Things To Remember In Your Website Localization Project

In the course of the website localization project, the design and development part is well taken care of but the real challenge comes with the translation process. It is very important to preserve the basic message of the website and not let the essence be lost during the change.

Here are some tips to make sure you sail smoothly through the website localization project:

Extraction of Non-HTML Files
First of all identify the areas of the website that needs to be translated. Some web pages may be simple HTML files that just needs be opened and translated. But there are other non-HTML ones that would need the text to be extracted. For example, all the graphics and images that has textual content, Flash files and PFD files.

Translation Copies
If you have hired a third party service provider to carry out the translation process, make sure to provide them will all the source files at the very behest of the project. Copy and pasting all the web pages into Word files is not a practical option. Moreover, it can get very time consuming. When you provide your service provider with all source files, it would get easy for you to have an idea of word count and figure out cost estimates for the same.

TM Tools
Make sure your translation service provider uses Translation Memory tools that store all the translated material in databases for nay future updates. These tools can save you loads of money and speed up the project process. In addition, it will enhance the output and you can be assured that your content is safe during the translation process.

Reference Materials
Give your translation service provider with reference materials like previous records, guidelines and glossaries etc. The guidelines can convey important information about what is to be left out how the content needs to be processed.

Resources
In addition to reference materials, make sure your provide your service providers with original graphic files that includes navigation buttons, Flash files, graphics, PDFs etc. all these resources will have to be localized as well to get them to be in sync with the new website. The characters in some foreign languages are longer than that of English. Therefore the translation process will often result in the disruption of website layout. Keep in mind the text expansion when you supply the page elements.

Testing
After the initial localization of the website, do some testing at your end and make sure the website is working well. check the visuals, functionality and usability of the new website. The basic idea is to check if all the features of the original website are present in the localized version or not. The whole purpose of creating a localized version of your website is to cater better to specific audiences. Make sure the basic essence of the site remains the same across the new version.

Moreover, do some browser compatibility tests, OS compatibility testing and see if the website performs well across different platforms.