Translating a website into Chinese means deciding which script first, simplified for mainland China or traditional for Taiwan and Hong Kong, then handling the mechanics: detection, machine translation, Baidu SEO, and a human pass on the pages that matter most.
Set up Weglot
- Install: a JavaScript snippet or a CMS plugin (WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace). See the WordPress guide.
- Pick a URL structure: subdomain (
zh.yoursite.com) or subdirectory (yoursite.com/zh/), then update your DNS. - Let it scan and translate: Weglot detects your text, images, and metadata and runs them through DeepL, Google Translate, or Microsoft Translator.
- Edit and set SEO: adjust translations in the visual editor, translate URL slugs, and confirm hreflang tags are in place. Chinese search also means Baidu: keep meta titles under 60 characters, and serve your
/zh/pages from servers based in China or Hong Kong so they load fast.
That covers getting a Chinese version live. It does not decide which script, or catch the terms a machine gets wrong at scale, which is where AI Glot comes in: a separate tool for the exported file, not a Weglot plugin.
Translate into German and Spanish. Keep product names in English, use our glossary, and make the copy sound natural for e-commerce.
Simplified, Traditional, and keeping them straight:
Chinese is not one target. Mainland China reads simplified characters, while Taiwan and Hong Kong read traditional ones, and the terminology differs beyond the characters themselves. Choosing which of those markets you serve is the first decision. Running both without letting them drift apart is the second.
- Name the variant in the instruction: “translate the product titles into Simplified Chinese for mainland China” and the same sentence ending “into Traditional Chinese for Taiwan” are two separate jobs on one source file. Each gets its own plan, showing the rows matched and the cost, before anything runs.
- One glossary serves both: product names, plan names and the terms you deliberately keep in English live in the workspace glossary, so your simplified and traditional sites agree with each other and with the file you translate next month.
- The second variant becomes a budget line, not a project: because the word count is measured from your actual file, adding Traditional Chinese is a number you can look at in a minute rather than a quote you wait on.
- Keep the native review where it pays: a Chinese editor on your homepage and your top landing pages is worth the money. A catalogue of ten thousand rows is where the volume is, and volume is what the engine is for.
The round trip
- Export your Weglot translations as CSV.
- Run the file through AI Glot: describe which columns to translate and which script, simplified or traditional, and IDs, URLs, and prices stay untouched.
- Re-import into Weglot.
See also how AI can help with website translation.
Conclusion
Weglot gets a Chinese version of your site live fast. Deciding which script, and keeping product names and terminology consistent as your catalogue grows, is what a glossary and a second pass through AI Glot are for. Sign up for free to try it on your own export.