GTranslate plugin review and common issues

Client-side JavaScript translation (the free version) is rendered in the browser after page load. Googlebot crawls and indexes the initial HTML before JavaScript executes, so it does not see translated content — only the original language. To get translated content indexed as separate language pages, upgrade to a paid GTranslate plan that uses cloud-hosted subdomains. These subdomains serve pre-translated HTML that Googlebot can crawl and index as separate language versions with proper hreflang tags.

GTranslate provides multiple placement options: (1) Appearance → Widgets — add the GTranslate widget to any widget area; (2) use the shortcode [gtranslate] in any post or page; (3) use a PHP function in your theme for custom placement. If the widget area is not available or the shortcode is not rendering, verify the GTranslate plugin is active. In GTranslate → Settings, configure the widget style, language display (flags, names, or both) and save before testing placement.

Language subdomain 404 errors indicate DNS configuration is missing. For GTranslate’s subdomain hosting, add a wildcard CNAME record (*.yourdomain.com → translate.gcdn.co) to your domain DNS, or individual CNAME records for each language subdomain. GTranslate provides the exact DNS records in the dashboard. DNS propagation takes 24-48 hours after adding records. If the subdomains resolve but return 404 for specific pages, check the GTranslate dashboard for crawl errors on those URLs.

In GTranslate → Settings → Exclude Paths, add URL paths or URL patterns to exclude from translation. For example, add /account/ to exclude all account-related pages, or /checkout/ to keep WooCommerce checkout in the original language. For client-side translation (free), add the CSS class “notranslate” to HTML elements that should not be translated — GTranslate respects this class, as does Google Translate.

Yes. In GTranslate → Settings → Widget Customization, configure the selector style (dropdown list, flags only, flags with language names, material design dropdown). Flag size, text display format, and hover behavior can be adjusted. For advanced styling, the widget outputs standard HTML with CSS classes that can be targeted in your theme’s stylesheet for complete visual customization. The widget is also available in multiple preset styles to match common WordPress theme aesthetics.

If SEO for translated content is not required, GTranslate free works for blog posts that are discovered via the original language search ranking and then read in translated form by individual visitors. The client-side translation is fast and covers all page content. If you want translated blog posts to rank independently in search results for different languages, the paid subdomain hosting is required.

Both use automatic machine translation delivered from cloud infrastructure. GTranslate uses Google Neural MT exclusively; Weglot uses a combination of engines. Weglot’s paid plans are significantly more expensive (€15-79/month vs GTranslate’s $9.99+/month) but offer a more refined visual translation editor and better management tools. GTranslate is the lower-cost automatic translation option; Weglot provides more polish at a higher price.

Yes, that can happen, especially on older sites with many plugins. This usually happens when the plugin, theme, and add-ons are updated out of sequence. In most cases, testing on staging catches the issue before it reaches the live site. From experience, backups and changelog reviews save a lot of cleanup time.

Start by checking whether another plugin already does the same job. In most cases, overlap is what creates avoidable conflicts and performance issues. A common issue is installing a plugin because it looks convenient without checking the stack first. From experience, a short compatibility review avoids most of the pain later.