5 Aspects of Website Translation and Localization That You Must Know
Due to consumer demands, attitudes, and expectations differing widely from area to region, website translation is a must for a company with worldwide ambitions. However, translation and localization may be difficult undertakings to master because of their many components and implications. GTE Localize will introduce some of the most common pitfalls to avoid when it comes to translating and localizing your own website in this post.
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Website Translation Method: Human Translations or Machine Translations
It’s critical to select a translation system that strikes the correct combination of speed, accuracy, simplicity of upkeep, and cost. When it comes to website translation, you generally have two options.
Human Translations
Hiring experienced translators to translate your site on a page-by-page basis is the way to go if you choose to go this route. You can rely on professional translators to deliver accurate and high-quality translations.
Other factors, however, should be addressed before pursuing this choice. To begin, consider the technical components of a multilingual site; experienced translators will not be able to help you integrate these translations into your site.
The cost is the next factor to consider. Professional translations are costly, and if you have hundreds of pages to translate, this alternative becomes prohibitively expensive.
Machine Translations
Automatic machine translation, on the other hand, is another option for meeting your multilingual requirements. When contemplating this approach, the issue of translation quality is frequently mentioned; nevertheless, automatic machine translation has been demonstrated to improve accuracy year after year.
Furthermore, machine translation is a quick and inexpensive solution. It’s also a terrific method to get your website translation process started, however, it’s far from the final words that must appear on your site.
Website Translation Technology Solutions
When it comes to localization, the last thing you want to do is use the wrong website translation technology. This is due to the fact that different translation providers handle your material in different ways, some of which aren’t regarded as best practices for multilingual sites.
Duplicate pages or websites should be avoided at all costs in your multilingual website architecture. The reason for this is that search engines (such as Google) punish duplicate pages and sites when it comes to ranking highly in search engine result pages.
Within language-specific subdomains or subdirectories, your translated material in the specified language should ideally exist under the same URL as your original language. Google duplicate content penalties are avoided using this approach.
Website Design Considerations
Another mistake to avoid with website translation is failing to evaluate the design of your website adequately. When translating your website for localization, it’s crucial to keep in mind the importance of the design.
Using a well-developed theme for your site, regardless of the CMS you’re using, is one of the first things you should think about. Make sure your theme is compatible with additional applications and plugins that can improve the functioning of your site, that it supports RTL (right-to-left) formatting, and that it’s well-structured and developed. If you choose a custom theme, be sure to include all of the aforementioned features in your design.
When it comes to implementing your translated information into your site’s design, keep in mind how it will appear on the front end. This is due to the fact that languages differ not just in terms of sound and grammar, but also in terms of how much space words take up in a phrase. As a result, it’s critical to keep this in mind while building your site, providing enough room for inconsistencies and differences that come with translating from one language to another. Moreover, you should avoid using bespoke fonts on your website as a last precaution. These bespoke typefaces are frequently difficult to translate, causing needless trouble when going multilingual.
If you don’t account for this aspect, you can end up with things like broken strings and overlapping text, which aren’t ideal when you’re trying to attract new consumers.
Culture Context Concerns
It’s not only about translating when it comes to website localization; it’s also necessary to localize for certain geographic locations. Even if two nations have the same first language, they may have significant variances, necessitating the need to modify your commercial strategy to a localized language. To achieve success, you must take into account the cultural backdrop of any market you’re targeting or working in.
Even for something as basic as spelling and vocabulary, it’s critical to understand the distinctions. For example, to localize your website translation for the American audience, consider replacing terms like “holidays” with the more widely used “vacation.”
Following this, you should think about any photos or media on your website. As you may translate text to make it understandable to a foreign audience, you might want to do the same with this audiovisual material. It’s a good idea to localize or translate these pictures and videos for each language version of your website if they won’t comprehend.
International SEO
When your website translation is ready for clients all around the world, you’ll want to make sure they can discover it when they go online. This is where a well-thought-out multilingual SEO plan may help.
Multilingual or international SEO is essentially the same as domestic SEO, except it applies to every language version of your website. Translation of your whole site’s content, translation of any metadata on your site, meta tags, and language-specific subdomains/directories are all essential components of successful multilingual SEO.
Taking care of your international SEO can help your site and its offerings be found by people from all around the world who are looking for information in foreign languages.
If you want to translate your website into multiple languages and integrate SEO effectively at the same time, your best solution is to work with a reputable translation agency like GTE Localize. Our website translation services can handle the five issues above with smart tools and experienced translators. So why not get in touch with us to have a free consultation immediately?
