Multi-Language sites

[Brandt, Chris]

Has any once created multi-language sites before? How was translation handled? Did you use software translators or do you maintain 2 or more versions of the same pages?

Thanks,

Chris Brandt
Webmaster/ Sr. Graphic Designer
Communications Dept.
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
(314) 919-2114
 
Leaving Green Footprints. Think before you print.

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[Erin Steinbruegge]

Hi Chris,

We've created a few muiltlingual sites, and we always use human translators because the software translators are not very reliable. Their translations often don't feel natural to the target audience since phrases in one language don't always translate perfectly into another. At minimum, I'd recommend having a human review and revise any copy that has been translated by a software program before putting it on your website. 

Hope that helps,

Erin Steinbruegge

Thoughtprocess Interactive

[Brandt, Chris]

Thanks Erin, it does. Do you maintain dual sites, one for each language?

[Cheryl Hammond]

I have done a multiple language site in the past. I switched it back to English only, because the foreign language parts were not used that much and when you make changes, you have to pay for the translations for the changes every time.

 

The best way is to keep a library of text segments either in text files or in a database  for each language you want to present. You put placeholders of some kind for the text segments in your pages.  Then, whenever you update your site, you can generate the pages in each language, filling in the placeholders,  and store them for when the user requests the page in a particular language. You have to remember to get the correct text segment for everything including error messages, such as "Your telephone number is not in the correct format. Please try again."

 

If you want to take this to the next level, you can allow localization so that dates, say, are presented in the format that users in your target country expect to see them.

 

I did this quite a few years ago. There is probably some canned software to do this now.

 

Today Data and Web Services, Inc.

Cheryl Hammond

in...@todaydata.com

314 361-5911

toll-free 888-687-0960

http://todaydata.com

 

 

[Erin Steinbruegge]

Well, the answer to that often depends on the client and their marketing strategy. Sometimes it makes sense to have separate sites, or subdomains for various locations/languages, particularly if the business offers different products or services to different geographic locations. For instance, if a global company offers different products to France than they do to the US market, then it might make sense to have separate sites or subdomains for each location. 

On the other hand, if a business offers the same products/services and is just looking to provide multiple language options on their website, then you can allow a user to choose which language they'd prefer to see the site in, and serve them language-appropriate content based on their language selection. There are a few different ways to execute that on a website, sometimes the decision hinges on SEO requirements.