does your website speak chinese?

Does your website speak Chinese?Thom Robbins

Thomasr@kentico.comTwitter: @trobbins

Agenda

• Importance of multi-language• Adding cultures• Translating content• Best practices

Importance of multi-lingual sites

Country Targeting Tactics:• Country specific domain (ex .co.de)• Hosting in local country• Physical local address• Google Webmaster Central geo-targetting settings• Verified address with Google Maps• Links from in-country websites• Use of local language

It’s a two part problem…Country Targeting…Language Targeting…

Switch to the Cultures tab and click the Add cultures button. In the pop-up dialog enter new language.

First The first thing we need to do is go to Site Manager -> Sites and click the Edit icon next to our site.

Second

Adding Cultures

Third When the dialog closes, you see the new culture present in the list of available site cultures.

Adding Cultures

What do you translate?

Show default culture

• Not all documents need to translated (Exception is Home Page)• Pick key culture documents (analytics will help)• Machine translation has come a long way but can be expensive• If cost is an issue: Top 2-5% of geography based documents

Best Practice Tip

Did you know about: Site Manager ->Settings -> Web site?

In the content tree, click .The indicates the document hasn’t been translated yet.

First Log into and make sure you are in the Edit mode. Choose the language to which you want to translate your documents the Language toolbar.

Second

Content Localization

Third In the dialog box choose and select the language version you want your document to be copied from. Then click .

Adding Content

Fourth In the field enter the translated title of your page. Click and switch to the tab and start translating the content of your page.

Adding Content

Fifth We are ready to view the live site for the translated page. and bring up the web site in our browser.

SixthClick . Notice the flag to the right, toggle between .

Viewing the page

Language and URL’s

All pages have the same URL

URL?lang=culture

Best Practice TipTo set up a custom URL go to the language page and select use custom URL path

Translation overview

Best Practice TipSelect document and switch to Document Listing to view translation status

Green – Document is translated and up to dateOrange – Document is translated but out of date (default language has been modified more recently than translated version)Red – Document language version does not exist

Best practice – Make Language Selection Easy• Make it easy

– Place banners at top of page for language selection

– Flags may not be the best solution as they tend to be location dependent

Wikipedia Example

Localization Macros

• Supply localized values to web part properties or settingsFormat Description Sample Value

In place localization:{$=defaut_string|etc}

Displays strings defined in expression

{$=Hello|de-de|Hallo|it-it|Ciao$}

Basic format:{$key$}

Displays the string specified in Site Manager -> Development -> UI Culture or resx file in CMSResources folder

{myform.firstname$}

Best Practice – SEO is important

• Acquire back links from the target country– Review top sites for countries

(http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries)

• When possible have native speakers write your copy– Set language bound editing in Site Manager ->Administration -> Users

->Edit User -> Language tab– Create culture dependent workflow scopes (custom workflow for a

language)

• (Option) Create separate sites for each country• (Option) Register different domains

Additional Information

• Best samples are in your project!• Documentation -

http://devnet.kentico.com/Documentation.aspx• Code Snippet Library -

http://devnet.kentico.com/Blogs/Thomas-Robbins.aspx• Marketplace -

http://devnet.kentico.com/Marketplace.aspx

Questions:Thomasr@kentico.com@trobbins