LFW Multilingual for chambers of commerce
Your chamber’s site, in your members’ languages.
LFW translates your WordPress or Drupal site and keeps the translations up to date when your pages change. The directory, events and join form included.
Sample page for a fictional city.
What your chamber site needs to know about translation.
Seven things to settle before the first page is translated.
- Business names stay as writtenA member’s name, address and phone number are the same in every language. The categories, filters and buttons around the listing are what get translated.
- Member descriptions need a ruleDecide whether members supply their own translated description, LFW drafts one for them to approve, or listings stay in the language they were written in.
- Events are the pages people shareTranslate the title, description and registration form, so a forwarded link works in the language it was sent in.
- The join form and its emails come firstMembership levels, the application, payment receipts and renewal reminders, in the language the member chose.
- Newcomers read the relocation pagesPeople moving to your area, and the businesses that follow them, read the visitor and relocation guide first, often in their own language.
- Sponsors appear in every languageSponsor logos and paid placements show on every language’s pages, or a sponsor supplies a translated version. Say which in the sponsorship terms.
- Pick languages from your area’s numbersThe Census Bureau publishes the languages spoken at home for every county and city. Start with the largest group in your area, not a guess.
Who reads it
- 74.1 millionpeople in the United States age 5 and older speak a language other than English at home, 23% of them.
- Nearly 4 in 10of those 74.1 million speak English less than “very well”.
- 44.9 millionspeak Spanish at home, by far the largest group.
The pages most chambers translate first.
A short list, quoted page by page. More can follow once members use them.
- Member directory
- Events calendar
- Join and renew
- Relocation and visitor guide
- Business resources
- Contact and hours
How it works.
Three steps, on the site you already have.
- LFW drafts every pageMachine translation writes a first draft of each page, menu, form and email, in your site's own multilingual setup.
- A person reviews it, if you chooseWe recommend your staff, or a translator you choose, read each page and fix names, terms and tone. LFW makes the changes they ask for. You decide which pages need it.
- It stays currentWhen an English page changes, LFW updates the translation on a regular schedule, as part of the maintenance plan.
Translations that keep up
When the original page changes, the translation follows.
Most translated sites go stale: the English page changes, and the Spanish one keeps last year's hours. LFW watches for that.
- Change detectionLFW compares each original page with its translations and flags every translation whose original was edited after it was translated.
- A review queueLFW sends your reviewer the list of flagged pages, each with a link to the page's revision history, so they see exactly what changed.
- Updated on a scheduleLFW drafts the updates and publishes them after review, on a regular schedule set in your plan. Urgent changes go to the front of the queue.
Included in LFW's maintenance plans. LFW works in business hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern (6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Pacific), excluding federal holidays.
What your staff see.
Your editors keep working in the editor they know. Each page shows its translations, and each language keeps its own content.
Screens from a test install of a fictional city, captured October 11, 2026. Every name and number is invented.
More than words.
A Spanish page that embeds an English video is not finished. Each language can carry its own media and links.
The same page, two languages, two different flyers
- VideoEmbed a different video on each language's page, such as a Spanish-language explainer on the Spanish page.
- Images and PDFsSwap a flyer, a chart with text in it, or a PDF for its translated version, language by language.
- LinksA link on the Spanish page goes to the Spanish page it points to, or to a different destination you choose for that language.
- Forms and emailsLabels, error messages and the confirmation email arrive in the visitor's language.
- Menus and searchEach language has its own menu, and site search returns results in the visitor's language.
- Accessible switchingThe language switcher works by keyboard and screen reader, and each page declares its language so screen readers pronounce it correctly.
Ownership
The translations are yours.
They are stored in your own WordPress or Drupal site, in your own database, on the multilingual plugin you choose. No software license holds them hostage.
- Pause or stop LFW's service at any time. Every translation stays on your site.
- If you stop, the one thing that changes is drift: new edits to the main language are no longer carried over, so your team keeps the translations up to date.
- Nothing is locked to LFW. The site, its code and its content are in accounts you own.
How that differs from a translation proxy
Some services translate a site by serving the translated pages from their own servers. Weglot, one of them, says on its own plugin page:
“If you decide to stop using Weglot, your website will no longer be translated. All translations are stored on Weglot’s servers.”
It offers an export of the translations before you leave.
Weglot's plugin page on WordPress.orgIt works with the setup you have.
LFW works on your site's existing multilingual plugin. For a new WordPress site with no preference, LFW recommends the free version of Polylang, so there is no license to pay.
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Polylang
LFW's pickFree
Enough for most sites. Pro, from €99 a year, is only needed for translated web addresses or a full-site-editing theme.
Source: polylang.pro -
WPML
Paid onlyFrom €99 a year
Most organization sites need the CMS plan, because the €39 Blog plan skips menus and page builders. Already on WPML? LFW uses your license.
Source: wpml.org -
TranslatePress
Free for one extra languageFree, or from €99 a year
The free version covers a bilingual site. Three or more languages need a paid plan.
Source: translatepress.com -
Drupal
Built inNo license
Translation is part of Drupal core. LFW works in Drupal's own translation screens.
Source: drupal.org
Prices as each vendor's page showed them on October 11, 2026. Euro prices exclude VAT where the vendor says so.
What it costs.
Adding a language
Setting up each language is a one-time project, quoted in writing after LFW counts your pages, forms and media. The quote names any plugin license or translation service fee, which you pay to the vendor directly.
Keeping it current
Keeping translations up to date is included in LFW's maintenance plans. Professional translation of legal, medical or other sensitive pages, if you want it, is quoted separately or arranged with a translator you choose.
Questions.
Does our directory plugin support translation?
Most directory and membership plugins can be translated, but some keep listings in one language only. LFW checks yours before quoting, and the quote says what is and is not translated.
Do members have to translate their own listings?
No. Your chamber sets the rule: members supply a translation, LFW drafts one for them to approve, or listings stay as written.
Is machine translation good enough?
As a first draft, usually yes, and it saves most of the cost. It still misreads names, local terms and tone, which is why we recommend a person review each page before it goes live. You choose which pages and who.
Who reviews the translations?
Your own staff, a volunteer you trust, or a professional translator you choose. LFW makes the changes they ask for and keeps a record of what was reviewed.
What about legal, medical or emergency wording?
Those pages should be checked by a qualified translator. LFW does not certify translations. Tell us which pages carry that weight and the quote will say how they are handled.
Which languages can you do?
Any language your multilingual plugin supports, including right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew, where the layout mirrors. Machine translation is stronger in some languages than others, so review takes longer in some.
Will it hurt our search rankings or count as duplicate content?
Google says translated pages are only treated as duplicates if the main content stays untranslated. LFW gives each language its own address and marks which page is in which language. Nobody can promise rankings.
Will it slow the site down?
Translated pages are ordinary pages served by your own site, without a third-party translation script on every visit. They load like the rest of the site.
What happens when we edit an English page?
LFW's change detection flags the translations that are now out of date, and they are updated on the schedule in your plan.
Do we have to switch plugins?
No. LFW works with Polylang, WPML or TranslatePress on WordPress, and with Drupal's built-in translation. If you have none yet, LFW recommends the free Polylang. If you use another one, let us know and we'll look into it.
Can our staff edit translations themselves?
Yes. Each translation is a normal page in your editor. Anything your staff change is kept, and LFW's next update works from it.
Does it work with our page builder and custom fields?
Yes for the block editor, Elementor, ACF and Secure Custom Fields, as the screens above show. Other builders are checked in the quote.
What about forms, emails, PDFs and videos?
Forms and their emails are translated with the site. Some form plugins need an add-on for that, and the quote names it. PDFs and videos can be replaced language by language, or linked to a translated version you provide.
What if we stop working with LFW?
You keep every translation, because they live in your site. New changes are no longer carried over, so your team takes that over.
Do we have to translate our site by law?
That depends on your organization and where it works. Federal guidance for public bodies changed in 2025, and state and local rules vary. LFW does not give legal advice: your counsel decides what must be translated, and LFW translates it.
Do you use AI?
We use AI tools, including Claude, to draft and check work. Client data is never used to train models, and a person reviews every output before it reaches you.
Find out what your site would cost in another language.
Send your website address and the languages your members speak. We reply within one business day.