Translating a website into multiple languages can significantly increase a company’s reach, allowing it to engage with a wider audience and cater to the specific needs of diverse cultural groups.
However, the process of website translation is far from straightforward. It involves not just the direct translation of text but also the adaptation of content and design to meet the linguistic and cultural expectations of different audiences.
The challenges of website translation are manifold. Businesses often struggle with complexities that don’t necessarily have to do with language translation.
Enter MotionPoint, a website translation solution designed to navigate the complexities of website translation. With automatic content detection, and by addressing the common challenges of word growth, QA testing, SEO, website functionality, and cultural adaptation, MotionPoint enables companies to effortlessly expand their online presence.
Let’s dive deeper into how MotionPoint makes website translation easy…
The Complexities of Website Translation (and How MotionPoint Solves Them)
Word Growth
One of the primary challenges encountered is word growth. When content is translated, it often expands or contracts, a phenomenon that can drastically alter the website’s layout and design.
For instance, a phrase in English could become significantly longer in German or shorter in Chinese, leading to potential disruptions in the site’s visual harmony and user interface. Most companies won’t anticipate this, and free tools like Google can’t alter your website’s code to adjust the design.
The Solution
When it comes to word growth management, MotionPoint’s platform is equipped for multilingual web design and addresses the challenges associated with the expansion or contraction of text. Using machine translation alone means word expansion could be overlooked, but MotionPoint can provide human post-editing, meaning a human will be able to fix any visual issues on your multilingual site.
Quality Assurance (QA) Testing
QA testing plays a pivotal role in website translation, ensuring the accuracy and functionality of the translated content. However, conducting QA testing across multiple languages introduces a layer of complexity.
It requires a comprehensive understanding of linguistic nuances, technical intricacies, and cultural contexts to identify and rectify errors. The process involves not just linguistic accuracy but also the verification of functional elements such as links, buttons, and interactive features, ensuring they operate seamlessly in every language version.
The Solution
Comprehensive QA testing is a cornerstone of MotionPoint’s service. MotionPoint understands that quality is a spectrum, and different levels of quality will work for different pages.
When it comes to ensuring the right quality for your business, MotionPoint uses a combination of human evaluation, translation memory tools, and machine translation evaluation metrics like BLEU, TER, and METEOR. Each of these metrics has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice of metric depends on the specific needs and requirements of the translation project.
Dynamic Content
Not all content is created equal. Some website content isn’t just text, and so some automatic translation tools like Google can’t find it when crawling a website. Dynamic content includes promotions, images with text, videos, and triggered overlays. This also applies to embedded applications and forms from HubSpot, Pardot, or Typeform. It is hard for applications like Google Translate or Browser-Based Proxy Solutions to detect and translate.
You need to avoid having partial translation on your multilingual site because it causes confusion, higher bounce rates, and loss of business.
The Solution
Only MotionPoint’s technology can detect all translatable online content, including images. Other vendors require you to send your images’ source files or conduct complicated tagging and development tasks for their technology to detect your translatable images.
By contrast, MotionPoint’s fully turn-key proxy-based solution only requires your translatable images to be viewable on your origin website. Our technology identifies your translatable content, and our teams localize it with no effort required on your end.
SEO
Optimizing a site for search engines in multiple languages is a multifaceted task that involves extensive keyword research tailored to each language’s specific market. Maintaining SEO equity through translations necessitates a strategic approach to ensure that the website remains visible and relevant across different linguistic search landscapes.
The Solution
In terms of SEO localization, MotionPoint excels at enhancing a website’s visibility in diverse language markets. The platform’s strategic approach includes in-depth keyword research and SEO practices tailored to each target language, ensuring that translated sites rank highly in search engine results pages.
MotionPoint includes localizing “under the bonnet” text that lives in website metadata—which is usually neglected by other translation services—that improves search rankings.
Another way to boost localized SEO is by translating structured data (or microdata): coded markups or sample snippets of content in search engine results pages.
Lastly, MotionPoint is an expert at implementing a special website management attribute called hrflang. This ensures the translated version of your website properly displays in your customers’ local-language search results.
Functionality
Ensuring website functionality across translated versions is paramount. Challenges such as adapting form validations, date formats, and currency conversions to align with local norms are common. Each element must be meticulously reviewed to guarantee that it functions correctly, irrespective of the language, ensuring a consistent and intuitive user experience for all visitors.
The Solution
MotionPoint also ensures that functionality across languages is consistent and reliable. The platform meticulously adapts all website features, including form validations, date formats, and currency conversions, to meet the expectations of each language’s audience.
This comprehensive approach guarantees a seamless interaction for users, regardless of the language they choose.
Cultural Nuances
Localization is a crucial step in website translation. Effective cultural adaptation goes beyond literal translation, requiring a deep understanding of the target audience’s cultural context to ensure the website resonates with them on a personal level, thereby engaging the audience more effectively.
The Solution
Cultural adaptation is a key element of MotionPoint’s translation process. Understanding that effective communication goes Beyond Words, MotionPoint’s platform incorporates cultural nuances into website translations.
This method involves adjusting content, visuals, and overall design to resonate with the target audience’s cultural context, ensuring that the website not only speaks their language but also reflects their cultural values and preferences.
Automatic Content Queueing and 100% Content Detection
MotionPoint eliminates the common pitfalls of batch processing and minimum translation requirements through its automatic content queueing system. Every new piece of content is promptly queued for daily translation, ensuring your website remains fully translated and current.
Coupled with our unmatched 100% content detection capability, MotionPoint captures and translates every web element—text, dynamic content, and images—without the delays or gaps found in other solutions.
See For Yourself
MotionPoint’s approach to website translation revolutionizes the process through its innovative technology. Utilizing advanced algorithms and machine learning, MotionPoint automates the translation process, significantly enhancing efficiency and accuracy.
This technology not only streamlines content translation but also ensures that updates and new content are seamlessly integrated into all language versions of a website, keeping the content fresh and relevant.
In 2018, a prominent manufacturer needed to localize its specialized portal website to enhance productivity and decrease expenses. They also only had a limited number of offline documents had been translated for non-English speaking users, with the majority remaining English-only. The company initially tried to do this in-house, but faced issues with time, budget, and expertise. The project was too technical and expensive.
After finding MotionPoint, the whole project was complete within just 90 days. One director praised MotionPoint’s comprehensive, turn-key approach as “an awesome solution.” The company specifically recognized MotionPoint’s security, omnichannel capabilities, speed, accuracy, and configuration as huge benefits.
When Website Translation is Hard, MotionPoint Makes it Easy!
Navigating the challenges of website translation is pivotal for businesses aiming to achieve global success.
MotionPoint addresses the multifaceted challenges of website translation head-on. MotionPoint’s role transcends that of a service provider, eliminating the technical and linguistic barriers to website translation, MotionPoint enables companies to engage with international markets confidently.
If you’re not prepared to handle the challenges of website translation, let MotionPoint do it for you.
Last updated on April 09, 2024
