Machine or human website translation: quality before publishing - Zephyra Studio

Machine translation is good as a draft, not as a published page. Google does not ban automatically translated pages, but its spam policies list translating among the automated transformations used to mass-produce pages with no value for the user. A practical rule: let a machine do the first pass, and have a person who knows both languages and your field read every page before it goes live. Translation plugins (WPML, Polylang, TranslatePress) solve the technical side, URLs and hreflang, not the quality of the text.

What Google actually says about translation

These are three things you can verify in Google's own documentation, without third-party interpretation.

• The spam policy on scaled content abuse gives, as an example, creating many pages through automated transformations, translating among them. The problem is scale without added value, not the fact that a tool was used.
• The guidance on generative AI content asks for accuracy, quality and relevance, especially when content is generated automatically, and suggests telling readers how the content was made.
• The guidance for multilingual sites recommends one language per page. Translating only the boilerplate while leaving the main content in one language creates a poor experience for the user.

Where machine translation usually goes wrong

This is not a measurement, it is a list of places to look when you review a machine draft.

• Terminology: a machine can translate the same term differently on different pages, so the site looks inconsistent.
• Tone and address: formal and informal register rarely carry over one to one, and marketing slogans often become literal.
• Numbers, currencies and dates: formats and decimal separators differ by language, and prices translated as text easily end up wrong.
• Legal text (terms, privacy policy): one wrong word changes the meaning of an obligation, so do not publish these without review by someone who knows the subject.
• Names of products, services and the company: the brand should stay the same in every language, and a machine sometimes translates it.
• Calls to action and forms: a button that says one thing while the next page says another loses enquiries.

Three ways to work and when each makes sense

• Human translation from the start: for legal text, main service pages and anything that carries a buying decision. It costs the most but needs the fewest fixes later.
• Machine draft with human review: for most of a site. The saving is in the first pass, and quality is held by reviewing every page before it is published.
• Machine translation without review: only for temporary or internal needs. Published on a site it exposes you to the risk in Google's policies and to losing visitors' trust.

Translation plugins: what the official price lists say

The figures below come from the vendors' official pages on 24 September 2026, in euros. Prices change, so check them before buying. We did not test the plugins for this article, so the comparison covers what the vendors state, not hands-on experience.

• WPML: three plans. Multilingual Blog costs 39 euros a year (1 site, basic translation controls), Multilingual CMS 99 euros (3 sites, advanced editor, string translation, translation management, e-commerce, 22,500 AI words), Multilingual Agency 199 euros (unlimited sites, 45,000 AI words). The vendor states that all plans manage hreflang tags automatically.
• Polylang: the base version is free, for unlimited sites, with a URL per language (subdirectory, subdomain or separate domain), without automatic translation. Polylang Pro starts at 99 euros a year excluding VAT, includes DeepL integration (your own API key) and full WooCommerce support. Polylang outputs hreflang tags itself, and the vendor advises checking that x-default is set to the main language.
• TranslatePress: the pricing page lists three paid plans. Personal 99 euros a year (1 site, 50,000 AI words, SEO Pack included), Business 199 euros (3 sites, 200,000 AI words, DeepL and translator accounts), Developer 349 euros (unlimited sites, 500,000 AI words). Extra word packs cost from 24 to 1,050 euros, and Google or DeepL translation may need your own API keys. The SEO Pack translates URL slugs, SEO titles and meta descriptions.

What that arithmetic means for a small site

A 20-page site with about 3,600 characters per page has about 72,000 characters, roughly 12,000 words (an estimate of 6 characters per word). That fits inside the yearly AI word quota of every plan above except the most basic one. The conclusion: machine translation is not the main cost. The main cost is the time of the person who reviews the text, and a plugin does not remove it.

The second question is the URL. If the site is to be found in another language, translating the title, meta description and URL matters as much as translating the page text. For the rules on URLs and hreflang, read the guide on multilingual sites.

Check before publishing a translated page

• A person who knows both languages has read the whole page, including the menu, buttons and error messages.
• The page title, meta description and URL are translated, not only the body text.
• Names of the company, products and services match the base language.
• Prices, currencies, dates and units are in the language's format and correct.
• Legal pages are reviewed by someone who knows the subject.
• Every language version points to the others through hreflang, and each points to itself.
• A page is not published if nobody has read it. Fewer pages in a new language is better than many unchecked ones.

How to organise the review of a translation

• Build a glossary before translating: the company, service and product names, the tone of address and the terms that are not translated. Give the same glossary to the tool and to the reviewer.
• The review is done by someone for whom the target language is native or very good, and who knows your field. Language skill without field knowledge misses technical terms.
• Review in order of priority: first the pages that carry a decision (services, prices, contact, forms), then legal pages, then the blog and the rest.
• Feed corrections back into the glossary so the same mistake does not repeat on the next page.
• Publish in groups of pages, not all at once, and watch in Search Console which pages in the new language get indexed.

Tone, address and terminology

Serbian has a clear split between formal and informal address, while English business copy is usually neutral. Decide in advance how you address visitors in each language and keep it on every page, because an inconsistent tone looks like several people wrote the site without talking to each other.

Do not translate slogans and wordplay headlines literally. Translate the message, not the words: ask what the visitor should understand and how someone who writes that language would say it.

When not to publish a translation at all

• A page whose content depends on laws, taxes or terms that do not apply in that language market, until someone adapts it.
• An offer, price or deadline that does not hold for that visitor, because such a page promises something you cannot deliver.
• Any page that nobody has read from start to finish.

Related guides

Sources

Key takeaways

• Machine translation is a draft. Publish it only after a person who knows both languages has reviewed it.
• Google's policies target mass-producing pages without value, and translating is among the automated transformations they name.
• WPML, Polylang and TranslatePress handle URLs and hreflang, not the quality of the text.
• For a site of a few dozen pages the AI quota is not the problem, the review time is the main cost.

Conclusion

The plugin chooses the technique, and you choose how much visitor trust a new language earns you. Start with the pages that carry a buying decision, translate and review them properly, then expand to the rest of the site.