English vs. Local Language| Why You Need to Localise and Translate Your Website in Multiple Languages

(Note: – This post is a guest post by Evie Harrison. Read more about her in the author bio below the post)

About 1.5 billion people in the world speak English. On a quick grasp, this might sound like a large group of target customers until you realize that there are far more people who do not speak or can’t read English. It is predicted that there are more than 5 billion people who can’t read or speak English.

The major question is, is your business ready to reach, connect, market, and sell to global audiences? If not, then you need to opt for translating and localizing your website for reaching out to prospective customers in International Markets.

Website localization involves modifying an existing site to adapt to different preferences and cultural differences of various countries without affecting the integrity of the site. This type of modification affects the cultural content, videos, images and any other aspect of the site that is differentiable in relation to geographical locations.

Website Translation Vs Website Localization

While translation involves converting the content of your website from the source language to another language (target language), website localization is much deeper. It involves not only translating the words but adjusting other aspects to fit the different market segments. It covers aspects such as:

• Adjusting or changing images to make sure they appeal to local audiences.
• Updating units of measures such as time formats, date, currencies and more to match those used in the target market or region.
• Making sure the content and assertions are culturally appropriate in the target region.

When it comes to localization, brands that are made for a target market tend to perform better in those regions than their global equivalent. For example, Baidu is more popular in China than Google. The goal of website localization services is to make sure that your brand and its content read and feels like it was specifically designed for the target country/market.

In this context, website translation is just one part of website localization.

Human VS Machine Content Translation

There are two major approaches to content translation; human content translation and machine content translation. For optimal results, webmasters must understand each of these two options and the merits and demerits of each method.

Humans Translation:

One of the major merits of human translation over machine translation is that human translators are able to take the concept of context into perspective. For example, a human translator might be able to understand the implied meaning of cultural norms, idioms, and, more critically, the overall mission and vision of your brand and the best way to translate the content. The key benefits of human translation are:

Better Quality

Properly done, the human translation reads and feels more natural and fluent than machine translation. This because humans can artistically interpret the source content and phrase and re-arrange content in a way that best appeals to the target audience.

More importantly, human translation maintains the essence of the content. A professional translator is able to take into account cultural sensitivities, tone, idiomatic expressions, native vernaculars and other aspects that machines can’t understand.

Language Expertise

A professional translator is proficient in both the source and target languages. So, even though machine translation is faster and cheaper, machines can’t catch the connotation of a document like humans.

Cultural Sensitivities

One of the critical aspects that should be considered during translation is cultural sensitivities in the target region. Every society has its values and norms interwoven into its languages. So, when translating content, these cultural norms, values, and sensitivities must be catered for. In most cases, professional content translation firms understand such issues and take care of them. On the contrary, machines tend to miss such aspects and that is an issue that can ruin the reputation of a brand.

Machine translation

Machine translation uses automated software to translate content from original language to a target language. Even though human translation is often the best approach, machine translation can be a great alternative in some cases.

For example, it is cost effective and fast when used to translate product descriptions which change very fast and are not culturally sensitive. Different content translation software might work well for different types of translation projects. It is wise to try several before purchasing.

The major limitation of machine translation is that such software often fair to accurately take context, idioms and subtleties of culture in to account. To mediate such limitation, post-editing is recommended. This process involves human review of the machine translated output to enhance fluency and compatibility with the target audience.

The key merits of machine translation are:

Speed

Software have speed advantage over humans. So, when companies have large translation projects, they often turn to machine translation. The major limitation here is accuracy. Even though computers can get the job done fast, they are not as good as a native speaker. So, the webmaster has to do a cost benefit analysis and determine what is most important to them. Getting the project done fast or accurately.

Consistency

In some cases, content translation software produce better quality output than humans. Normally, this is because computers are more consistent when it comes to words and style than humans. On the downside, machines often fail to select the right wording given the context. This normally because unlike humans, content translation software can’t evaluate the intended meaning given the overall purpose of the content.

More For Less

Translation software allows for fast turnaround and customization during projects, resulting in large cost savings. The software eliminates the extra cost of rework, making them cheaper than human translation.

Overall, when you choose professional translation service over machine translation, you will get the best quality of work. However, if the work is not culturally sensitive, machine translation might the best solution.

The 3 Critical Aspects of Website Localisation

Web localization is a large umbrella that covers three major features.

Website translation

This deals with the language aspect of a website. Though it is discussed in later parts of the article, it is essential to mention at this point that web translation is the most significant bit of website localisation.

The reason is simple; even though other aspects of the site might be localized, if the user is not able to understand the language of the site, then communication is either limited or totally hindered. The language must always be clear and culturally sensible to avoid unforeseen offense or ambiguity.

The actual localization

The actual localization goes into more detail beyond the site’s language. It involves making sure that all visual displays, geographical maps and currency information are in line with the target audience.

It also ensures that delivery information for e-commerce sites are in line with the country’s policies and other researched aspects that contribute to trade efficiency.

Internationalization

This part deals with the compatibility of the software to the dominant technology used in the concerned country. It makes sure that the engineering aspect of the website is intact through all local transitions. This makes it easy for website managers to handle different markets and allows a company only to have one website that serves a global market.

Differences between Website Localisation and Website Translation

With a comprehensive look at both website localization and website translation, you can now quickly tell the difference between the two. In previous years, website translation was all it took to make your site global.

However, as time passed by, developers and marketers realized that the company websites needed to be user-friendlier than they thought they were. The sites then need to be localized to cater to currency, date and delivery information, among other critical details that helped make the user experience smoother.

Localization envelops every part of making a website feel personal to all users regardless of the country they reside in. Internationalization makes localization easier and more affordable, meaning that both contribute to the effectiveness of website translation — all three work to improve a company’s interaction with its local and international customers.

Conclusion

Having a site in English is essential, but combining other local languages is imperative. A properly and efficiently localized website in multiple languages, each targeting a separate geographical location will definitely bring a surge in revenues. Remember the factors that makes localizing of a website fruitful and check whether your developer is well versed and adequately educated and experienced enough to handle all the things properly for you. The translation must be done by a professional translation company and a few rounds of proof reading must be conducted before using it in the website. If you can manage a local resident from your target market and get the copy of translation once read it will be the best way to handle it.

One more thing as you seek translation services, make sure you have taken a substantial amount of your development process to test your multi-lingual site. This will give you the confidence of a site that has smooth language transitions and other local specifications. Ensure that you avoid the mentioned pitfalls as well, and you will be good to go.

Author Bio: 

Evie Harrison is a copywriter and content writer who works at Dar Al Marjaan Translation services. She specializes in email marketing, ghost blogging and content marketing.