Research says that 40% of online shoppers won’t buy from a website that’s not in their native language. English, the most popular language online, is still used by only 25% of internet users. The market has spoken: to compete on a global stage, you need to go local. Your website is the central pillar for all your communications, and translating websites lets you take advantage of opportunities around the world.
In the dynamic realm of modern digital communication, reaching out to a worldwide audience has become more than a mere aspiration – it’s a strategic necessity.
According to Evan Kramer, CEO of MotionPoint, translating your website is the bare minimum if you want your business to have a strong presence in multiple markets. “What we’ve figured out is that high translation quality on a website is really the table stakes of providing a translated experience,” said Kramer in a Localization Leaders podcast episode with BLEND’s CEO, Yoav Ziv.
As technology bridges gaps and connects people across continents, the primary language your website speaks plays a pivotal role in engaging diverse individuals.
This brings us to BLEND, a cutting-edge AI and human translation solution that goes beyond translation, ensuring your content resonates seamlessly with local cultures. In a world where every click matters, harnessing BLEND’s website translation expertise can be the key to unlocking international opportunities and fostering genuine connections.
Human translation involves the expertise of professional translators who convert web content from one language to another. The key advantage of human translation over automatic translation lies in human’s ability to comprehend culture, context, structure, and linguistic subtleties. Beyond this, human translation often encompasses steps like proofreading and quality assurance, ensuring a polished final result.
Machine translation, also known as automated translation or automated website translation, employs artificial intelligence to automatically translate website content from one language to another. Notable examples include Google Translate, which utilizes a neural machine translation system for multilingual conversions. With automatic translation, you don’t have to spend time extracting content and receiving translated content.
In contrast to human translation, machine translation lacks the ability to consider the context or linguistic nuances of foreign language which can result in less accurate translations. Machine translation has come a long way though, especially with the rise of Large Language Models (LLMs). These advanced AI systems can now produce more fluent, natural-sounding translations than ever before, making them a great option for quickly localizing large volumes of content.
But even with these improvements, machine translation isn’t perfect—especially when it comes to nuanced brand messaging, cultural references, or conversion-focused copy. That’s why it’s still essential to keep a professional translator in the loop.
At BLEND, we use a hybrid approach that combines powerful AI tools with expert human review. This ensures that your translated content not only reads well but also performs well—especially on key website pages where you want users to take action, like product pages, landing pages, or checkout flows.
Want to translate you website? Consider which website translation method below best suits your content needs:
One way to localize your site is to gather all the text from your website and send it to a professional translator via the BLEND Express Wizard.
To do this, start by either downloading the text from your website or copying it from each page, and pasting it into a Word document, Excel file, or Google sheet. Along with these files, make sure you provide the translators with a detailed brief, complete with images and links that explain the context. Include notes on brand language and whether you want to leave product or brand names, or certain phrases and slogans, in the original language.
Once your content is uploaded, you’ll select an expert if you require your translator to have one. For example, if you have a finance website, you may want a translator with financial expertise. Otherwise, we recommend choosing “Marketing” as the default for website translation.
Finally, you’ll pay and submit your project. You can then check on the status on your My Projects page in your BLEND account, and you’ll receive the translated content back in the same format in which you submitted it. You will then have to upload the translated text into your website builder or CMS manually.
Rather than manually exporting and importing your site content for translation, we recommend using a translation API. A website integration automates the beginning and end of the website localization process, making the overall flow of your project much smoother. BLEND allows you to use an API to plug in directly to your CMS or website builder, with specialized integrations for WordPress, Drupal, and more.
As you add or change sections or whole pages, your translators will see where the text fits in the overall page layout. All the localization work will be done directly on the translation platform. Translators will still have content and design context, and the new web pages can be reviewed and published within the website builder or CMS itself. By skipping the uploads and downloads, you’ll speed up the whole process, avoid operational headaches, and ensure better results.
Using these APIs involves a few simple steps to connect your BLEND account to your site’s CMS:
If you haven’t already, install the WPML plugin on your WordPress website. You’ll need the Multilingual CMS or Multilingual Agency plan to enable professional translation services.
For new installs, WPML has a simple Setup Wizard where you can select your languages, add BLEND as a service and configure your language switcher.
This step might already be complete if you used the WPML Setup Wizard. But in case you need to connect to BLEND after setting up WPML, here’s how you can do it:
Once BLEND is activated, you’ll be able to connect your WPML account to your BLEND account using your API token. Get your API keys by going into the Control Panel in your BLEND account and then enter the API keys into the WPML plugin.
Before starting a project, make sure you have enough credits in your BLEND account.
From the WPML Translation Management dashboard, you can select the content you want to send for translation—this includes pages, posts, custom post types, and strings.
Use the filters and checkboxes to select exactly what you want translated.
💡 Note: If your site uses plugins like Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), WooCommerce or other tools to create or structure content, please ensure that relevant WPML addons are installed and activated. Sometimes these addons are required in order to correctly detect and extract content for translation, but this depends on your site setup.
Once you’ve selected your content in the Translation Management dashboard, simply:
Your selected content will be sent directly to BLEND through the WPML API, with no extra steps required.
After sending your content, you can track translation progress via the WPML Translations queue page or directly in your BLEND account.
Once translations are complete, they’ll be delivered back to your WordPress site and appear in the correct language versions.
Make sure to review the content on your live site to ensure everything looks and reads as expected.
If your website is built on a system other than WordPress or Drupal, you still likely have options that are easier than downloading and uploading your content manually.
Translating your entire website into your preferred language can be easy, but it’s just one step toward full localization. To help your website really BLEND in and stand out, start with localized SEO research. Once you’re using the right keywords for each market, it’s time to start localizing your help center and customer support processes. Localizing every customer interaction gives you a cohesive online presence and offers your customers a consistently fantastic experience. If you’re not sure what needs to be done to localize your site for new markets, or just want to improve your localization further, a Local Insight Report can help you understand what the new step should be.
BLEND offers localization solutions every step of the way. Get in touch to find out how we can help you go natively local with our website translation services.
With over 10 years of experience in the localization industry, Adria is an expert in designing localization and translation solutions for global businesses in every industry. Adria is BLEND’s Solutions Architect and the Chapter Manager of Women in Localization Romania.
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