A business serving people in more than one language may want its website available in those languages. This piece is about multilingual websites in Odoo.
When a website should be multilingual
A website is read by people, and people read in their language. A business whose audience genuinely spans more than one language, serving people who read different languages, may genuinely benefit from its website being available in those languages, so each visitor can read the site in a language they understand. A multilingual website is a website offered in more than one language for that reason.
Multilingual websites in Odoo
Odoo supports multilingual websites: a website can be offered in more than one language, so visitors can see it in the language that suits them. The website's content exists in the languages the business offers, and a visitor sees the site in their language. So a business that genuinely needs its website in more than one language can have that in Odoo.
The honest reality: a multilingual website is more to maintain
An honest point that matters. A multilingual website is genuinely more to create and maintain than a single-language one. The website's content has to genuinely exist in each language offered, which means the content has to be genuinely translated, well, into each language, and as the website's content changes, the changes have to be carried into each language. A multilingual website is not simply a switch; it is a website whose content the business genuinely maintains in several languages. A business considering a multilingual website should be honest about that ongoing effort.
Translation has to be genuine
A further honest point. For a multilingual website to genuinely serve its audience, the content in each language has to be genuinely good in that language, genuinely, properly translated, not a poor or mechanical rendering. A website in a language, done poorly, serves the speakers of that language badly and reflects poorly on the business. So offering a website in a language is a commitment to genuinely good content in that language. A business should offer its website in a language only where it is prepared to have the content genuinely well done in that language.
Offer the languages you genuinely need
The honest guidance, then, is to make a website multilingual where it genuinely serves the audience, and to offer the languages the business genuinely needs, no more. Each language offered is a genuine commitment of translation and ongoing maintenance, and genuinely good content. A business should offer its website in the languages its audience genuinely needs, and be prepared for the genuine effort each language involves. Where that is genuinely warranted, a multilingual website serves a multilingual audience well; where it is not, a single, well-done website is simpler and may serve the business better.
The takeaway
Multilingual websites in Odoo let a business offer its website in more than one language, which genuinely benefits a business whose audience spans more than one language. The honest reality is that a multilingual website is more to create and maintain, the content has to genuinely exist, and be kept current, in each language, and the translation has to be genuinely good. Offer the website in the languages the business genuinely needs, and be prepared for the genuine effort each language involves. For how we approach Odoo, see our ERP practice.