How to Setup Multilingual SEO URLs in OpenCart 3.0

OpenCart 3.0 introduced a lot of major new features to the free E-Commerce platform we know so well. This also includes a brand new field in the Design section allowing you to manage your OpenCart SEO URL structure.

This tutorial will show you how to setup multilingual SEO URLs in OpenCart 3.0. We will cover:

  1. How to install a new language

  2. How to enable SEO URLs

  3. How to configure multilingual SEO URLs

For this purpose, we have a clean installation of OpenCart 3.0.

1. Install a New Language

Installing languages in OpenCart requires additional extensions.

We will use the new Marketplace to find a free language extension that will be compatible with our OpenCart 3.0 store.

OpenCart 3 Marketplace

Fortunately, our friends at OpenCart Brasil have prepared a Portuguese language extension that we will use for our tutorial.

Let’s open the extension and begin the installation.

When you open the extension in the marketplace, go to the Download tab where the ocmod.zip is located and click Install.

This will install the extension directly to your store.

When you’re done, you need to go to your Languages section to set it up.

Go to System > Localisation > Languages.

This is where all your languages will be located. Since this is a clean installation, we only have the default English language.

Click on Add New to begin setting up the Portuguese language that we just installed.

Language Name: Give your language a name (e.g. English US; English UK; Portuguese).

Code: When you install a new language in your OpenCart store, its code will appear in this field for you to select.

Locale: Enter the locale information of your language (e.g. en_us; en_gb; pt_br).

Status: Enable or disable the language. This will determine whether it will appear in the languages dropdown in the storefront.

Sort Order: Give your language a sort number for better organization.

2. Enable SEO URLs

Now that your language is installed, the next step towards setting up multilingual SEO URLs is to enable the option to create and manage them.

Go to System > Settings and click the Server tab.

OpenCart 3 SEO URLs

The second field is called Use SEO URLs.

Change it from No to Yes and click the Save button.

Next, open your store files and find your .htaccess.txt file. Rename it to just .htaccess.

Your SEO URLs are now enabled!

You’re ready to begin setting them up.

3. Configure Multilingual SEO URLs

Let’s view the new SEO URL section in OpenCart 3.0.

Go to Design > SEO URL to find all the existing entries you will have in your store by default.

As you see, this section contains all of the SEO Keywords configured for each category, product, or information page.

Currently, they are all in English and will work when your storefront language is set to English.

To change that, we will edit an entry. Hit the Edit button on any of the entries you prefer.

We will go with the About Us page.

Keyword: Change the existing keyword to the one you will use with the new language.
 

Example: about-us (English) - sobre-nos (Portuguese)


Language: Select the new language you want to use for the SEO URLs.

When you’re done, click the Save button.

You’re Done!

Now, when you go to the storefront and select your new language from the dropdown, the pages that have configured SEO URLs in the new language will look like this:

Conclusion

We think that’s a great addition to the new OpenCart 3.0 version and really simplifies the management of your SEO URL structure. We hope this tutorial has been helpful! Let us know if you have any comments or questions below!

SEO Guide for BeginnersUnderstand SEO better with the Complete Introduction to Search Engine Optimization for 2018.

 

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