Translating a store involves more than just running a machine translation. This guide covers what is good to know before you start — from planning your workflow to avoiding common pitfalls.
Your original store content is managed in Shopify, not in langify. langify adds translations on top of your existing content, working from your base language into your target languages. Before you start, make sure all your original content in Shopify is in one language.
A Typical Translation Workflow
- Get started: Set up your language in langify.
- Translate: Translate your content manually, or run the Bulk Translation to machine-translate your store content.
- Fill in the gaps: Use Custom Content to translate any texts from third-party apps.
- Review: Double-check your storefront — review both the translations and the functionality. A quick test worth running: search for a product, select a variant, add it to your cart, and proceed to the checkout.
- Finalize: Once everything looks good, publish and assign your language so it becomes available to your customers.
See also: Manage Languages · Manual Translations · Machine Translations · Third-Party App / Custom Content Translations · Publish a Language
Note that Shopify's translation system is not perfect — with so many different themes and apps available, each with their own implementation, translation issues can occur that are specific to your store's setup. These can include megamenus and variant images or swatches not displaying correctly in translated languages. In most cases, these issues can be sorted out. If you run into anything, don't hesitate to reach out to us at support@langify-app.com.
The Bulk Translation Tool
The Bulk Translation tool can be used to translate most of your store content in one go. It does however have limitations, so make sure to check them before you start. See How to bulk-translate your store with langify for details.
After running a Bulk Translation, go through the content that has not been covered. Add your own translations or apply machine translations. If you are translating metafields, be aware that some metafields might belong to third-party apps and should remain untranslated.
Know What to Translate — and What Not To
You will most likely never reach 100% translation coverage — and that is fine. Your store contains fields that are best left untranslated. The most common cases are:
- Metafields — Metafields may belong to third-party apps and contain settings rather than customer-facing text. Since langify has no way of knowing whether a metafield belongs to a third-party app, all metafields are excluded from the Bulk Translation. Translating them without care can break app functionality.
- The Theme section — The Theme section can contain links or metafield references that should remain untranslated. Leave the translation field empty for these cases — otherwise you will need to manually update the translation whenever you change the original content. langify's machine translation will skip these fields automatically.
Your Theme
Use a theme that is up to date, or at least optimized for Shopify's native translation system. If your theme is heavily customized or a few years old, check with the theme's support team whether your version is compatible with Shopify's native translation system.
Third-Party Apps
Most third-party app texts can be translated using langify's Custom Content feature.
See also: Third-Party App / Custom Content Translations · Integrations & App List
If you are evaluating a new app, it is worth checking with the app's support team what the recommended translation approach is. Some apps manage their own translation system, while others have integrated with Shopify's native translation system — meaning their texts will appear in langify out of the box.
Back Up Your Translations Regularly
It is a good habit to export your translations from time to time, so you can restore them if something goes wrong.
Here's how:
Shopify export: Export translations for your entire store in one go at Shopify > Settings > Languages.
Langify export: Use langify's export to back up your Custom Content translations, which the Shopify export does not cover. See our Export Translations guide for details.
How Visitors Interact With Your Translations
Once your translations are live, there are a few options worth considering for how visitors interact with them.
Langify's Switcher Configurator lets you set up a language switcher, and optionally a country and currency switcher, to give your international visitors a consistent experience. If your theme already includes a native language switcher, that works too — you can simply hide the langify switcher.
You can also enable automatic redirects based on your visitor's browser language, or show a language recommendation banner instead. The banner is often the friendlier option — it suggests a language without forcing a redirect, leaving the choice with the visitor. Both options are available in the Language Detection & Recommendation settings.