In order to create a website available in multiple languages, you do not need to create a separate WordPress installation for each of the languages you wish to feature. There’s a much more straightforward solution, and all you should do is use the right plugin for this.
WPML plugin is the most popular multilingual plugin which can help you translate the desired content, menus, custom posts, or specific labels found in the theme you are using.
All our themes are WPML ready, which means that this plugin was tested with all our themes – though it might be worth noting that WPML is not a free plugin, so in order to use it, you would need to purchase it.
Naturally, there are some free alternatives to this plugin, like 3rd party plugins (Polylang, qTranslate, etc.), however we cannot guarantee a complete compatibility of these plugins with our themes, and we always recommend using the WPML plugin.
Either way, you should know before using any of these plugins that they work by creating a cloned, duplicated content of a page or a post that you select. After that, you need to edit the content inside the duplicated page.
Therefore, if you are using the WPML plugin and you wish to create a version of one of the pages or posts in a different language, clicking on the plus symbol or the pencil icon next to the page/post title will give you a new page/post with exactly the same content which you can then translate and adjust accordingly.
The same options are available from the Language Bar, which you can see while you are editing a page or a post.
You can see what each icon shown here represents on the image below:
When it comes to the Polylang plugin, the way it works is very much the same as the WPML plugin. This means that it will let you add content in a different language for an existing page or a post in just a few steps.
You’ll get the same set of options while creating a new post or a page as well:
Aside from translating the content, these plugins also let you translate menu items, tags, categories and widgets.
All you should do is add a Language switcher widget within the desired widget area.
Keep in mind that you can add this widget to predefined widget areas only.
When it comes to theme labels or labels in a certain plugin, there is a number of options you could go with. You can use the WPML plugin, Loco Translate plugin, or Poedit software to translate those. You can learn more about Loco Translate plugin on the following link.
Another great, as well as a free alternative to WPML, is Weglot. If you wish to learn more about Weglot integration, here's a very useful article showing how to use Weglot with our best-selling theme, Bridge. Although we used Bridge in our example, the process is very much the same with all themes.