13/07/2016

A successful, multilingual web presence is always a crucial part of a global marketing strategy. Like building and maintaining your website, its localisation is also an interdisciplinary project that needs to be well planned…

Localising your website into one or more languages is a huge undertaking that requires careful thought and consideration. Like building and maintaining your website, its localisation is also an interdisciplinary project. It is therefore wise to involve all parties, particularly those from marketing and IT.

Also, analyse the interests of your target markets beforehand and specify priorities for the languages. Ideally, get your country offices and distribution partners involved and clarify whether or not a review will be undertaken in the country in question and who will be responsible for it.

Have you established who will manage the project and which languages your website is to be localised into? Then it is time to look at the structure of your website.

• Is your website based on a CMS (content management system)?
• How is your content integrated?
• Is the structure generally designed to support multilingualism?
• Could you upgrade your CMS with plug-ins to manage the content for all languages centrally?

Also be aware that different languages have different requirements. For translations into Arabic languages, it must be possible to mirror the template because these languages are read in a different direction to English or German. Ideally your website should already be Unicode-based to allow the appropriate fonts to be displayed for all languages. This is especially important for Asian languages.

Another factor to consider is language expansion. A translation is rarely of the exact same length as the source text it is based on. Depending on the language, you will need to plan in an expansion of up to 20%. So your website needs to be flexible enough to adapt to different text lengths.

The website structure is analysed and prepared for localisation. Now the translation can proceed. So is it simply a matter of sending the service provider a URL or even the access details for the CMS and off we go?

Far from it. Nowadays translation is a high-tech process that requires particular types of files which can be processed in a translation memory system. Copying the content into a Word document might seem to be the most obvious choice, but this method is error-prone, often resulting in content being lost as it’s copied back and forth. The ideal source files are in HTML format or exported directly from the CMS, for example in Excel, CSV or XML format. These can be translated in a translation memory system and then imported back into your CMS. This saves a lot of time and allows the translation to be added to the system with just a few clicks.

In addition to the source files, reference material is important to a successful translation. This may be an existing translation memory, a terminology list, a style guide or previously translated documents, such as brochures, catalogues or manuals.

At oneword we offer a complete translation management  service:

• Professional project management from start to finish
• Detailed advice on the workflow and optimisation of your processes
• Native-speaker translators and revisers with in-depth knowledge of your domain
• Comprehensive quality management for minimal error potential
• Professional time management with the best delivery deadlines
• Direct coordination with international subsidiaries

Communicate openly with your translation service provider and share your expectations in terms of quality, cost and time. Together you will be able to find a solution that matches your needs and works well with your internal processes.

Successful communication also includes structured query management. Even when the documents for translation are perfectly prepared and you have provided plenty of reference material, the translator may still need to ask for clarification on a word or phrase. By asking questions, we can make sure that the finished product is word-perfect. So expect to receive questions from the translator and be ready to pass them on to the relevant person, such as a product manager.

The localisation is complete. That is definitely cause to celebrate but what happens next? Unfortunately, you cannot just sit back and relax because, just like the German version of your website, the translations also need regular maintaining and updating. Plan ahead in close collaboration with your translation service provider to ensure that subsequent projects also run seamlessly. If the frequency and volume of the updates are known, the service provider can prepare for them better and schedule capacity among the translator teams for you.

There are multiple ways of handling the updates which depend partly on the size of your website and partly on the frequency of the updates. The possibilities here range from simply sending across a file to setting up an interface for the comprehensive connection of your CMS to the service provider’s translation memory system with automated file sending. Coordinate with your translation service provider here and they will give you detailed advice.

Do you want to localise your website or are you in the process of planning the localisation and looking for an optimum workflow? Get in touch with your contact person at oneword or simply contact us with no obligation at contact@oneword.de or alternatively call us on +49 (0) 7031 714 9550. We will be happy to advise you and help you design the perfect solution for your website localisation project.