For multi-language catalogs, you can filter results by language, that is, display results that use a subset of the languages you support. The response language restricts the search results to products and SKUs in a specific language. For example, if the response language is English, and the search text is “dress,” your results could include a number of sundresses as well as formal gowns, all of which are described in English.

There are two ways to structure a localized catalog. You can define one asset per product/SKU with properties representing different languages, or several assets per product/SKU, each in a different language. Regardless of the structure you use, the process of indexing produces the same document output, that is, one document for each language-to-product/SKU combination.

When you specify response languages, you can include any number of languages as long as those languages are specified in the search index. Unsupported response languages are ignored by Search. If all response languages that you define are unsupported, Search discards the language filter, returning all results that match the input settings.

There are two places to set response languages, one for search text and another for category. When a test includes search text and a category, the search text language is used. It’s a good idea to provide the same languages to both the category and search text response language settings. Search text response languages are applied to all tests that include search text, even those for which a category and a category response language have been provided. The category response language, in this case, is ignored.