Webflow website builder supports the use of Google Translate for users who want to have multilingual sites. By adding Google Translate, visitors can choose which language to use to read your site.
However, the addition of Google Translate on the Webflow website may not be enough to answer users’ needs for multilingual websites, for example because the features are incomplete.
Therefore you need a Google Translate alternative for Webflow. You don’t need to worry because in this article we will discuss the best alternatives that you can use.
Limitations of Google Translate for Webflow multilingual website
In this article we will discuss what is the best Google Translate alternative for Webflow. However, before that you need to know first what the limits of this platform are so you have to look for other alternatives.
Google Translate can be a convenient tool for adding multilingual support to your Webflow website, but there are some limitations and potential drawbacks. Here are some limitations of using Google Translate for multilingual websites in the context of Webflow:
- Translation quality: Google Translate relies on machine translation, which may not always provide accurate translations, especially for complex or subtle content. It can have difficulty dealing with idiomatic expressions, cultural references, and industry-specific terminology.
- Lack of context: Google Translate often lacks context, which can lead to potential misunderstandings. It may not understand the meaning of a particular phrase or sentence, resulting in a translation that is technically correct but semantically incorrect.
- Incompatibility: Google Translate may provide inconsistent translations in different parts of your website. This can result in a fragmented user experience, as the tone and style of the translation can vary.
- Limited customization: Customizing the appearance and behavior of Google Translate on your Webflow site may be limited. You may not have complete control over the design, placement, or style of the translation widget.
- SEO impact: Google Translate may not always produce SEO-friendly URLs or metadata for translated pages. This can affect the search engine ranking of your multilingual content.
- Language support: Although Google Translate supports many languages, there may still be some less common or regional languages that are not well supported. This may limit your ability to reach a diverse global audience.
- Advanced features: Google Translate only provides a language switching feature and provides translation results according to the selected language. Meanwhile, apart from that, there are no other features. In fact, it is important to look for services that offer advanced features such as exception translation or a live editor for editing translation results.
How to add Google Translate on Webflow website?
If you don’t know how to add Google Translate to Webflow, below we will present a few steps on how to do it so that you have a comparison with the alternatives that we will discuss.
First you need to open the Webflow website design page, then add select Embed HTML and in the Style selector section enter google-translator.
After that Open Code Editor.
Then a display like the following will appear and enter the script as below. Click Save & Close.
The next step is to click Page > Edit page settings.
Next you need to enter a series of codes below, if so then select Save.
The steps above are only brief, but from the steps above you can see that adding Google Translate to Webflow is quite complicated and you must have at least basic programming skills.
This may not be the case for some Webflow users, therefore you need to consider using an alternative that is more effective and has a fast installation.
Because installation is an important factor in choosing an automatic translation service. One of the services that has easy and fast installation is Linguise. So what is Linguise and why is it an alternative to Google Translate? Read more after this.
Why Linguise is the best alternative to Google Translate?
After understanding how to add Google Translate to a Webflow website, now you need to know why Linguise is the right platform for a Google Translate alternative.
Linguise is an AI cloud-based automatic translation service integrated with Webflow that has more than 80 languages, including traditional languages. Even though they both use machine translation, Linguise uses additional high-quality neural translation so that the translation results are more natural and the translation results are updated automatically every 3 months.
Apart from that, you can easily install Linguise automatic translation on Webflow and translate all your Webflow websites in just a minute!
There are several features that make Linguise an alternative solution to Google Translate, these features are also not available in Google Translate Webflow.
High-quality translation
Linguise is a service that has high quality translations because uses the best-in-class NMT model to ensure you receive the most accurate translations for your content. The model is continuously updated, guaranteeing improved translation accuracy available in various languages.
Not all language pairs are equal in neural machine translation, accuracy ranges from 82% to 98%. For instance, English to Spanish translations have a 97% accuracy, meaning you only need to edit a maximum of 3% of the content to achieve a perfect 100% translation.
| NMT Translation | Human Translation | Quality | |
| English-Spanish | 5,428 | 5,550 | 97% |
| English-French | 5,295 | 5,496 | 96% |
| English-Chinese | 4,594 | 4,987 | 92% |
| Spanish-English | 5,187 | 5,372 | 96% |
| French-English | 5,343 | 5,404 | 98% |
| Chinese-English | 4,263 | 4,636 | 92% |
Live editor Linguise
The first feature that Linguise has but Google Translate doesn’t is a live editor. This feature allows you to edit translations directly on the front page of the Webflow website.
This way, when there are Linguise automatic translation results that don’t match what you want, you can immediately edit them. To edit live, you can visit the Linguise dashboard > Open Live Editor > select language > Live Editor.
This is of course different from Google Translate which only translates existing web content, and like it or not you have to accept the existing translation results without being able to edit them.
Translation exclusion rules
Apart from editing Webflow website translation results, another feature that makes Linguise superior to Google Translate is because it translates the translation feature. Often, on a website there are sentences or content that are left original or not translated.
Therefore, there is a need for a translation feature so that the selected content is not translated. Well, Linguise offers this feature on the dashboard. There are several types of services provided, including:
The following is an explanation of each type of rule above.
- Text ignore: This is employed to indicate text that should remain untranslated, like a brand name.
- Text replace: It is employed to replace one text with an alternative.
- Content exclusion: This encompasses the removal of particular content from a webpage.
- Exclusion by URL: This pertains to the process of excluding content based on its URL.
- Ignore inline: This is utilized to leave out content that extends over several lines.
To create a new rule in the dashboard, select Rules > Add new rule then select one of the types above and fill in the following fields.
SEO multilingual support
The next reason why you can use Linguise as an alternative is multilingual SEO support, Google Translate may not always produce SEO-friendly URLs or metadata for translated pages. This can impact the search engine rankings of your multilingual content.
Meanwhile, Linguise fully supports multilingual SEO setup for various languages such as automatic translation of URLs, sitemaps, and metadata. When all pages, URLs and metadata are translated, it will be easier for the translated content to appear in the visitor’s country, so that your Webflow website does not only appear in 1 country, but in several countries whose languages you have added.
Possibility to add translators
Google Translate is only limited to translating existing website content, it will translate automatically using the machine technology it uses without any human intervention, which is why often some translation results are still too stiff in language.
To perfect it, human intervention is needed in the translation process, namely with a translator, unfortunately Google Translate does not provide additional translators and you have to use other alternatives such as Linguise.
Apart from having an explain feature, Linguise also allows you to add translators for each language to your Linguise dashboard. So, Translator can immediately participate in translating your Webflow content, don’t worry because you can also setup access for Translators so that they can only access certain parts and your data will remain safely protected.
To add a translator in Linguise, go to the dashboard > Members > Invite new members > select Translator role then fill in several columns such as Translator email, website to be translated by him, language to be translated, click Invite.
Image and link translations
Lastly, translation of images and links, as mentioned above, Google Translate cannot fulfill this. Even though translating images and links according to the target language can increase the SEO level.
To translate media and external links, visit the Linguise dashboard then select Translations > Media and external links > input original link > input Translation link according to the language listed in the column.
These are some of the features that make Linguise the right alternative solution to Google Translate for Webflow. Apart from the features above, you can also explore more and practice directly by registering for a Linguise account.
Linguise, best alternative Google Translate for Webflow!
Now you know what Google Translate alternatives are for Webflow, one of which is Linguise, which we have discussed in full above.
Google Translate has a number of feature limitations, therefore other alternatives are needed to support smooth translation of Webflow websites. In this case, Linguise offers a number of advanced features, not only automatic translation but also other features such as a live editor, exclusive translation, and many more.
Therefore, let’s immediately register Linguise and register your Webflow website and try it for free for 1 month to enjoy various interesting features, don’t worry because Linguise also supports free installation for Webflow sites!
