In today’s digital age, **multilingualization** is a powerful strategy to expand your website’s reach and acquire a global audience. By making your WordPress site multilingual and implementing strong SEO settings, you can effectively attract international users and significantly broaden your business opportunities. It’s not just about translating content; it requires a multifaceted approach to be correctly recognized and evaluated by search engines.
Why Is WordPress Multilingualization Necessary Now?
The spread of the internet has made information accessible to people around the world at any time. However, if your site is only available in Japanese, its content is limited to those who understand Japanese. Multilingualizing your WordPress means breaking down this language barrier and opening the door to a wider market.
Entering the global market: If your products or services have the potential to resonate with potential customers outside the Japanese-speaking world, multilingualization is essential. By supporting major languages such as English, Chinese, Spanish, and French, you can gain access to audiences you couldn’t reach before.
Establishing competitive advantage: If your competitors in the same industry do not support multiple languages, you can gain a significant advantage by taking the lead. This is because, even in a niche market, your site could become the sole source of information for users in that language sphere. Improving brand image: A multilingual website projects an international and progressive corporate image to users. This increases trustworthiness and contributes to building brand loyalty.
Basic Principles for Building an SEO-Friendly Multilingual Site
Simply translating content will only have limited SEO effects. There are several important settings and considerations for search engines to correctly understand and evaluate your multilingual site.
Subdirectory Method (e.g., example.com/en/, example.com/fr/):
This method allows management within a single domain, which is advantageous as domain authority is less likely to be dispersed. It’s relatively easy to implement and has good compatibility with multilingual plugins. It’s recommended by Google and is considered an SEO-friendly option.
If your configuration is “Japanese + English,” “SEO-focused,” and “using an original theme,” the following approach is best:
✅ Optimal Configuration Proposal (For Your Case)
| Item | Recommended Content |
|---|---|
| Plugin | Polylang (Free) |
| URL Structure | https://example.com/ja/, .../en/ |
| SEO Measures | Automatic hreflang output, language-specific meta settings |
| Translation Method | Manual translation (prioritizing quality) |
🔧 Implementation Steps (Overall Flow)
Step 1: Polylang Installation and Setup
- WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Search for “Polylang” – Install & Activate
- Add “Japanese” and “English” under “Languages”
- Create posts and pages for each language
Step 2: URL Structure and SEO-Conscious Settings
-
WordPress Settings → Permalinks →
Post nameformat recommended -
Polylang Settings → URL modifications: “Add language information to the URL” recommended
- ✅
https://example.com/ja/ - ✅
https://example.com/en/
- ✅
Step 3: Theme Compatibility (Crucial Here)
① Add hreflang tags to header.php (Polylang does this automatically)
👉 However, the <html> tag needs a lang attribute:
<html <?php language_attributes(); ?>>② Display language switcher button (anywhere you want)
1, 'show_names' => 1, 'hide_current' => 0, )); } ?>
- Example: Place in navigation menu or footer
- Setting
show_flagsto 0 will hide flags
③ functions.php: Register Polylang-compatible menus (if needed)
register_nav_menus(array(
'primary-ja' => 'メインメニュー（日本語）',
'primary-en' => 'Main Menu (English)',
));You can register menus for each language in the admin screen.
Step 4: Creating and Linking Translated Pages
- A “＋” mark will appear in the Posts/Pages list; use it to create the English version
- Translated articles will be internally linked, and SEO-effective
hreflangtags will be automatically output