Add a Language Switcher to Your WordPress Site

Adding a Language Switcher to Your Menu

The most common placement. The switcher appears as a menu item in your site’s primary navigation, usually in the header. Visitors see it as soon as the page loads, which is what you want.

Adding a Language Switcher as a Widget

WPML adds a Language Switcher widget you can drop into any widget area, typically a sidebar, sometimes a header or pre-header zone.

Adding a Language Switcher to the Footer

A non-intrusive option for sites where the header is already busy. The switcher appears at the bottom of every page; it’s still discoverable but doesn’t compete for attention.

Adding Switchers Inline, via Gutenberg Block, or in Theme Code

You can also place a switcher inside post or page content as inline links, or via WPML’s Language Switcher Gutenberg block. Theme developers can call WPML’s API to render a switcher anywhere.

Quick Customizations

From WPML > Settings > Languages, you can change:

• The order languages appear in.
• Whether flags are shown.
• Dropdown layout vs. a flat list.
• Whether each language is labelled in its native name (Deutsch, Français) or in the current site language (German, French).

Customize the Switcher Further

Custom switchers, per-page display rules, switcher styling, and language-switcher caching are in Customizing WPML > Customizing the language switcher.

Language Switcher Guides

• Building a custom language switcher
• Using custom flags
• Adding language switchers using PHP and shortcodes
• How to display or hide the language switcher on specific pages
• How to fix styling and CSS issues for the language switchers
• Preserve URL arguments when switching languages