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Website Translation and Localization IV: Planning the Technical Aspects

Last updated on May 18th, 2021 at 12:29 pm

Technical requirements are essential components that must be taken into consideration ahead of time. After deciding the preferences that suit your business best, amazing results are sure to come out of your newly localized multilingual website.

 Think about the technical decisions:

  1. Site structure, platform, and navigation are key elements to consider before planning the localization of the site.
  2. How are you going to host the translated version of the site: new domain, subdomain, or subfolder? They all work differently according to your objectives and the platform where you host your site (be aware of the limitation and implications of each option).
  3. How are you going to navigate from one language to the other?
  4. Are you going to use a written text link for the choice of languages, or do you want to use images of national flags?
  5. Will your user is directed to the main page upon selecting a different language, or will they be directed to the respective page where the language selection occurred?
  6. How about the URL structure? There are different URL naming options in the target language that use specific extensions to help users and crawlers identify the language in multilingual websites.

Examples “en”=English and “es”= Spanish (Español)

https://jrlanguage.com/en/ translation-content.html

https://jrlanguage.com/es/ translation-content.html

https://www.en.jrlanguage.com/ translation-content.html

https://www.es.jrlanguage.com/ translation-content.html

https://jrlanguage.com/ translation-content.html

https://jrlanguage.com/contenido-de- traduccion.html

   7. Selecting the format of the working files and how to exchange content with the translation agency.
   8. How will you supply the material to be translated: MS Word, html, xml, php, or others
   9. Which of the above formats will be more convenient for your IT staff to receive the translated files
   10. Revise your existing Content Management System (CMS). Look for answers to the question of structure and best practices to incorporate the translated content.
    11. Website localization assurance is perhaps the most important step, as it is vital to proofread and test your website before it is open to the public.  Always double-check connections, navigation and correct sequence within each language. By carefully reviewing the new site, you avoid the embarrassment of faulty navigation within your site that can render all of your efforts towards a multilingual page useless.

In order to market globally you must stop and ask yourself multiple questions to be successful in the planning and execution of a website localization project. Fortunately there are translation agencies, like JR Language, with the experience and know how to guide you in partnership to facilitate this complex process for you. JR Language has worked in multiple website translation projects. All of our work is edited and proofread independently after translation to ensure that your localized content appears original and attractive towards all your target markets.

If you have any questions about your multilingual website translation and localization, please contact us by leaving a comment or questions, sending us an email at info@jrlanguage.com, or calling at 1-866-389-5036. We will gladly address your question and see how we can help you.

Sergio Ruffolo
Sergio Ruffolo
Sergio has more than 25 years of multinational experience providing consulting services and leading IT organizations in Africa, Asia and America, which has given him plenty interesting and insightful lessons to teach about global business. He is fluent in Spanish and English, in addition to conversational Portuguese. He has lived in more than 12 cities around the world, moving around and working in different cultures has left him with a real global perspective. Sergio is a real citizen of the world.