Joomla Multilingual: Everything You Need to Know

Joomla Multilingual – Everything You Need to Know

Joomla is one of the most widely used open source multilingual content management systems on the planet. It makes it easy to create and present your website in multiple languages, without having to use slow or large plugins.

To get started, there are a few things you need to know. This article will walk you through everything you need to set up a multilingual site in Joomla.

How to Set Up a Multilingual Site

Joomla is one of the most popular content management platforms available, and it supports a vast array of languages. This means that if you run a business that serves a diverse group of people from different regions of the world, or if you manage an educational institute that caters to students from around the globe, it is likely that you will need to have a multilingual site.

Fortunately, the team behind Joomla has made this task much easier. The platform already includes support for up to 75 different languages and can be easily upgraded to include more than that.

However, before you can start using a multilingual site on Joomla, you’ll need to install some extensions and plugins. These plugins enable the site to recognize various installed languages and filter the content so what is displayed matches the language selected by the user.

These plugins add an extra section to your website’s settings panel where you can configure the languages that you want to use. The default language is English, but it is possible to install any of the other 75+ languages on your site, as well as add new ones.

To get started, simply go to Extensions -> Languages. You’ll see a list of all available translations, as well as a search button that lets you find the language that you’re looking for.

Once you’ve found the one you’d like to use, click on it to add it to your site. You’ll need to configure it with some details, such as the language title, which is what Joomla displays on your frontend when the language is selected.

You’ll also need to add a few other things, including menus in each language that can be accessed by users. This allows them to easily select the language that they’re most comfortable reading in.

Another important thing to consider when creating a multilingual site is the font and layout of your content. While a hand-written font may look great for English text, it might be difficult to read for French or other languages. For example, some societies and cultures prefer to read their text from left to right. This can make the text very hard to read, so it’s a good idea to ensure that your font is easy to read for all of your users.

Installing a Multilingual Extension

A Multilingual website is a great way to increase your site’s international traffic. It’s also a good strategy for search engine optimization (SEO).

If you’re looking to add more languages to your Joomla website, it is very easy to do. You simply need to install a multilingual extension that supports the language you want to add.

These extensions can help you create a multilingual site and allow visitors to browse your website in their preferred language. They also support the Hreflang tag and Meta Data required for search engines to understand that your site is multilingual.

You can find these extensions on the Joomla Multilingual website or by searching the plugin repository. These third-party extensions often contain additional functionality that you may not have on your site, so it is important to check out the documentation and install only those you need.

In addition to helping you add new languages, these plugins can also improve your SEO by making your site more search engine friendly. They can also help you add localized content to your site that can improve conversion rates and sales.

If you’re a developer or designer looking for an easy way to create a multilingual website, there are several free and paid solutions available. Some of the most popular are Conveythis, Bablic and Linguise.

These extensions are a great way to add additional languages to your Joomla website and are very easy to use. The most important thing is to make sure the extensions you choose are supported by your theme and that they work with the Joomla language switcher module.

There are three main ways to install a multilingual extension: through the Joomla language manager, directly from the extensions directory or by installing it through the admin panel. The first two methods are the most common and can be done without any special skills.

To install a multilingual extension through the Joomla language manager, you need to have access to the Extensions database and the language you want to add. Then, you need to go to the Extensions database and click on the “Language Manager” link to see the list of available translations.

Using the Language Switcher Module

A language switcher is an important feature for any multilingual site because it lets visitors change the content of your website to read it in their preferred language. Using the right plugin, you can add a language switcher to your website in 3 different locations: as a menu widget, as a sidebar widget, or as a footer.

Once you have the plugin installed, a language drop-down menu will be added to the top admin bar (and from there, you can also select the dashboard language from the profile options of your users). When editing an article that has already been assigned to a specific language, it will automatically change the language to match your current dashboard language and display a button to translate the post or page into the new language.

The Language Switcher module in Joomla Multilingual is very easy to use, but it does have a few limitations. One of those is that it only supports the main languages of your site (currently, English and Spanish), so you’ll want to be careful about which languages you include in your site.

Another restriction of the Language Switcher is that it only allows you to show a flag or a name for a single language. This means that if you have several languages, you’ll need to add multiple language switchers, each with its own settings.

In addition, the switcher may not be visible on mobile devices if you have it in a custom area. If this is the case, you should make sure to place it in a standard area like the header or footer.

Aside from being convenient for users, a language switcher is an important tool for international search engine optimization. The more languages you offer, the greater your chances of getting indexed by search engines.

To enable the Language Switcher, simply navigate to Components > Language Switcher and click on the “Add” button to create a language switcher for your site. Then, choose a language switcher type and configure it. Once you’ve done so, click on the Preview button to see how your language switcher will look.

Using the Language Manager

The Language Manager is a useful tool for multilingual Joomla websites. It allows you to manage and edit all of your site’s translations in one place. This will save you a lot of time and effort as well as reduce your risk of causing any errors by mistakenly changing the wrong items.

The first step in using the Language Manager is to add all of your website’s languages to it. You can do this by going to the System menu and selecting Content Languages.

When you’ve added your language(s), go to the Articles menu, find the article you want to translate and click on its title. This will open the Article Details panel for the article, and you’ll see that it has been assigned a language.

Next, you’ll need to add a link to this article, which will make it the default home page for the English part of your site. This is done by clicking on the star in the Home column next to the first article (in our case, it’s the Dutch article).

Once you’ve set the menu links, you’ll need to add a module for each of the new menus. The Dutch menu will require a module, but you can use the one that was already created for the English menu.

To do this, navigate to Menus | Module Manager and select the “Add a module for this menu type” link. Then name the module, set its language to Dutch (NL), assign it to position-7 and click Save & Close.

If you’re unsure how to do this, check out our detailed tutorial on the topic.

For multilingual sites, you’ll also need to create different versions of modules and assign them to their respective languages. This will allow you to translate the module in its own language as well as any of the others in the same module category.

Another important requirement is the Hreflang tag code that search engines like Google and Bing require to understand which language a website is in. If you don’t have it, you can download it from the Official Joomla language package website and install it from System > Extensions.

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