Website translation: the importance of effective collaboration between translation agencies and digital agencies
Are you thinking of having your website translated, with your translation agency and your web design agency working closely together?
If that’s the case, this article is just for you! 🙂
Let’s start with a bit of storytelling, using a fictional story to illustrate the importance of effective collaboration between these two key players in your project.
Next, we’ll walk you through the best practices for a successful website translationproject, step by step.
Translation of a website and related brochures
The background: a translation project that was poorly planned
For this simulation exercise, we are using a fictitious company, Design de Rêves. His team was very proud of their new website. With its sleek design, intuitive navigation and rich content, the stars were aligned for winning over the French market. In fact, it was designed and built specifically for France.
But the company’s ambitions did not stop there, as it was aiming for international expansion.
Problem: the managers of our fictional company failed to plan for the site’s location and only considered potential solutions at a late stage. AI translation seemed like an attractive option: simple, fast, inexpensive and even already available through the CMS used for the company’s website.
But coming to terms with reality proved difficult. The translations produced using these tools were riddled with errors, the style lacked any sense of naturalness and the site’s SEO suffered as a result. Worse still, the content was not tailored to the different target cultures, which led to misunderstandings and frustration among foreign clients and partners.
Theweb agency Design de Rêves, unaccustomed to the demands of internationalisation and localisation, found itself quickly at a loss when faced with the challenges.
However, the company’s management had expected to have their website translated into several languages very quickly, as the French version was already available.
They therefore decided to call on colleagues who “knew the language”, which resulted in a great deal of wasted time, frustration, and a website that remained available only in French for several months…
In conclusion, this was an ambitious project that turned into a disaster!
Common issues encountered during a website translation project
As you can see, a number of issues can arise during website translation projects… Here are some key questions to bear in mind :
- How can you manage frequent updates to the content of a multilingual website ?
- Which plugins and applications should you choose to ensure their technical and functional compatibility with multilingual functionality ?
- Which strategic technical choice should be made? Should we develop multiple websites (one per language) or a single, multilingual website?
- How should we handle the translation of content that is not readily visible, such as metadata or content hidden within the code? (error messages, notifications, emails sent after a form has been completed, etc.)
- How should we manage the website’s SEO strategy, including its different languages and target markets? What are the objectives of this SEO strategy?
A major economic challenge!
Translating your website can be crucial to the growth of your business.
According to a survey by DeepL, 75% of respondents say that localised content significantly increases their engagement with a website.
And according to a study by CSA Research, 4 out of 10 people would not buy products or services presented in a language other than their own!
The lessons to be learnt from this story
The aim of this fictional story is to highlight the key factors for the success of a website translation project:
- Don’t underestimate the importance of localisation. Translation is much more than simply ‘converting’ words from one language to another. The aim is to adapt the content to a new culture and make it accessible to a specific target audience.
- Invest in professional and experienced website translators. The quality of translations is essential to the success of a multilingual website.
- Plan and budget for localisation from the outset. Localisation is not just an option; it must be integrated into the website development process from the outset.
- Establish clear and effective communication between the web agency and the translation agency. This ensures a better understanding of each party’s needs and expectations.
How can you ensure your website translation is a success?
To avoid the disappointment of ending up with a bogus company, as mentioned in the previous section, follow this guide!
Here are the key steps to ensure a smooth collaboration between your web development agency and a translation agency, such as EuropaTrad.
Set clear objectives
The first step is to define the roles and responsibilities of each party.
The division of roles and decision-making processes during the project must be clearly defined. For example, you need to decide which agency will be responsible for testing the website in each language.
Plan the project
To avoid the project schedule running over time, you should also set up a shared schedule between the two agencies, outlining the stages, deadlines and expected deliverables.
Ideally, you should schedule regular meetings to address any issues, find solutions and discuss the progress made.
Planning the translation of your website is one of the keys to keeping your deadlines and budget under control. Your multilingual translation agency can put its experience to work for you to make this task easier!
Making the right technical choices
In addition to the aspects relating to marketing in translation, it is also important to make the right initial technical choices when developing the website, as these have a major impact on how easily translated content can be managed and integrated.
The digital agency and the translation agency must agree on:
- file formats : XLIFF, HTML, JSON, etc.;
- and the tools : Which CMS should I use? Which plugin makes it easier to integrate translations, for example WPML ? etc.
These tools are used throughout the project to ensure consistency and streamline processes.
Plan ahead and keep your budget under control
The TO TRANSLATION. of your website varies depending on the amount of content, but also depending on the translation quality (adapted according to the importance of the content), and the ease of integration and validation of integrations on the website thanks to the technical choices that have been made.
It is important to discuss andagree on budgets with your translation agency right from the start of the project, even several months before the final content is ready.
Testing upstream and downstream
Before you start building the website, it is worth checking the technical compatibility of the tools you have chosen. There’s no point in building your website from scratch, only to realise you have to start all over again!
Next, you need to trust the technical choices that have been made : they have been tested.
Finally, to ensure the high standard of quality expected, testing must be carried out at the end of the process.
The tests must cover:
- the website features ;
- texts : linguistic quality and cultural appropriateness;
- and compatibility with the various devices and browsers used by your target audience.
Work with EuropaTrad on your website translation
Given all these challenges, working with a localisation agency is essential.
EuropaTrad, a translation agency based in Lyon, is here to help.
As well as implementing best practices right from the start of a translation project, we are also regularly called upon to step in and ‘rescue’ a project that is already underway. It’s even possible for the translation of complex e-commerce websites !
Our team goes beyond translation services, thanks to our skilled translators. In fact, our project managers have a thorough understanding of the world of the web and SEO. We speak the same language and share the same practices as web agencies.
Depending on your budget, we use innovative solutions that combine AI translation with translation and proofreading carried out by professional translators.
And to ensure that the budget you allocate to translating your website delivers the best possible return on investment, we guarantee that your website will convey your message perfectly, tailored to each target audience, in every language!
Finally, we are used to working closely with web development agencies. You can therefore count on us to work closely with your web agency.
