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 InfoMail,
Q4-2006
GlobalVision International, Inc.
Localizing your Website?
Unlike the early and
mid-90’s when English-only publishers and websites dominated the
World Wide Web, the new millennium has truly turned the web worldwide!
According to Nielsen/NetRatings,
there are currently 10 languages used by roughly 81% of the 1.05 billion
worldwide internet users. These languages, in descending order, are English
(30%); Chinese (13.8%); Japanese (8.3%); Spanish (7.5%); German (5.6%); French
(4.4%); Korean (3.2%); Portuguese (3.1%); Italian (2.8%); and Russian (2.3%).
While doing business on the
web in English is still safely the lead choice, given the above numbers, the
potential for international opportunities are very appealing. This is why many
companies are proactively localizing their websites into multiple languages.
If your company has tasked
you to investigate, before you plunge into the process, consider the below.
What languages to
localize into?
Each company should study the location and habits of its own web visitors and
evaluate its strategic geographical plans for growth. Once you know what
geographies to target, you can easily determine the languages that you need.
This could be French and German for Europe, for example, or Spanish for the USA.
How much to budget?
Having determined the needed languages, try to identify the budget within which
you need to operate. If the budget drives the requirements, there are different
cost reduction techniques that you can follow to maximize the value of your
efforts.
1. Eliminate obsolete and
rarely used pages, such as unused files left on the web server, old press
releases, and old articles.
2. Follow the Pareto rule:
Identify the 20% of your website that is viewed 80% by your users. You’ll then
be better able to gauge your priorities and meet the budget.
3. Identify locale-sensitive
pages (such as job postings, local events, and local programs) and exclude them
from the localization requirements. There is no need to translate your job
openings in the USA into Japanese, French, or German.
4. Identify the pages that
are best re-authored to meet the specific needs of each local market. These are
pages related to local events, habits, and customs. Then, coordinate with your
in-country staff and engage the proper resources to recreate rather than
localize.
5. Minimize the use of
graphics and image-based navigation buttons with text embedded in them. Convert
as much as you can to text. This will minimize the costs of graphic editing.
Also, eliminate or simplify text in Flash files.
6. Minimize the localization
of PDFs (datasheets, brochures, white papers), as they can be costly. Identify
which pieces are most important, and which you can eliminate or leave in their
source language. Also, verify that source files are available (Quark, Images,
Fonts, …) so that they can be efficiently converted into the required languages.
It may not be possible to
estimate the cost of localizing a website by simply browsing it. Since websites
can be dynamic (ASP/PHP/SQL-based) and not just static (HTML-based), an effort
to collect the physical assets -- databases, images, Flash, Java scripts, HTM,
ASP, PHP, PDFs and all other source files requiring
localization -- is
essential before an accurate estimate can be generated. Once the files are
collected, go through them to identify the best strategy for each:
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Eliminate
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Leave in the source
language
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Localize into the
needed languages
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Re-author in the
needed languages
Once you have all the files
requiring localization identified, use this simple formula to come up with an
estimated localization budget: First, count the words that need translation.
Next, multiply the word count by the number of languages needed, then divide by
three. (If you cannot count the words, your localization vendor will do it for
you, usually at no cost.)
To give you an idea, an
average website has about 100 pages and can cost roughly $5,000 per language to
localize. This usually includes the following:
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Translating
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Reviewing by a second
translator,
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Localizing basic images,
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Performing Quality
Assurance (QA) tasks to ensure proper display in one or two web browsers
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Storing the translation in
translation databases for future reuse
(Note: Companies seriously
considering localization often host larger-than-average websites).
How often to synchronize
languages?
Since websites are very organic in nature and are constantly changing, you
should decide how frequently you should update the localized pages, and how
closely they should be synchronized with the source.
With the advent of content
management solutions and translation memory databases, technology permits
anywhere from infrequent updates (monthly, quarterly or yearly) to as frequent
as daily updates. It is only a matter of how much time and money you are willing
to invest in the processes and the technology.
Luckily, translation memory
tools enabling easy translation reuse are abundant and not costly. Any
localization professional that you decide to work with should be able to provide
you with at least the ability to store the translations in a database for easy
updates and retrieval. This makes monthly updates feasible with minimal overhead
to the overall localization costs.
Content management solution
integration with concurrent localization will add a significant amount of costs
to acquire, implement, integrate, customize and operate. This option should be
considered only when weekly or daily website updates in more than one language
are required, and when a six-figure budget for tools and setup (excluding
localization costs) is not a constraint.
Not as
easy as it sounds?
Addressing worldwide
web users' needs with an international website is not an easy undertaking. This
is why you need to think seriously about involving professionals early in the
process.
At GlobalVision, our
experienced staff will be more than glad to consider your needs and offer you
advice and guidance. After you’ve collected the files needing localization and
identified your requirements, we can quickly and accurately create a free
comprehensive proposal for your evaluation. Do not hesitate to
contact us for further information.
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