With WPML, you can easily translate WordPress taxonomies, including categories, tags, and custom taxonomies. For most taxonomies, there’s no special setup required – just send the post that uses the taxonomy for translation.
WordPress categories, tags, and custom taxonomies let you group content on your website. WPML enables you to translate them so that your content remains organized across languages.
The Easiest Way to Translate Taxonomies
When you translate a post with WPML, it automatically includes any categories or tags assigned to it. Just go to WPML → Translation Management to send the post for automatic translation or assign it to a translator.
Here’s what sending the content for automatic translation looks like in action:
Assign categories to a post
Go to WPML → Translation Management and send the post for automatic translation
Take a look at the translated page on your site’s front-end
How to Make Custom Taxonomies Translatable
Custom taxonomies offer unique ways to organize your site’s content. WordPress themes and plugins may include custom taxonomies for built-in custom post types. You can also create your own custom taxonomies with plugins or by using custom code.
To translate custom taxonomies, you need to make them translatable first.
- Go to WPML → Settings and scroll down to the Taxonomies Translation section.
- Set your custom taxonomy to one of the two Translate options. You can show only translated items on the front-end or show the taxonomy in the default language when a translation isn’t there.
- Click Save.
Now, you can translate the post or page that uses the custom taxonomy the same way you would a post with categories or tags. For example, if you decide to translate the post yourself, taking the translation job opens WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor. In the editor, you’ll see your main content and the custom taxonomy ready for translation.
Enabling the Translation of Custom Taxonomy Base Slugs
Translating base slugs for custom taxonomies allows you to customize and localize your website’s URLs for different languages.
You can translate slugs at any time or during the same process of making taxonomies translatable described in the previous section.
Here are the steps to follow:
- Go to WPML → Settings and scroll down to the Taxonomies Translation section.
- Set your custom taxonomy to one of the two Translate options and Save.
- Click on the Set different slugs in different languages for {Taxonomy Name} option that appears, and fill out the translated slugs for each language. You can only add the translation manually as it’s currently not possible to translate taxonomy slugs using automatic translation.
How to Translate Product Categories, Tags, and Custom Taxonomies in WooCommerce
You can assign taxonomy terms such as categories, tags, and attributes to your WooCommerce products. WPML includes an add-on called WooCommerce Multilingual that lets you translate every part of your WooCommerce store, including product taxonomies.
See the documentation about WooCommerce Multilingual for more details on translating your product taxonomies.
Other Methods for Translating Categories, Tags, and Custom Taxonomies
You may prefer to translate taxonomies separately from their associated posts, so WPML offers different options to do this.
Option 1: Automatically Translate All Taxonomies at Once
To translate many taxonomy terms at once, assign them all to a temporary post and send the post for translation. Then, you can translate your terms all at once in the Advanced Translation Editor using automatic translation.
For a step-by-step guide, see our page about translating all taxonomy terms at once.
Option 2: Translate Taxonomies from a Central Page
WPML offers a central screen to manually translate all categories, tags, and custom taxonomies, giving you complete control over term and slug translations.
Go to WPML → Taxonomy Translation and use the drop-down menu to select which taxonomy to translate. Then, click the plus icon to add the translations.
Option 3: Translate Taxonomies Using the Taxonomy Edit Screens
You can translate taxonomies right where you add or edit them, such as in Posts → Categories or Posts → Tags.
Simply edit the term you want to translate and then in the Language meta box, click to add a translation. This opens the page in your secondary language, where you can add the Name and Slug translation and click Add New Category.
How to Maintain Your Taxonomy Structure Across Languages
If you change your site’s taxonomy structure in the default language, WPML makes it easy to sync these changes across all languages. Simply go to WPML → Taxonomy Translation and click on the Hierarchy Synchronization tab.
If there’s something to synchronize, you’ll see the taxonomy terms listed and you can click the Update Taxonomy Hierarchy button.
How to Reconnect Taxonomy Translations to Default Language Terms
Sometimes, a taxonomy translation may become disconnected from its default language term. This usually happens when you import taxonomy terms and your import plugin can’t manage the connections between languages.
To prevent disconnected taxonomy translations, use the WPML Export and Import add-on with your import plugin. This add-on helps by assigning language information and linking translations after you’ve completed the import.
If you’ve already imported content and find taxonomy translations disconnected from the default content, or if your terms are disconnected for another reason, see the page about connecting taxonomy translations to the default language terms.