Translating a website into French means deciding which French first, France, Quebec, or a neutral register, 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 the dedicated CMS plugin for WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace. See the WordPress guide.
- Pick a URL structure: subdomain (
fr.yoursite.com) or subdirectory (yoursite.com/fr/), 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. See Weglot’s pricing.
- Edit and set SEO: adjust translations in the visual editor, and confirm hreflang tags and translated URL slugs are in place.
That covers getting a French version live. It does not decide which French, 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.
France, Quebec, and the register in between:
French is not one market. Standard French from France also reads as normal in Belgium and Switzerland for almost all business content, but Canadian French is a different product: its own vocabulary, a different set of anglicisms, and legal terminology shaped by Quebec’s institutions. Agencies price it as a separate job, around $0.17 a word against $0.14 for France, as our French translation rates guide sets out.
- Say which French, and say how formal: “translate into French for Quebec” and “translate into French for France” produce different output. Adding “keep the vouvoiement throughout” stops your support copy sliding into tutoiement halfway down the file.
- One glossary keeps the two variants honest: the product name, the plan names and the word you use for “account” are fixed in the workspace glossary, so a France version and a Quebec version never disagree about your own vocabulary.
- Decide the variant before the first batch: retro-fitting one later is a second full pass over every word. Functional content, product specifications, help articles and interface strings usually need only the French-for-France version.
- Buy the native editor for the pages that carry the risk: the homepage, the pricing page, anything a French reader judges on tone. The catalogue and the blog archive are volume, and volume is what the engine is for.
The round trip
- Export your French translations from Weglot 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 French, and IDs, URLs, and prices stay untouched.
- Re-import the improved CSV into Weglot for immediate publication.
Conclusion
Weglot gets a French version of your site live fast. Deciding which French, 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. If you are still budgeting the project, see what French translation actually costs, or sign up for free.