When creating a website in multiple languages, avoid these 7 common mistakes:
1. Don’t ignore the language preferences of your target markets.
It should go without saying but we’ve seen it ignored too many times before to not mention it here. If you want to attract a market, make sure you are speaking their language. Don’t assume that your customers speak your language well enough to skip translating your website into their language(s). In a European Commission study based on a Gallup survey of language preferences among Internet users in 23 countries in the E.U. (where people often speak more than one language), nine out of 10 said that, when given a choice of languages, they always visited a website in their own language, and 42% said they never purchase products and services in other languages. Translation: if you want them to buy, your website must speak their language.
2. Don’t use machine or automatic translation programs.
The results of using machine or automatic translation programs – rather than real humans who have translation experience and understand the nuances of both languages involved – is often disastrous, embarrassing and/or costly. There are so many examples to choose from. A recent one involves Taco Bell's new website in Japan. It was built using Google Translate, rather than a professional service. The result? Cheesy chips became "low quality chips" and Crunchwrap Supreme became "Supreme Court beef." It made some headlines before it was swiftly taken down.
3. Language translation isn’t enough – don’t skip other localization work.
Language translation is just one piece (albeit a large piece) of what is called localization. The goal of localization work is to give a product or service the look and feel of having been created for the target market AND the company, eliminating, or at least minimizing, local sensitivities. Regardless of the language used, the online experience must be culturally relevant and correct. Conduct research to understand the cultural considerations for your target audience. You may need to adapt graphics, modify content, adapt the layout (the translated text may be larger or smaller than the original language site), convert text/graphics to use different currency or measurement symbols and change formatting for dates, addresses and phone numbers, etc.
4. Don’t make it difficult to find your multicultural websites on your main site.
Don’t make users hunt for your multilingual websites when they land on your main one. Access to multilingual websites should be made available in the global navigation at the top right on every page of your main site.
5. Don’t forget about SEO.
Use a stand-alone, dedicated URL for marketing and search engine optimization purposes. You can redirect it to another one that’s more in line with your brand or URL convention. Also – think beyond Google. Google is not used in China, for example, so it’s important to have search engine optimization that is tailored to the search engines used in the countries you are targeting.
6. Don’t build it and then forget it.
Plan for regular updates and maintenance to ensure that your multilingual website remains comparable to your main language’s site.
7. Don’t build it if you can’t support customers beyond the website.
You have a multilingual website that avoids all the missteps above…but what if a customer has problems or questions? Think beyond the website and integrate your multilingual website initiatives with your internal and customer support initiatives, such as in-language phone and email support.
Need help localizing and translating your multilingual websites? AAA Translation, founded in 1994, works in more than 150 languages, and our experienced team can help make your multilingual websites a success. We provide translation/localization, interpreting, multilingual customer service support, over-the-phone interpreting and more. Contact us toll-free at 844.293.3519 or learn more at www.aaatranslation.com.
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