/strong> pages from the caching settings by default.<\/p>
Thanks to the compatibility efforts of WP Rocket and WPML, WP Rocket now has in-built compatibility with the multicurrency features offered by WooCommerce Multilingual. It automatically excludes the currency cookies from caching. This means your customers can switch between currencies with ease or see products in the correct currency based on their location or language.<\/p>
To see how you can build a fast multilingual site with WP Rocket and WPML, we recommend watching the video below created by WPML\u2019s team. It shows you how implementing the performance optimization options offered by WP Rocket can make your multilingual site faster. <\/p>
- Site speed influences SEO<\/strong>. The faster your page loading time, the bigger your chance of being seen. Google places faster sites higher in the search results. <\/li>
- Translate Some mode<\/strong> gives you the freedom to decide what you\u2019ll be translating<\/a>, and who will translate it. If you have any products that you don\u2019t necessarily want to translate, you can opt-out of translating and displaying them. Or, you can choose to display them in your site\u2019s default language.<\/li><\/ul>
- Translate Everything<\/strong> mode<\/strong> allows you to translate your whole store automatically<\/a> in a matter of minutes. This option also allows you to review the translations before publishing them. This helps ensure that your translations are error-free and localized for the needs of your international customers.<\/li>
- Improve SEO.<\/strong> With the right multilingual SEO techniques, you can reach new markets and ensure that your customers will find the content they need in the language they feel most comfortable using.<\/li>