A well-translated website is an impressive way to boost your presence in the international market. A high-quality translation will make it easier for new and existing partner organizations and customers to access information about your company, services, and products. This article outlines three essential and integral processes—Translation, Localization, and Customization—along with some helpful tips, for how to build a multilingual website that is not only accurate to the meaning of the original text, but also to the integrity of your brand in the global economy….

Translation

While there are a growing number of free machine translation options that will quickly convert text to the desired target language, the quality cannot be guaranteed unless the translated text is verified by a native speaking translator with expertise in your particular field. Most free translation options contain content from any number of industries, which could lead to confusing mistranslations.

Moreover, using machine translations can hurt search engine optimization (SEO) rankings since Google prefers human-produced data instead of auto-generated content. The more auto-generated content is detected, the greater the penalties. A more strategic approach would be to work with an expert translation provider to produce the translated content, as well as verify that the translations contain key search terms for your industry.

Ultimately, a specialized translation company can provide your website with contextually correct terminology that optimizes your search engine results, as well as develop language that fits your marketing style. This creativity and cultural savviness to spread your message in both another language and another culture is called localization, an essential step that is often overlooked, but can set you apart in the global market.

Localization

Localization is the process of adapting content so that it is “linguistically and culturally appropriate to the region where it will be used and sold”, whereas translation is simply finding the meaning equivalence in the target language[2]. Beyond word choice that best leverages SEO, some important elements to consider when localizing translated content are: treatment of measurements, currency and number formats, capitalization preferences, time and date formats, contact information, etc.

It is also important to take into account the geographical region(s) of your target market, since cultural preferences, terminology, and spelling might change from country to country, region to region. What that means is, instead of simply having your website translated to Spanish, plan out which regions you are trying to reach—Spain? Argentina? Central America? Spanish speakers in the United States? Knowing this will set you up for optimal localization and understanding for your end users since the translation can be catered accordingly. For example, “guagua” means “bus” in the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico, but is a word used for “baby” in Chile. If you are trying to sell busses in Chile, it would be confusing to the locals if “guagua” was accidentally used!

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