Translating Your Website

Would you like to make your website accessible in another language? Whether you’re building a blog, recipe site, podcast hub, or business portfolio, translating your theme helps connect with a wider audience. The good news? It’s easier than you think — and in many cases, you can do it all from your WordPress dashboard!

These settings aren’t specific to Kadence, they apply to any theme. It’s worth also noting that every theme is built differently so some of these setting may not be available.

How to Translate Your WordPress Website

Most of the text content in your theme can be updated or translated manually, without the need for external plugins or complicated setups. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to change various parts of your site from English into your desired language, step by step.

Changing the Language of Your WordPress Dashboard

To change the default language of your entire WordPress admin area:

1. Go to Settings > General
2. Find the Site Language dropdown
3. Choose your desired language from the list
4. Click Save Changes

This will update the language for your backend menus, tooltips, and built-in WordPress text.

Translating Your Homepage Widgets

Your homepage likely uses several widget areas (depending on your theme, this could be anywhere from 4 to 10). These areas often contain headlines, blurbs, buttons, and more.

1. Navigate to Appearance > Widgets
2. Look for widget sections like Front Page 1, Front Page 2, etc.
3. Open each widget and manually replace any English content with your translated text

💡 Tip: Don’t forget to save after editing each widget!

Translating Other Widget Areas

Your theme may include additional widget-ready areas in your sidebar, footer, or special sections (like a shop banner or blog callout).

1. Still in Appearance > Widgets, scroll through all available widget locations
2. Update each section with translated text as needed

Widget translations are entirely manual, so this is a good opportunity to adjust tone and layout as well.

Translating Pages

Pages like “About,” “Contact,” or “Services” often contain a lot of static content that you’ll want to translate.

1. Go to Pages > All Pages
2. Click on a page title to open the editor
3. Translate the content inside the editor block by block
4. Click Update when finished

If you use page builder plugins or block-based templates, make sure you check every block, including buttons and headings.

Translating Blog Posts

To translate your blog or article content:

1. Navigate to Posts > All Posts
2. Click on each post you want to edit
3. Translate the title, headings, body content, and any image captions
4. Save your changes

Want to preserve SEO for both languages? Consider creating separate posts in each language and tagging them accordingly.

Updating Categories and Tags

Categories and tags also appear on your website, especially in archive pages and navigation.

1. Go to Posts > Categories
2. Hover over a category and click Edit
3. Translate the Name and Description fields
4. Save your changes

Repeat this for all relevant tags under Posts > Tags.

Translating Your Navigation Menus

Once your page and category names are translated, your navigation may update automatically. If not:

1. Head to Appearance > Menus
2. Open your active menu and manually edit each link text to reflect the translated name
3. Ensure any custom links are translated as well
4. Click Save Menu

This ensures consistency in your site’s navigation across all pages.

Translating Theme-Specific Text

Your theme may include custom elements like:

To translate these:

Translating Areas Not Accessible via Dashboard

Some areas of your theme — like the 404 error page, comment sections, or archive headers — may not be editable from your WordPress dashboard. For these, a plugin is your best option.

Recommended Plugin:

We recommend Weglot Translate for simple, accurate translations that integrate well with our themes. It’s user-friendly, doesn’t break formatting, and offers real-time language switching.

Plugins to Avoid:

While many plugins work well, we do not recommend WPML with our themes, as it often disrupts the design and formatting of flexible widgets.

Creating a Multilingual Site:

If you want your site to support multiple languages at once, with a language switcher, you’ll need a multilingual plugin like:

These tools allow visitors to choose their language, and you can manage translations for each page separately.

Final Thoughts

Translating your theme opens the door to a global audience and builds trust with your visitors. Whether you’re targeting readers, customers, or clients from other countries, these simple steps make your content accessible and inclusive.

Need help with more specifics? Check our article ‘How to Translate Your WordPress Theme (Step-by-Step for Beginners)‘