Globalization supported by a very vibrant, innovative, challenging and competitive digital marketing platform has put the cats among the pigeons. If your brand enters the fray with a website then you would need to “run the gauntlet” and meet the challenges thrown. In the context, your website would become your most important marketing tool. It would need to have the ability to sustain your total digital marketing endeavours.

Unlike in the past, your marketing strategies would not be directed only within a local or limited community but with globalization, you would be exposed universally. In such a context it is imperative that you speak to your prospective global customers in their own language. It would be futile to try to communicate with them in your language because they would not understand you.

Everything is not lost there is a solution at hand which would enable you to effectively communicate with your customers in their own language. You could employ any of the translation apps available and have your website conducive to such an environment. Your website could communicate in any of the 200 plus languages available in the apps which would assure you that your website is communicating effectively with your prospective customers.

Preparation for this endeavour would need to be followed prudently so that your website would be with all others equally competing to get your customers to communicate effectively with your brand.  

Set your goals

Upfront you would need to determine your goals as to what your website would need to accomplish. Is the website for internal management of overseas offices or is it to strategize and bring in new customers. The goals would need to be set with the right parameters. Either way it would be prudent to know what your audience would be and how you intend to target it.

The purpose and what you would need to accomplish should be questions that you would need to find the right answers. Based on what you would need the scope and method of translation could be arrived at and with that the required budget to be set aside. 

Allocate your budget

You would have incurred a cost to develop your website initially but that would be to communicate with prospective customers in a language you are comfortable in. You would have spent many a midnight oil to develop, design and create your website and now you would need to go through a similar process.

This would be the icing on the cake because you would be communicating with a global audience ensuring that you are brand worthy of being on the platform of the world. Most of what you have already built into your website would need to be digestible in the languages you would be communicating with your clients. Hence a budget would need to be set aside to determine the cost of the endeavour.

Adopted strategy for URLs, partially and non-translated data

There are many aspects to be looked into especially what needs to be translated and what needs to be in its original language. Some technical inputs would be required to determine these requirements. If you do not possess the technical expertise to execute such requirements you would need to call on the experts to help you out.

The options to get about accomplishing this is wide and varied hence taking every aspect into consideration would be prudent. Notices would need to be posted if your customers have certain difficulties in manoeuvring within your website.   

Preparation of technical aspects

You could have your website translate in many fonts, be it Western, Asian or other. To accommodate such an endeavour it would be necessary to prepare everything in Unicode so that the language and the required fonts would be made available simultaneously. This would be the real thing where you would communicate with your prospective customers in their language without anything left to chance. The effectiveness of the translation would be wholesome and with no loopholes left to irritate your valuable customers.  

Separating code from the translated text

It is imperative that the right translations are effected especially from the XML, HTML and other files to ensure proper separation of text. Professional input is required to ensure that the right translation is effected when your customers request it.

Language expansion or contraction

Some languages and their text could have some unique properties which could create some issues. To ensure everything runs smoothly it is important to accommodate the relevant text within determined parameters. This would need the relevant language to be either expanded or contracted to fit into the predetermined areas.

Managing graphics with text

It is imperative that along with content the text and accompanying graphics too would need to be translated. Some of these could be quite expensive to execute but with the right professional touch it could be accomplished. Some graphics could for some reason or other be considered offensive in some languages, which would need to be looked at and the right changes made for better presentation.

Branding and messaging tools

The content on your website should be able to encompass everything that the website seeks to project. Hence copywriters would need to have a thorough knowledge about this aspect. This is so because when translated into different languages the idea that needs to be conveyed should be done without any deviations or exceptions.

This would help in proper branding and also convey the appropriate messages which are important for the website to bring the desired results.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy

This is one of the most important aspects in your website being found by prospective customers. Selecting the right keywords would assure that, but when languages change in the translation these keywords would also change. This aspect would need close scrutiny and the right keywords to ensure effective SEO would need to be strategized.

Keep an eye on inherent information, like contacts, numbers and others

All relevant information on your website should be kept secure and the translations should not affect this. Nothing should be lost and the website should retain every information received.