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Translating WordPress Menus with WPML

Kathy Banach
Updated
May 22, 2025

Learn how to use WPML to translate different types of WordPress menus with diverse menu items.

By default, WPML automatically creates translations for menus that link to pages, posts, products, and categories. All you need to do is translate the content the menu links to and WPML will handle the rest.

Menus in English
Menus in Spanish

If your menus includes custom links, or you want to create different menus in each language, you need to use a different translation method.

Translating Menus That Appear Different in Each Language

If you want to have menus with different structure, items, or custom navigation labels in each language, you need to manually create menus per language.

To manually create menus per language:

  1. Go to Appearance → Menus.
  2. Click the language link you want to create a menu for.
Clicking the plus icon to create a menu in the secondary language
  1. Name your new menu and click Create Menu.
  2. Finally, add menu items and save.
Adding menu items and creating translated custom navigation labels

Your languages will now display different menus on your website.

Menu in English
Menus in Spanish

Translating Menus Built Using Site Editor (Full Site Editing)

To translate menus built using the Site Editor:

  1. Go to WPML → Translation Management.
  2. Select the template with the Navigation block, and the menu you want to translate.
Selecting Site Editor template parts and menus for translation
  1. Choose a translation method and Translate.

The following method is for advanced users. To translate custom links using an easier method, use the manual translation option previously covered.

To translate menus with custom links:

  1. Go to WPML → WP Menus Sync and click Sync.
  2. Select your custom links and click Apply changes.
Selecting menu items to Sync
Selecting menu items to sync
  1. Next, click the link at the bottom of the page. This will open String Translation where you can translate the custom links you just synced.
Clicking link to translate custom links
Clicking link to translate custom links
  1. On String Translation, enter the translations for your custom link label and URL.
  2. Finally, return to WPML → WP Menus Sync and run the sync again.

Your custom links will now appear in your translated menus.