Preparing for a Website Translation Project
Adding a language to a website involves planning and preparation, which requires knowledge of the activities necessary to create a flawless multilingual site. Website translation involves planning and analysis to determine the best workflow depending on the software used for the website, the type of content, and the languages required.
Website localization is a complex endeavor in the translation services industry. To execute the project, you must select a language company with expert localization engineers, experienced project managers, and professional translators.
There are many activities to consider, both technical and linguistic, and these activities can be divided into two parts: initial activities and maintenance activities to keep the multilingual content in sync with the original.
In this post, we will discuss some key fundamentals you must consider when adding new languages to your website by answering the 7 most common questions we get about website translation.
1. Are there any additional costs on top of translating the content?
The short answer is yes. Translation of content is one of the main line items in the budget, but the cost of translating a website also includes:
- Hosting costs for additional languages.
- IT costs to add and maintain the language versions.
The workflow and cost of those activities vary depending on the platform used to create the website and the cost of extracting, translating, and publishing the translated copy into the new languages.
Technologies are constantly changing and facilitating the creation of multilingual websites. Among those solutions are translation proxy and integration with CMS ( Content Management Systems), which help to streamline workflow and control costs. Translation Proxy Solutions automatically creates the new language pages on the fly, eliminating the need to have a mirror image of the site in that language and the services of an IT staff. However, that comes with the consequence of not always having the translation available for future migrations or the impact of changes to the website structure.
2. How do we keep the changes up to date in the different languages?
This depends on the approach used. An HTML website requires a lot of work, as the new or modified pages are translated and have to be re-linked in the new languages.
With a content management system such as WordPress, Joomla, or Magento, content can be exported and reimported in new languages every time the source language version is updated. This can be cumbersome and error-prone when there are frequent changes. However, this can be resolved by having automation and connectors developed to integrate CMS with your translation agency’s translation environment.
3. If we only change a small part of a page, do we have to pay for the complete translation again?
You should not have to. When you partner with a translation company that has experience with Website Translations, they will maintain your translations in a translation memory and be able to reuse it so you only pay for the changes, maintain consistency, and save with translation memory technology.
4. How much IT work is involved in translating a website?
As we have seen above, there can be a lot of work or very little, depending on the technology used and the partner you choose to help you with the project. Make sure you choose a partner with experience in translation, who uses the newest technology, and who offers different alternatives to the website translation process. Also, ensure that the technology used is proven and will last long enough to bring you a return on your investment.
5. Can we afford to translate our extensive e-commerce website?
This is a great question we get frequently. Large websites with tens of thousands of pages would be expensive to translate, as the cost of translation is typically by the word.
Fortunately, new translation technology, including AI Translation and Machine translation services, can aid in translating large websites. Using the technology and pairing it with a process that fine-tunes the translated content for a particular content type and language produces quality while reducing costs compared to complete human translation services. This automated translation can also be improved with post-editing, which was explained in a previous article titled “Polishing your machine translation“, and adds the revisions of the machine-translated content by a human translator.
The best scenario is to manage these large volumes of content and translation options with your business goals and budget in mind. With a website translation project, you can choose the portions that will be translated by professional translators or automated translation and what portion of that last group will be post-edited. For example, selecting the first level of your website for human translation and the least visited completed by machine translation provides flexibility in budget management.
6. Why do we need to translate the website anyway?
This is probably the best question. We have compiled statistics on this matter and are happy to share them with you. Here are some interesting facts:
- 65% of online visitors speak a native language other than English
- Visitors are three times more likely to buy a product from a website translated in their native language
- Users browse twice as long on websites translated in their native language
- 78% of the US Hispanic population speak Spanish (roughly 42 million)
- 68% of Chinese users spend less or no time on English-only) websites
So why do you need to translate your site? It seems obvious, but only company objectives, your products, and the market will determine if you need translated content and the best languages for your multilingual approach.
7. How long will it take to have the translated website up and running?
It depends mainly on the website size, the company you select as your translation partner, the number of languages, and the technology used.
If you need several languages, we recommend starting with one to iron out all the issues, make the necessary changes for the successful localization of the content, and later smoothly proceed with the other languages.
Make sure you choose a translation partner with experience in website translations, the appropriate technology to offer options, and the ability to help and support you with the technical aspect of the project. The translation company you work with should be able to leverage technology to have its team of translators working in parallel and in coordination with your engineer.
If you use the right partner and technology solution, it should take less time than it did to develop the website in the source language. Additionally, in complex websites, working with the development team to support the localization team will always benefit your project.
