How to Approach Your Website Translation Project

Businesses, medical facilities, educational institutions, and other entities seek website translation & localization for a variety of different reasons.

Companies expanding internationally need to translate their website to appeal to a brand-new target audience. Universities want to expand their reach to students around the world. Medical facilities want their content to be accessible to limited English speaking individuals.

When embarking on a large project like website localization, professional translation services are needed to translate & localize content. Here are some points to consider for your website translation project.

Sending Pieces of the Website Blurs Context

At the beginning of a website translation project, many organizations make the mistake of giving their language services provider (LSP) pieces of the website to translate, instead of sending it as a whole. Typically, this is because the website is not complete, or due to lack of budget.

There are a couple of problems & inconveniences that can arise from this method. Receiving portions to translate can make it difficult to know the context of the material.

For example, when translating a word/phrase, the target language may have 3 words with similar meanings. However, it could be the case that only one word makes sense in the context of the website.

If you send pieces separately, there might be some ambiguity as to what word fits right with the rest of the surrounding text.

When presented the full website, these problems can be addressed in the beginning of submission by your Project Manager.

Providing the Whole Website Allows Consistency

If the organization knows that the end goal is to translate the whole website, then partnering with a professional translation service with that complete goal is the best way to approach the project.

The Project Managers & translators will then know the context of the material and will partner with you to create a glossary to pull from. A glossary will set a standard of translation for certain terms, formatting, and cultural nuances that will help reach your target market.

This allows for consistency & efficiency throughout the project and maintains the integrity of your brand.

Volume Cost Savings

Established LSPs have software that can identify repetition within a translation project. Repetition can mean cost savings for your website translation project if sent as a whole, rather than in pieces.

This is why it is always better to partner with your translation services provider the moment the need arises.

The Project Manager can identify the scope of the project and give you recommendations on what will fit your needs and evaluate what is most cost efficient for you.