Guide to Website Translation and Localization

Alpha Omega Translations

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Entering Foreign Markets: How Translations Can Propell Your Business in the Next Lauching Pad

3. Website Localization

4. Four Small Ways to Better Localize Your Online Business’s Page

5. Why Should You Localize? Four Good Reasons

1. Introduction

Getting your business’s website translated into different languages can seem like a daunting task. Of course, the heavy translation lifting will be done by whoever you end up hiring to do so, but that doesn’t mean you will just be sitting back and waiting for them to finish. Here we will talk about some of the things that you as a business owner can do to make the translation process smoother.

First of all, you can take a look at the content you have on your original website. Some of this content will be translated into any and all languages once you go global, but there might be some that isn’t relevant to the target audience. If you don’t already use a CMS (Content Management System), now is a good time to start, and to choose one that works well with many different languages. This will help you keep all of your different content organized and make it easy to update content in all languages when the need arises.

Something else that may come up in the translation process is the fact that different writing systems take up different amounts of space on a page. A good number of these very same systems also have different formats that need to be accommodated for in a website. Setting up and formatting the pages that will be in these kinds of languages ahead of time will save you both time and money when it comes to paying your translation team. Certain images and ads will probably need to be completely or partially redone. This is because, regardless of how well a web page is translated, certain images, humor, and even colors do not work the same way as they do in the source culture. If the original page uses images of a blonde, white family smiling, this should probably be changed to images of a family that better represents the demographics of the target audience. These kinds of changes fall under localization more than translation, but are important all the same. Social media plays a huge role in how many people end up visiting your company’s website. It is also inherently social, which means it will be different from one culture to the next. It can be easy to assume that, all over the world, the same social networks are used as in the U.S. Facebook is very popular, as is Twitter, Google+, and many others, but there are some types of social media that were developed in other countries and are very popular there. Make sure to research this and apply it to how you approach social media for the corresponding target language. Lastly, make sure the translation team you decide to work with is experienced in website translation and localization. It is especially helpful if they have experience working with clients in the same industry or sector. Once you have established a good relationship with a translation team, keep working with them as they will know what you really need based on their past experiences with you.

2. Entering Foreign Markets: How Translations Can Propell Your Business in the Next Lauching Pad .

Reaching new customers from foreign markets could sound to many companies as leaving their comfort zone in some way. The same thing happens to buyers looking for new services, products or information when they have to do it in a foreign language, they often feel reluctant to make decisions if they can’t communicate in their mother tongue. But the best way to increase sales, reach new markets efficiently and reinforce the existing business relationships is to provide effective communication. With the assistance of professionals and the correct use of technology, this barrier could almost disappear, generating an important increase of revenue and also making the comfort zone considerably bigger.

Imagine that you have an application with a certain number of users and you have only launched it in English. If you translate it to the top five spoken languages worldwide, the popularity of the app would grow in a very short period of time. The leading language for Applications today is English, followed by Spanish, then German and French. You could have the same percentage of users compared to total population for each language. And this doesn’t mean reaching only one country per language, many countries share the same language and if the translation is handled by professionals the content can be localized for each specific country or region ensuring effectiveness and global visibility. The same thing happens with websites. Users tend to stay in a website for more time, revisit it or buy products if they can read the information in their mother tongue. So if these potential buyers will only feel confident if they can communicate in their language, then providing localized content is the key to increase your sales and popularity. Local partnerships can also increase your sales in a foreign market and help you step on solid ground. And this does not mean that you have to learn to communicate in a new language. Many companies with global presence request translation services to enter new markets or communicate with local partners worldwide and if the business grows significantly in a particular region it is not a bad idea to hire someone who can speak the language needed.

3. Website Localization

Website localization is many times confused with translation, but it actually involves much more than that. Website localization includes combining efforts of different specialists to achieve more results than just having a website in a different language. One of the key aspects to take into account is the target audience. Even though many people can read in more than one language, most people tend to browse the web in their mother tongue rather than a secondary one, and they feel more comfortable if the content of the website they are visiting is in their own language.

Many countries share the same language but not the same cultural context. So defining the target audience is essential to create the desired impact on the reader and in some cases avoid offending them. Some words have different meanings in countries that

speak the same language so linguists have to design a strategy to overcome this, such as using a neutral version of the text or creating different versions for each country or region. This aspect is also important for SEO professionals, as the content will affect the results shown by web search engines for a different version of the site, so if different words are used for the same result in two or more countries, many users could not get the results expected. So far we have translators and SEO professionals involved in website localization, but it doesn’t end there. When translating a website, the layout has to be modified as well due to several factors. The same sentence can have more or less words in different languages, so the space used to show the text will change. In addition to this, some languages are read from right to left, so the programmers have to work with the translators to make the website look properly in each language. Every item could change, from buttons to text boxes. Even the way that the content wants to be shown. For example, some languages don’t use italics, so this has to be solved in a different way. The structure of the website at a programming level is not less important. There are many ways of creating a site and this will affect not only the difficulty to translate the website but also to update it. Most websites need to be updated at some point as the company evolves, the market changes or the content is not up to date. If a website is correctly created to support multilingual content, updates will be much simpler and cost effective to make. In many cases it is a good decision to change the structure of a website before translating to avoid future complications. The key for website localization is having a team of professionals working together in each specific field to achieve effective global visibility.

4. Four Small Ways to Better Localize Your Online Business’s Page

In this day and age, if you have an online business that hasn’t been translated into at least one other language, you’re in the minority. Since there are practically no borders in terms of internet usage, meaning anyone from anywhere can access your page, it only makes sense to at least look at your customers and try to localize for the country that uses your page the most. Even if you do this for just one other country, you will see an improvement in sales almost immediately. However, there are some things that literally get lost in translation when localizing an online business. They may be small, but these details, if you get them right, can make a huge difference in international customer satisfaction. Here are four small things to take into account when localizing your site:

1. What languages are spoken there? If you think localization consists of just translating your site into the most common language spoken by the target audience, then you are mistaken. Many countries have more than one official languages, and are used to being able to choose which of those languages they want to navigate a site in. Luxembourg is a good example, as it has three official languages: German, French, and Luxembourgish. In order to connect properly with customers from multilingual areas, make sure your site is multilingual as well.

2. How do they like to pay? In the U.S., we tend to pay for things online using a credit or debit card, or maybe a Paypal account. In other countries, however, other payment methods are more popular for making online purchases. In Spain as well as other European countries, for example, bank transfers are commonly used. Keep this in mind when localizing your site, so the payment options correspond with the options generally used by the target audience.

3. Does the language follow a different reading format? As you probably know, not all writing systems work the same as English. Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, and many other languages have writing systems that have a completely different format. Hebrew, for instance, is read from right to left, so that should be taken into account when formatting the web page to meet the needs of Hebrew speakers. This doesn’t just include text, however; this also affects placement of logos, pictures, advertisements, and any other visual content.

4. What currency is used? This probably seems like an obvious change to make when localizing your site, but even if you switch from dollars to euros, you may still run into small problems. For instance, some countries use a decimal point the way we in the U.S. would use a comma to separate digits in larger numbers. So you can’t relax once you switch all the dollar symbols over to euro, pound, and other currency symbols, because if you aren’t careful you may be showing your customers the wrong prices thanks to using a comma instead of a decimal point. Aside from that, some customers in certain countries are used to not only seeing the price in the local currency, but also in U.S. dollars. This reassures them that they haven’t been ripped off by your company.

5. Why Should You Localize? Four Good Reasons

First of all, what is localization? It refers to the process of taking a product and doing whatever necessary to make it relevant to a different audience, usually a foreign one. Generally speaking, the original message doesn’t change, it just gets translated and adapted to suit a the target culture. If you were to take the original content and rework it in the target language, that would be transcreation, a relative of localization.

A good synonym for localization is cultural adaptation, which implies that the source material is still very much taken into account. Nowadays, if you are a business owner, big or small, in order to reach a broader market, you really should consider prioritizing localization. Here’s why:

1. You will get more business This point may seem a bit obvious to those of you who are already implementing localization techniques, but for those who aren’t already doing so, you might need some

convincing to show you that localization is the real deal. Basically, it all comes down to reaching a broader audience than before. If you localize and your product or service is adapted for even one more group besides your current audience, you will have more sales than you had before. If you go on to localize even more for other audiences, just imagine how much more business you will have.

2. Your target clients will feel the love Since localization is all about adapting your message according to the language and culture of the audience you wish to reach, by choosing to localize you are already making more of an effort than companies that don’t localize to try and connect with your target clients. A lot of marketing and advertising is about the emotional response people have when they see or hear about a product or service, and whether they like it or not, this is really the deciding factor when it comes to which product or service they choose. When you localize, you are tapping into that emotional side of your target clients and making them feel like you care and want the best for them, because you are communicating with them in a way that they can relate to.

3. You will avoid offending anyone When a company does the bare minimum in terms of making their product or service accessible to a new audience that speaks a different language and has a different culture, embarrassing things can happen. If the original slogan is simply translated into the target language without much consideration for the local culture, mistakes like using words that are actually offensive to the target audience as well as many other things can happen. With localization, you can avoid that.

4. You will get the most out of your money and time If you implement localization right away when starting your marketing campaign, then you are making it easier to target different audiences later on. That’s an important thing to know about localization, that it works best when you work it into your original ideas. Otherwise, you have your whole campaign ready for one audience, but then you have to go back in and make all kinds of changes in order to make it relevant to another audience. That’s not what localization is about, and the time and money you’ll save if you localize properly will convince you once and for all that it’s the right way to go.

About Alpha Omega Translations Alpha Omega Translations founder, Dimitra Hengen, gained her experience in the technical translation industry since 1974. Our experts have been very successful in executing high-end multilingual projects for two decades. We have over 20 years of experience as an agency in translation, and localization in all languages. Our translation services are employed by some of the best companies who consider us their partner, not just a vendor. With our Translation and Localization services, we help our clients double their revenues by enabling them to sell their products globally. Our expertise cover all aspects of production of international products including legal translation, website translation and development, multimedia and video translation, marketing translation. We strive not only to make each and every client fully satisfied, but also to ensure that their end-users are satisfied. We raise the standards in the industry and we have fulfilled our duty when our clients’ end-users are successful. For more information about Alpha Omega Translations, please visit our website as www.alphaomegatranslations.com