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Basic Product Translation

Learn how to translate your complete WooCommerce product catalog with best practices for quality, cost, and efficiency.

When to Use This Workflow​

Use basic product translation when you need to:

  • Translate your entire product catalog to new markets
  • Launch a multilingual store for the first time
  • Update translations for core product information
  • Add new products that need immediate translation

This workflow covers essential product fields that customers see on your store:

  • Product names
  • Short descriptions (summaries)
  • Full descriptions (detailed content)
  • Optional: Tags and categories

Quick Start​

Minimum columns to translate: Name + Short Description + Description

Typical cost: $0.001 - $0.003 per product

Time: ~1 minute per 10 products

Workflow:

  1. Export products from WooCommerce (with WPML columns)
  2. Launch WooTUI → Select CSV → Choose columns → Pick language
  3. Review cost → Translate → Import back to WooCommerce

Always Translate​

  • ✅ Name - Product title (critical for SEO)
  • ✅ Short Description - Summary on listing pages
  • ✅ Description - Full product details

Skip for Now (Can Add Later)​

  • ⬜ Attributes - Only if needed for variations
  • ⬜ SEO Meta - See SEO Meta Translation
  • ⬜ Tags/Categories - Usually managed in WordPress separately
Start Simple

For your first run, just translate Name + Descriptions. You can run additional translations for other columns later.

Best Practices​

1. Test with 5-10 Products First​

Don't translate your entire catalog immediately:

  • Verify translation quality
  • Check the import process
  • Ensure HTML formatting is preserved
  • Confirm costs match expectations

2. Clean Source Content Before Translating​

Fix typos, remove placeholders, and ensure descriptions are complete in your source language first. AI translations are only as good as the source content.

3. Review Output CSV Before Importing​

Open the translated CSV in Google Sheets or LibreOffice (not Excel - it breaks UTF-8 encoding). Spot-check:

  • Product names look natural
  • HTML tags are intact (<strong>, <ul>, <li>)
  • No garbled characters

4. Use One Language First​

Start with your primary target market (e.g., Spanish for US, French for Canada). Validate quality before translating to multiple languages.

Cost Breakdown​

Typical costs with gemini-2.5-pro:

  • Simple products: $0.0005 - $0.001 per product
  • Detailed products: $0.001 - $0.003 per product

Example: 100 products with detailed descriptions ≈ $0.10 - $0.30

Compare to manual translation: Professional rates are $20-125 per product. WooTUI is 10,000x cheaper.

Save Money
  • Use gemini-flash for simple content (cheaper)
  • Translate only essential columns
  • Batch multiple languages in one run

See Cost Optimization for more strategies.

Common Issues​

Translations Look Too Generic​

Problem: AI-generated text feels robotic or lacks context

Solution: Add more detail to source descriptions. Instead of:

  • ❌ "Cotton t-shirt"
  • ✅ "Soft organic cotton t-shirt, perfect for everyday wear with breathable fabric"

HTML Tags Broken​

Problem: Formatting is lost or tags appear in output

Solution:

  • Simplify HTML in source products (use <strong>, <em> instead of complex styling)
  • Review output CSV before importing
  • Manually fix any broken tags

Some Products Didn't Translate​

Problem: Products are missing from translated CSV

Possible causes:

  • Products already have translations (and "Override" was unchecked)
  • Missing WPML columns in source CSV
  • CSV parsing error

Solution:

  • Check if products have existing translations in WPML
  • Re-export CSV with all columns
  • Enable "Override existing translations" if updating

After Translation​

Import to WooCommerce​

  1. WooCommerce → Products → Import
  2. Select products_translated_es.csv
  3. Map columns (auto-detected)
  4. Important: Enable "Update existing products" and match by ID/SKU
  5. Run import
  6. Clear cache and verify translations on frontend

See Importing Translations for detailed steps.

Next Steps​

Translate more content:

Handle issues: