Top 3 Practices for Effective Website Translation
This is the age of technology where having a strong online presence is crucial for every business. For this purpose, the most important thing is your official website which serves as the online portal of your company and portrays your company's mission and vision to the world. It reflects your professional standards and helps you reach your target audience. So you need to be very careful in designing your website. And when it comes to targeting multiple foreign markets, translate your website into respective languages is the key.
Website translation for reaching new markets a lot. Organizing all the content and translating it as per the regional preferences requires professional assistance from the native experts. For effective website translation, you need to consider three fundamental aspects:
- Content and Layout
- Content Management System
- Search Engine Optimization
Content and Layout of the Website
Initially, you need to decide whether you are required to go for multi-sites or a multi-language site. This decision will help you determine the translation strategy that you are going to follow. Let us have a look at both strategies so that you can make a well-informed decision regarding which one to follow.
- If you decide to go for multisite then you must purchase site names for different
countries and make sure that it is properly localized by local experts. The benefit of this
strategy is that you appear more local and as per the culture of a specific country. It will
also enhance SEO and ranking. Developing multiple sites will assist you in creating
several high-quality backlinks between the sites. The disadvantage of that is you need to
buy several domains and need to maintain them simultaneously.
- If you decided to go for a multilanguage strategy, this means you will have various
languages on one site. If a user types a website with .de at the end, it will take them to
the German version of your main site and the specific section of German speakers.
Generally, a multilanguage site is very easy to manage, though you need to update new
content in different languages instantaneously so that all the sections of the website
become coherent.
Whether you choose to go for Multisites or a multilanguage site, it is essential to choose a professional language service provider that can translate your website by following the specific requirements.
Once you choose a translation partner for your website, make sure you give them clear instructions including:
- Do not translate your website word for word. Instead, go for localization so that it sounds native to the readers.
- Use the correct symbols whether it is currency, date format, or a measurement unit.
- Apply cultural-specific images of products and services.
- Revamp the website when necessary.
- Another important thing to consider when you are developing the website is to have sufficient space for text expansion or contraction.
Selecting of a Proper Content Management System CMS
A Content Management System is a digital application that helps to develop and modify digital content. Many applications are designed to support the management of the content of the web pages that demands web-based publishing, history, editing, and format management.
A good content management system will help in website localization processes. You need to select such a content management system that helps in optimizing the website localization process and supports the Multilanguage. Some languages have specific requirements like the right to left languages including are Hebrew and Arabic, and double scripts for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
Another important thing about the content management system is that you can manage your multilingual websites flexibly with source languages and cope with entries, reviews, and comments from users from Poland, Egypt, the USA, and Spain. If you are using API for your CMS then it will help you in designing your content in different languages. You can also go for machine translation as a temporary option. Any option that will not deteriorate the quality of your site can be adopted.
Choose the Best SEO Strategy
When you decide to tap into the new market, you have to choose an effective SEO strategy that can work best for your websites. You cannot be successful in your marketing campaigns if you don’t incorporate multilingual SEO strategies as per your project requirements.
Selecting the Right Keywords
Develop the list of keywords or phrases that resonate with each country even though they use the same language. This will help in improving your online visibility. Consider that European speaking Spanish will not search in the same way as that of Latin Americans. Therefore, considering the cultural and regional differences while choosing keywords can assist in the better ranking of your website.
Study the Different Search Engines
Google is widely used in the Western world. Many other search engines are used in different countries. For instance, in Russia, Yandex is used and it is gaining popularity in Turkey as well. Baidu is used in China and yahoo is the choice of Japanese. This suggests that you need to focus on the other search engines as well for improved online visibility in different regions.
Keep Track of Search Engine Updates
Search engines that they update their search results and algorithms regularly. Thus you need to keep track and update your SEO strategy. Do not forget to update customer-centric content that will rank your site higher.
Bottom Line
Website translation requires special attention to detail and for the best results, you should hire an experienced translation partner. Mars Translation is a renowned translation company that provides impeccable Website Translation Services with the help of native translators according to your global business requirements. Get in touch now to know more.