{"id":18316,"date":"2011-04-24T18:06:33","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T12:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=18316"},"modified":"2026-10-13T13:39:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:09:36","slug":"google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Website Translation: Google Translate Widget and Better Options (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want visitors from Spain, France, Germany or anywhere else to read your English site in their own language? For years the easiest answer was Google&#8217;s free Website Translator element: paste a small script and a language dropdown appeared on every page. Google stopped offering it to new sites in 2019, but there are still good free ways to add <strong>website translation<\/strong> in 2026. Here are your options.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-64065\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation-1024x538.webp\" alt=\"Free online website translation with Google Translate\" width=\"1024\" height=\"538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation-768x403.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/free-website-translation.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> The old Google Translate website widget is no longer offered for new sites, although existing embed code may still run. For WordPress, install the free GTranslate plugin (Google Translate dropdown, 100+ languages) or TranslatePress (edit translations visually, free AI words). For real multilingual SEO, use a paid plan that creates translated URLs. Most visitors can also translate any page themselves with Chrome or Edge.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6aef6e1277332\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6aef6e1277332\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#What_happened_to_the_Google_Translate_website_element\" >What happened to the Google Translate website element?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Best_free_website_translation_options\" >Best free website translation options<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Machine_translation_vs_real_multilingual_SEO\" >Machine translation vs real multilingual SEO<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Which_option_should_you_choose\" >Which option should you choose?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Is_the_Google_Translate_widget_still_free\" >Is the Google Translate widget still free?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Does_machine_translation_hurt_SEO\" >Does machine translation hurt SEO?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2011\/04\/google-translate-for-free-online-website-translation\/#Can_I_translate_my_site_without_a_plugin\" >Can I translate my site without a plugin?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_happened_to_the_Google_Translate_website_element\"><\/span>What happened to the Google Translate website element?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Google&#8217;s Website Translator let site owners add a translation dropdown with this script:<\/p>\n<pre><code>&lt;div id=\"google_translate_element\"&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;\n&lt;script&gt;function googleTranslateElementInit() {\n new google.translate.TranslateElement({pageLanguage: 'en'}, 'google_translate_element');\n}&lt;\/script&gt;\n&lt;script src=\"https:\/\/translate.google.com\/translate_a\/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit\"&gt;&lt;\/script&gt;<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In 2019 Google closed sign-ups for new sites, recommending browsers&#8217; built-in translation instead. The script still works on many sites, but it is unsupported and could stop at any time, so do not rely on it for important pages.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Best_free_website_translation_options\"><\/span>Best free website translation options<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/gtranslate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GTranslate<\/a>:<\/strong> adds a language switcher that uses Google Translate on the fly. Over 900,000 WordPress sites use it. The free version does not create separate translated pages for search engines.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/translatepress-multilingual\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TranslatePress<\/a>:<\/strong> translate pages visually from the front end, with a limited number of free AI-translated words, and edit any line by hand. Translations are saved on your site.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Browser translation:<\/strong> Chrome, Edge and Safari offer to translate pages automatically. Set the correct <code>lang<\/code> attribute in your HTML so browsers know the original language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Machine_translation_vs_real_multilingual_SEO\"><\/span>Machine translation vs real multilingual SEO<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Machine translation widgets<\/strong> help visitors read your content but usually do not rank in Google in other languages.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Multilingual SEO<\/strong> needs a separate URL for each language (like \/es\/ or es.example.com), translated titles and descriptions, and hreflang tags. Paid plans of GTranslate, TranslatePress, Weglot and WPML do this.<\/li>\n<li>Have important pages checked by a fluent speaker. Machine translation can make embarrassing mistakes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Which_option_should_you_choose\"><\/span>Which option should you choose?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Personal blog with some foreign visitors:<\/strong> GTranslate free or simply rely on browser translation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Business site targeting another country:<\/strong> TranslatePress or Weglot with translated URLs, plus human review.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Large multilingual site:<\/strong> WPML or Polylang with professional translators.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Need to translate text yourself? See how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2021\/11\/translate-hindi-to-english\/\">translate Hindi to English<\/a> and other languages accurately.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Is_the_Google_Translate_widget_still_free\"><\/span>Is the Google Translate widget still free?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>It is no longer offered to new sites. Existing installs may still work, but Google does not support it.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Does_machine_translation_hurt_SEO\"><\/span>Does machine translation hurt SEO?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Auto-translated pages that are published without review can look like low-quality content. Use human review for indexed translations.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_translate_my_site_without_a_plugin\"><\/span>Can I translate my site without a plugin?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Visitors can use their browser&#8217;s translate button. For a language switcher, you need a plugin or service.<\/p>\n<p>Do you offer your site in other languages? Tell us how in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want visitors from Spain, France, Germany or anywhere else to read your English site in their own language? For years&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":64065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49],"class_list":["post-18316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","tag-tutorials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18316"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65397,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18316\/revisions\/65397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}