The look of your site
Site languages
Choosing the default language and which languages your site is available in.
In this article
Your website can be offered in several languages. This section decides which languages are allowed; translating the content happens afterwards, page by page.
The setting lives in Websites → Site settings, « Languages » section.
The default language
This is the main language of your site. It is what a visitor sees when they arrive without choosing a language.
Choose it in the « Default language » drop-down.
Available languages
Below, a list with tick boxes. Every ticked language is allowed on your site.
Use the « Search a language… » field to find one quickly.
Tick the languages you want to offer.
Click « Save settings ».
A reminder appears under the list: Pages can only be created in these languages.
What this setting actually does
Ticking a language translates nothing. It only does two things:
It allows pages to be created in that language.
It makes that language appear in the language switcher at the top of your site.
The translation itself happens page by page. See Translating a page.
The order to follow
Always work in this order:
Tick the new language here, and save.
Translate your pages one by one, in the editor.
Publish the translated pages.
See Translating a page for step 2.
Removing a language
Untick it, then save. Your site's language switcher will no longer offer it.
How many languages?
Our advice: one, or two at most.
Every extra language multiplies your work. Every time you correct a price, change an opening time or add a service, you have to do it in every language. A poorly maintained bilingual site does more harm than a flawless monolingual one.
Start with one language, look after it, and only add a second if you genuinely have patients who speak it.
The site language and your dashboard language
These are two different things:
- Site languages (this page) concern what your visitors see.
- The interface language concerns the language of your dashboard, for you. You set it in Settings. See Account settings.
You can perfectly well manage a German site from an English dashboard.