Translate Your WordPress Site to French (Français)
Everything you need to publish your WordPress site in French: market size, engine support, setup steps and SEO specifics.
Why translate your website to French?
French is spoken by roughly 310M people across markets like Algeria, Andorra, Belgium. A French version of your site opens that audience to your content and products, and because far less web content exists in most languages than in English, translated pages often rank faster for the same topics.
Key markets for French
Which translation engine should you use for French?
Both major engines support French. DeepL typically produces the most natural output for it and offers formality control (formal/informal address), while Google Cloud Translation costs slightly less per character and has a generous free tier. Transxlate lets you pick either with your own API key.
Google Translate
Supported
~$20 per 1M characters via Cloud Translation API. First 500K characters each month are free — enough to translate roughly 80,000 words to French at no cost.
DeepL
Supported
Excellent quality for French, including formality control (formal/informal address). Free tier: 500K characters/month.
How to translate WordPress to French — 4 steps
- 1
Install Transxlate
Download the plugin from your transxlate.com account (free plan available) and activate it — the setup wizard opens automatically.
- 2
Add French as a target language
Pick your default language and select French in the wizard. The language URL is created instantly.
- 3
Connect your API key
Paste a Google Cloud Translation or DeepL key and switch on automatic translation. You pay the provider directly at wholesale rates.
- 4
Refine visually
Open any translated page with ?trx-edit=1 and click any sentence to perfect it. Human edits permanently override the machine.
What about French SEO?
Your French pages live on real, indexable URLs (/fr/...), each with the correct lang attribute. With the Pro SEO pack, hreflang alternates connect every language version so Google shows French speakers the French page. Translated titles and descriptions are generated from your translated content automatically.
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.com/fr/" /> <link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />
Full reference: see the hreflang="fr" page for sitemap syntax and common mistakes. hreflang fr reference →
Frequently asked questions
How do I translate my WordPress site to French?
Install the Transxlate plugin, choose French as a target language in the setup wizard, connect your own Google or DeepL API key and enable automatic translation. The whole site is served at /fr/ within minutes, and you can refine any sentence visually.
How much does it cost to translate a website to French?
With your own API key you pay wholesale rates: roughly $1.20 for a 10,000-word site or $6.00 for 50,000 words via Google Cloud Translation — and the first 500K characters each month are free. There is no per-word markup.
Is machine translation good enough for French?
Yes for most content: French is supported by both Google and DeepL, and DeepL's quality on this language is widely considered excellent. Review legal and high-conversion pages by hand using the visual editor.
Does French need any special technical setup?
No. French uses the Latin script and works out of the box: Transxlate sets the lang attribute, creates the /fr/ URL prefix and emits hreflang automatically (Pro).
Keep exploring
Publish your site in French today
Free plan available — translate into French with your own API key in under five minutes.