Multilingual sites

A multilingual site lets each visitor choose the language they browse in. Menus and buttons switch language, and so do your category names, custom fields and pages once you have translated them. Each listing belongs to the language it was posted in, and visitors see the listings of the language they are browsing. Multilingual sites are part of the Professional and Marketplace plans.

Use it when your members genuinely speak different languages and post in them, for example a marketplace for a bilingual region. If you only want your site in one language other than English, you don’t need multilingual mode: just change the site language.

Before you start

Multilingual mode splits your listings by language. Someone browsing in Spanish sees only Spanish listings, and someone browsing in English sees only English ones. Members who post in one language aren’t seen by visitors browsing in another.

That is what you want for two separate language communities, and not what you want if everyone should see every listing. Think about which one your marketplace is before you switch it on.

Turn on multilingual mode

Check your main language in Settings › Translations (the Site language card). Visitors who haven’t chosen a language see this one.
Go to Settings › General, section Languages.
Switch on Multilingual.
In Languages, type the codes of the languages to offer, separated by commas, including your main language. For example en_UK,es_ES,ca_ES. You’ll find the codes in Settings › Translations, next to each language name.
Click Save changes.

When you save, every existing listing that doesn’t have a language yet is given your main language, so nothing vanishes when you switch on.

Use the codes exactly as they appear in Settings › Translations, with the underscore and capitals (es_ES, not es-es), separated by commas. A code Yclas doesn’t recognise is ignored.

Multilingual can’t be saved on without at least one language your site has. If the Languages box is empty or none of its codes is recognised, Yclas saves Multilingual off and shows “Multilingual is off: add at least one language code, for example en_US,es_ES, then switch it on.” Add the codes and switch it on again.

What changes on your site

Where	What happens
Footer	A language menu shows the current language and lets visitors switch to the others in your Languages list. Their choice is remembered on their device.
Posting form	Members choose the language of their listing. It is required.
Home page, listings, search and category counts	Show only the listings in the language being viewed.
Blog and FAQ	Show only the posts and questions written in the language being viewed.
Pages and email templates	Each language uses its own version, and falls back to the UK English one when there isn’t one.
Categories, locations, custom fields	Show their translated names when you have added them, and the original name otherwise.
Email digest	Sent separately for each language.

The languages widget adds another language switcher, for example in a sidebar.

Translate your content

The software’s own texts are translated for you. Your own content needs translating once, in each place:

Categories and locations. Open a category in Listings › Categories (or a location in Listings › Locations). On a multilingual site the edit page has a Translations card with a name, a description, a meta title and a meta description for each language. Fill them in and click Save. The meta title and description are what search engines show for that category or location in each language; leave them empty and Yclas builds them from the name and description.

Custom fields. Open a field in Listings › Custom Fields. The Translations card has the label, the tooltip and, for select and radio fields, the list of values for each of your other languages. Keep the values in the same order as the original list.

Pages, email templates, blog posts and FAQs. These pages have a language selector at the top. Switch to a language and create each item in it. For pages and email templates, an empty language offers to copy everything from UK English so you only have to translate. See Pages and Email templates.

Buttons, menus and messages. These come translated. To change the wording in a language, see Language and translations.

Your own menu links. Links you add in Design › Menu show in every language, with the title you typed. Use titles that work in all your languages; see Menu and footer links.

Listings. On the Professional and Marketplace plans, AI can translate listing titles and descriptions into your other languages: switch on Translate listings automatically in Settings › Translations or on the AI page.

Search engines and your languages

Each language of your site also has its own address: the normal address shows your main language, and adding ?language= with a code shows another, for example yoursite.com/cars?language=es_ES. On every listings page, your home page and your pages, Yclas tells search engines about all the language versions (with what are called hreflang links), so Google can show Spanish searchers the Spanish version. You don’t need to set anything up.

Listing pages keep one address whatever the language, since each listing is written in one language.

Changing your main language later

Don’t change the site language on a multilingual site without a plan. Visitors who haven’t chosen a language browse in the site language. If you switch it, for example from en_UK to es_ES, new visitors land on the Spanish version and see only Spanish listings: your English listings seem to have disappeared, although they are all still there.

If this has happened:

Switch back in Settings › Translations, or
Make sure both languages are in the Languages list, so visitors can switch to the old one from the footer, or
Change the language of the affected listings by editing them.

The same thing happens if you remove a language from the Languages list: its listings stay in your database, but visitors can no longer switch to them.

Turn multilingual mode off

Switch off Multilingual in Settings › General and click Save changes. Every listing shows again for everyone, whatever its language, and the language menu disappears from the footer. Listings keep their language, so you can switch multilingual mode back on later.

Troubleshooting

“Multilingual is on but no language is set.” Administrators see this when they open the posting form on a multilingual site with an empty or invalid Languages list, and land on the Languages section of Settings › General. Add your language codes (for example en_US,es_ES) or switch Multilingual off, and save.

Listings missing for some visitors. Check which language the visitor is browsing in (the footer menu) and the language of the listing. See Listings disappeared.

A category shows in English on the Spanish site. Its Spanish name is empty: add it in the category’s Translations card.

Language and translations — your main language and the wording of your site.
Categories and Locations — where you translate names.
Email templates — emails in each language.
Listings disappeared — the most common reasons listings stop showing.