Launched in 2003, WordPress has grown to become one of the world’s most popular Content Management Systems (CMS).

Today it powers two out of every five websites on the Internet. Regardless of the size and scope of your business, WordPress can provide you with a feature-rich, powerful, and user-friendly platform to help give your online presence a boost.

If you grapple with videos in multiple languages, adding audio translation to your WordPress website can prove to be a helpful tool.

This will ensure that your users understand the video and that they get all vital information. And the best part is that it isn’t rocket science to add audio translation to WordPress videos.

Here are nine tips to level up your WordPress websites by adding audio translation to videos.

1. Invest in audio services

To add audio translation to your WordPress website, you must invest in audio services.

Look for a reliable provider that can provide a comprehensive range of audio services, like audio and video transcription, translation, subtitling, and captioning.

For example, Happy Scribe’s audio translation services are a great option as it offers automated audio translation in 10+ different languages. Languages include German, Spanish, French, English, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Mandarin.

Other features include high accuracy, free editing tools, fast processing speeds meaning 1-hour files can be translated within 24 hours, and 24/7 customer support.

As good advice, look for a transcription service that provides a free trial to assess the quality of their services.

2. Choose the right subtitling and captioning format

Once you’ve chosen your audio translation provider, you must decide on the subtitling and captioning format that works for you.

Many platforms, including YouTube, support different formats, such as SRT, SCC, and VTT. SRT is the most popular format and provides text-form subtitles, which can be edited and altered.

On the other hand, SCC is a more comprehensive format that includes color coding, font changes, and other building blocks. VTT is a simple text-based format that’s widely supported and easily edited.

Whichever format you choose, your audio translation provider can provide you with the files in the required format. HappyScribe, ,supports over 15 video file formats, including AVI, MOV, FLV, WMV, QT, and MP4, and over 120 languages, dialects, and accents.

3. Upload and synchronize subtitle

Once the files are ready, you must upload and synchronize them with your videos.

That’s usually a pretty straightforward process — you must select the appropriate language and file format from your video editor.

If you’re using the YouTube editor, all you need to do is click on the gear icon located in the menu bar, select subtitles/CC, and choose the language and file format.

Once you have done that, the video will automatically be synchronized with the subtitles and captions.

4. Check for accuracy

Once you’ve uploaded the subtitles and captions, it’s time to go through the finished product and make sure that everything is accurate and compliant with the original video

HappyScribe, for example, guarantees a 99% accuracy rate which means that you can be sure that the subtitles, captions, and translations are accurate.

5. Make them search engine friendly

In terms of accessibility, videos are often the least accessible content on the web — but subtitles and captions can help to bridge this gap

Subtitles and captions make videos more visible to search engines, meaning they can be found more easily by users and can appear on search engine results pages (SERPs).

You can also add keywords and metadata to your subtitles and captions to make them more search-engine friendly. Happy Scribe, for example, enables you to add keywords and metadata while ordering video translations

6. Add interactive features

Subtitles and captions not only help you to make your videos more accessible but also help you to make them more interactive.

Adding interactive features such as translations, transcriptions, and downloadable versions to your WordPress website can help to make your videos more engaging and interactive.

For instance, implementing automatic translations allows users to switch between languages on the fly, while transcriptions enable users to search, find and share specific sections of your video

7. Embed subtitles and captions on your website

Once you’ve uploaded the subtitles and captions to your video, you’ll need to embed them onto your website

The easiest way is to add an HTML5 text track file alongside your video file. You can then use video and audio elements to embed the subtitles and captions on your website.

If your website is built with WordPress, you can use a plugin such as Video.js Subtitle Plugin to embed the subtitles and captions into your WordPress theme

8. Provide alternative accessibility options

According to WHO, 5% or 360 million people have disabling hearing loss (328 million adults and 32 million children).

It’s, therefore, essential to provide alternative accessibility options such as transcripts and sign language translations for users who cannot understand the audio in your vide

Audio transcripts and sign language translations can be provided alongside subtitles and captions to improve the accessibility of your video for deaf and hard-of-hearing users.

Moreover, transcripts can also help to improve the SEO of your video, as transcripts can make your video content more indexable and search engine friendly.

9. Make sure your subtitles and captions are HTML5 compliant

If you’re using HTML5 to display your videos, make sure the file format is HTML5 compliant

The most HTML5-compliant file format is WebVTT (aka VTT). To ensure your subtitles and captions are HTML5 compliant, you can use a tool such as HappyScribe’s subtitle editor to create an HTML5 WebVTT file. This is because the tool supports all HTML5-compliant formats and ensures your subtitles and captions are correctly encoded.

Level up your WordPress website today

Adding audio translation to your WordPress website can be a great way to make your videos more accessible and engaging. 

By investing in audio services, choosing a subtitling and captioning format, uploading and synchronizing subtitles and captions, and adding alternative accessibility options — you can make your WordPress website accessible to all viewers.