Bringing Multilingual to WordPress

Jonathan: Hi, I’m Jonathan Wold. I am here at WordCamp Europe for a special edition of Do the Woo, and I’ve got a fantastic guest today. Augustin, how are you?

Augustin: Very fine, thank you.

Jonathan: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for joining, and you are with a fantastic company called Weglot. You’re no stranger to this WordPress ecosystem. When was the first WordCamp that you went to?

Augustin: Our first WordCamp was in 2016 with my co-founder and CCO, Remy, in Paris, actually. And it was nice. It was amazing. The first time we met the community, and we had the chance to discover how kind the community was, is, and will be, hopefully. So yeah, it was a great, great, great experience.

Jonathan: So it’s been a couple of years since then. I’m curious. So we’re here at WordCamp Europe in Porto. It’s beautiful. This is the first time we’ve had a WordCamp in a couple years. So drawing from your own Paris experience, what’s different?

Augustin: Many things. We speak in English, yes?

Jonathan: Yes, that’s fair.

Augustin: At this time, we had two and two tickets with my co-founder and a very, very small sponsor level. And now we have a much more larger booth that I was not even involved in the preparation. It is great. Maybe that’s the reason why it’s great. But yeah, we, the company grew well on we’re successful, which is amazing.

What Weglot is as a company

Jonathan: And for those who don’t know, just give us a little bit of context. So Weglot, what does Weglot do as a company?

Augustin: Weglot, what we do is we make websites multilingual easily. So you have a website in English, and you want to have it in French, Spanish to sell more with WooCommerce, you would use Weglot to have the translated versions of the website displayed and to manage concessions easily. So basically, in a couple of minutes, you can sell in Spanish, in French easily without doing nothing.

Jonathan: So you have this great, sort of do-it-yourself product, but you also work with, in the WooCommerce context, you also work well with really large stores, right? How do you approach the big customers?

Augustin: Yeah, originally speaking, we were very self-service, only inbound driven, so no large customers at all. But more and more, we have more and more larger customers, larger eCommerce players that have thousands of customers, millions of revenues and so on. So, yeah.

And that’s the same product but different usage. So, it’s really the same product. We are putting the same resources and same innovation process for everyone, but those who have a higher usage and higher expectation number of service are paying more.

Customers asked for a WordPress plugin

Jonathan: And did I understand right, that you guys… WordPress was a bit of a strong focus early on for Weglot, right? When you started Weglot as a company, how were you thinking about WordPress for back then?

Augustin: When we started to work on Weglot with Remy, we didn’t know WordPress. And we actually heard about WordPress the first time from the users. I mean, people were asking, “Okay, I’m okay to try your product, but do you have a WordPress plugin?”

So, okay. One request, we do nothing. Two, 10, 20, and so on? Okay, let’s do a WordPress plugin. We did a WordPress plugin, and it worked well. We found our first fraction being on the plugin directory mentioning the community, and that’s how things are really start off. So yeah, we are super grateful, because it’s how I think we experienced our first traction, was in WordPress.

Jonathan: That’s awesome. And you’ve grown a lot since. You guys recently raised some funding, right? How are you feeling about the future right now?

Augustin: Well, we are thinking about the future the same way we were thinking about the future back then, which is what we want to do is to really be layer the future for translations for websites. So when you think about when you build a website, when you add features like, I don’t know, payments, and you think about Stripe. But we want that when you think about translations, you think about Weglot.

And we started with WordPress, but we are now, you can use this in any technology, but we keep also being there and present for WordPress as you see me at WordCamp.

Jonathan: Yeah, and I love that too, because that gives you this unique perspective where you’re seeing what’s happening in the other platforms, and you’re able to give this consistent layer for your customers. You might have someone who moves from WordPress to another platform or vice versa, and that puts you in a good place to be able to help them do that. That’s fantastic.

The reason for such a commitment to the WordPress community

Now, one of the things, you’ve had that start. You got your initial traction in WordPress. WooCommerce has also kind of grown along with all of this. You guys do a lot in the community. You’re a global sponsor of WordCamps. Why do you put so much in?

Augustin: There are many reasons, but maybe two. One, obviously which be visible. Don’t be shy to say it, but it’s also a way to market our brand to build a better awareness inside the community. And it’s also because we think that the DNA and the culture of the community, something that also fits with ours, which is some kind of kindness, caring about others, being somehow transparent and so on. But that’s the thing that we are happy to build a better awareness inside this type of communities.

And the other thing is also kind of giving back, because we also know that we couldn’t be there without WordPress at the very beginning. So, that’s also a way to give back to the community. And so being a global sponsorship. It’s the reason many things we’ve done in the past, and we’ve done a lot on our side to fulfill these two goals. And that’s where being supportive for meet-ups, trying to be also at different WordCamps, trying to partner with local participant and volunteers to sometimes sponsor them to do things and so on. So yeah, it’s many things. But yeah, it’s two things: giving back and also building better awareness inside the community.

Jonathan: Yeah, and I think you guys have done a great job of that. And I think one of the things that I’m hoping to see more of is other companies from outside the ecosystem recognize that there’s strategic value in it. The more visible that you are, for instance, the more confidence that you’re building within the community.

When it comes to partnerships, for instance. I think you guys are in a great position where people see that Weglot cares. They’re seeing your level of involvement, and they see that alignment with WordPress as a community. As an ecosystem.

Then WooCommerce came along

So, WooCommerce. eCommerce is growing a lot. You guys have focused, initially, on just general translations, right? When did eCommerce first come into the picture for Weglot?

Augustin: I mean, it came from the very beginning, because since we… Our use cases are our websites use cases. So when you are building a website, there are many reasons to do that. One is marketing, having a page for your restaurant or for your law firm. The other one is you sell online. So WooCommerce is a great tool to do that. And another thing could be private application, when you want to do, I don’t know, internal website for your own company, Wiki internal or so. So, we are kind of addressing these three main use cases, and eCommerce is a huge one first. It’s almost 40%, so our users are eCommerce players.

Jonathan: So you’ve been involved in eCommerce from the beginning, and so then WooCommerce is obviously a big part of that within the WordPress context. So, a lot of the folks who listen to Do the Woo are what we call builders. They’re creating plug-ins products services in the WooCommerce ecosystem. Inevitably, multilingual is going to be a part of what they’re having to deal with.

So let’s talk about the product companies, first. If someone’s building a product company in the WordPress space and focus on WooCommerce specifically, what are some of the things that you would encourage them to keep in mind when it comes to translations and this multilingual piece? What advice would you have for product companies that maybe haven’t thought about multilingual yet?

For instance, let’s take WooCommerce. Someone makes an extension for WooCommerce that provides some front-end functionality, and one of the things that’s great about, what I understand of Weglot, you’re able to take the rendered layer of the site and translate that, right? But there’s still challenges that we come across. If a product creator & if a builder hasn’t thought through multilingual, if they’re just focused on one language, there’s things that they can end up missing. I’m curious. Do you have any advice for these product companies?

Augustin: For us, what works a lot is that we try to do things, make things simple, super value-oriented for end users. And I think that in the eCommerce space, it’s super important to be focused on return investment. And show that very quickly. So that’s what we focused on. To have the haha moment very quickly, and that will be my advice to any product builder. Try to make it happen super quickly, the customer’s journey.

Jonathan: Show them that value. I like that.

Thanks to our Pod Friends GoDaddy Pro and Captcha4WP

WooCommerce service providers thinking multilingual

Jonathan: Now, another big part of the WooCommerce ecosystem are the service providers. The people who are doing customizations. When it comes to that, these agencies, for instance, are often in a position to be able to offer guidance and advice. If a company is not thinking about multilingual, how do you suggest that these service writers introduce it? How do they bring up the topic?

Augustin: Okay, let’s putting things differently. What I would say is let’s try a different thing that could bring value to your end customers. And if you are web development/service, as in marketing agencies, and you are trying to help your customers to find values, increase your revenues, and so on, what you would look for is any kind of tools or solution that will increase either visibility or conversion.

And one of them could be languages. Maybe it’s probably not, but let’s figure it out very quickly and try things like Weglot or others. And you just look for if it works. So you add a new language, and you look at your numbers, and do they increase on it? It’s pretty straightforward. It’s pretty easy to assess. So yeah, I would encourage them to try.

Jonathan: Yeah. And I’m curious what you think about this. I can see a service like Weglot being a great starting point for… You get a quick win, right? You turn it on, and suddenly you have translations.

In my experience, I’m curious what you’ve seen with this Weglot, that is a starting point. Because then, if a company is English primarily, and they decide to add Spanish or French, for instance, there probably needs to follow… If they see, for instance, that there’s some traction, they need to then invest further internally to… For instance, sometimes it’s not enough to just translate something, it has to be localized. Maybe someone has a business that has a different service provider based on which country that they’re working in.

Cultivating the awareness of languages

So I’m curious. Do you have any guidance on, especially for those who just speak one language, how do they cultivate more awareness of the differences? It’s not just translation.

Augustin: Yeah, you’re right. There are many things you can bear in mind, which are, for example, currency. Like you say, transportation providers or even payment systems, they might be different if you are paying with a French payment method and with a German one. But at the end of the day, it’s more about low hanging fruit. So let’s just start with languages. It’s easier. And see if it impacts you. And maybe there are people inside your country that are not super familiar with English, and they’re better speaking or reading Spanish or whatever. And let’s see if it has a positive impact on your numbers.

Jonathan: And I like that. I think one of the hooks, what I’ve appreciated about your focus, especially as a service provider, is that you give them the opportunity to have that quick win. Because getting into translation can be a very daunting thing. Like, “Okay, well we’re going to have to hire resources. We’re going to have to do all this stuff.” In my experience, that is a natural progression of success. But like you’re saying, if you can get to that quick win, then you had a win, and then you can build on that. Otherwise, people could be shy making the commitments.

Augustin: Yeah, exactly. It’s a huge mountain for people. And let’s, just for a minute, think about the marketing guy receiving something from the CEO or anyone. Hey, let’s do German. I know maybe we have some German sales to do. Can you add German to the website? Okay. I don’t speak German. I don’t know how to add a new language on the website from the technical part. How I do that? That’s the nightmare of my to-do list, and I don’t know. It’s going to take me a month or so just to figure out how I’m going to make it and do the roadmap and so on. And there are expectations.

So what we say is, “Okay, we are a great tool to just do 80% of the work in a couple of minutes, and then you can refine ET rate on the content parts, if you want.”

And that’s, I think, the beauty of what we are offering. That it’s super easy, and it’s a real tool for people who are in charge of doing that, and to help them to see if there are value to take.

And then on the other end, we also able to serve and to provide our solution to be a companies and to be a real transitions tact for them. So it’s totally only about first, let’s say minutes or month of doing transition, but it’s something that can scale with your company.

Recognizing the importance of translations and going from there

Jonathan: I love that. Now, using a tool like Weglot can be a great way, we talk about, to kind of get that win. For folks who make the commitment and say, “Okay, we’re going to care about translations. We’re going to invest in this”, do you have any guidance on where they go from there? Should they hire a native speaker at some point? Once they experience traction, what general guidance, for the folks listening, once they start to see the wins, where do they go?

Augustin: It’s hard for me to give advice, because it also depends a lot on the company’s culture and how they do things. But what I would do is maybe look at my most sending pages and maybe have them reviewed by a local translator just to make sure that it fits our copied voice and the cultural, local specification and so on. So yeah, I would do that. Step-by-step improvements.

Jonathan: So English is my first language. I’m really interested in language, so I’ve made a conscious investment. The thing that I’ve gotten on the other side is realizing it’s not just the language. There’s cultural differences. There’s things that don’t translate, for instance. Whether it’s idioms or whatever it might be that requires more thinking, because sometimes people will just write copy.

And what I love about what you guys have done is you’ll give that quick win, machine translation or easy access to professionals, and then what I’m hearing and what I’m seeing in this space is that it’s best for folks to see that as a starting point and see the success. See that it’s working and then don’t just leave it on there. You can use a tool like Weglot to say, “Okay, we have this interface where we can get more professionals involved. There’s more that we can do with it.” And just build the momentum, right? And then with that, eventually that might lead to, “Okay, we’re going to hire people who just focus on this, et cetera.”

Augustin: Yeah, and it’s value-based. You are really making decisions based on revenues. So it’s easier for you to do the codes. And that’s funny, because you mentioned untranslated words and idioms, and we actually have that in our newsletter. And thanks to Murvy, which is a great member of our team, and every month we have untranslated words, idioms from any language, so that’s fun.

Jonathan: I find it really interesting when you discover these things like, “Oh, wow!” Yeah, there’s not a way to translate this idea across. Or someone will explain something.

Augustin: You like the idea of having an idiom saying that.

Jonathan: Yes. Ah, that’s great. Well, I really appreciate you guys. You’ve put a lot into this ecosystem. It’s been great to watch you grow as a company over the years. And yeah, we’re looking forward to seeing what happens next.

My last question. So, one of the upcoming focuses for WordPress Core is this multilingual. We’re trying to make that a bigger emphasis. WordPress is a very international project, and a lot of good effort goes into that, including from folks like yourself to make it more accessible. When you think about the future of WordPress, what thoughts, if any, do you have on multilingual becoming part of Core? Or what that means?

Augustin: I’m not in the head of the Core team or the people who are deciding that taking calls for the direction of the CMS, but what I see is, from my perspective, that it’s super hard to do multilingual. And then hard also, because it’s not as core as all other functionality that needs a lot of resources, but it also needs a lot of resources. So eventually, at some point, they would add it to the core and would see at this time.

It’s already done, but I guess its ongoing improvement to have administration and more press available in every language. So it mean that when you downloading it, making sure that plugins, admin, and so on are accessible in your own language. That’s already something that’s there, but it takes a lot to maintain it, and that’s where, I think, we should keep having this kind of improvement and investment.

Jonathan: And that’s a good example, that it does take a lot to maintain. It requires people who know that context and that language and are going to put the effort into it. It’s one of the things I’ve appreciated about your Five for the Future work is sponsoring that type of work. I’d love to see a lot more folks do that, as well, because it takes a lot. It takes a lot to make sure that that language stays up-to-date, especially as there’s changes. That’s good.

Augustin, thank you so much. I appreciate it. We’ll see you at the next WordCamp.

Augustin: Thank you, Jonathan.