Translating a website into English means deciding which English first, then handling the mechanics: detection, machine translation, SEO, and a human pass on the pages that matter most.
Set up Weglot
- Install: a JavaScript snippet or a dedicated CMS plugin (WordPress, Shopify, or a custom site).
- Pick a URL structure: subdomain (
en.yoursite.com) or subdirectory (yoursite.com/en/), 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, and keeps translating as you publish new pages.
- Edit and set SEO: adjust translations in the visual editor, and confirm hreflang tags, translated URL slugs, and canonical URLs are in place.
That covers getting an English version live. It does not decide which English, 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.
Deciding which English you publish:
English is the one target where “just put it in English” is an incomplete brief. A US reader and a UK reader search for different words, spell them differently, and read the same sentence at a different level of formality. Pick a variant before the first batch, then hold it.
- The variant rides along with the job: “American English, spelling and vocabulary” or “British English for a UK audience” belongs in the sentence you write, so the choice is settled once rather than re-argued in review.
- Spelling drift is a glossary problem: colour and color, licence and license, plus your own product vocabulary. A workspace glossary settles those terms and carries the same decision into every file you translate afterwards, not just this one.
- Two variants mean two passes over the same words: if a US site and a UK site are both real, each is a separate translation with its own measured cost. Seeing both numbers is usually what decides whether the second one is worth it.
- Spend the human budget where English readers judge hardest: the homepage and the pricing page deserve a native editor. The support archive is a different kind of content, and it is where almost all the words actually live.
The round trip
- Export your Weglot translations as CSV. We have a full guide on how to translate CSV files with AI.
- Run the file through AI Glot: describe which columns to translate and which variant of English, and IDs, URLs, and prices stay untouched.
- Re-import into Weglot.
Conclusion
Weglot gets an English version of your site live fast. Deciding which English, and keeping terminology consistent once you have more than a handful of pages, is what a glossary and a second pass through AI Glot are for. Sign up for free to try it on your own export.