Simplicity of managing multilingual websites

Simplicity of managing multilingual websitesAlex KempkensInventor of JoomFish & co-founder of Joomla!

Multilingual websites are a challenge ofunderstanding your needs,good preparation and good organisation

Understanding your needs• Different languages or even different cultures and requirements?• Translation vs. localisation• Automated services vs. manual translation• Information management

Language vs. CultureLanguages are reflected by Culture and countries have an✓ Words impact on✓ The characters ✓ Content you are allowed to present✓ The direction of reading ✓ Images and descriptions you might need to change (e.g. different product specifications)➡ Changing the language has an direct ✓ Totally different styles in layout and impact on presentation of the information ➡ the site/template layout ➡ theorientation and usage of modules ➡ template elements such as images

You need?Translation Localisation✓ You translate the website ✓ Localisation is the whole adaption of information/content to a second the website information/content to a language second language & country✓ E.g. images, product prices and other ✓ E.g. images, product descriptions & structured information remain as is prices are translated and adapted➡ The translation process focus on the ➡ The customer will see a localised information visible to the customer and adapted website! You may present information wrong ! You have a higher effort to manage e.g. according to country specific and plan your site information product specifications

What to you need?Technically you can do multilingual sitesdifferently, you need to know what you need!• Are you going to translate the whole site?• Do you want different layouts, structures, images, information?• What management of the translation process you need?

Your choice!Automated translations Manual localisation✓ Your customer or 3rd party ✓ You translate your content translates your site ✓ You can use 3rd party services and✓ The content is unchanged tools to easy the process➡ An easy way to allow your customer ➡ The customer will see a localised to view your site in his/her language and adapted website! You loose the control over the sense ! You have full control over the of your website content your customer will see! You have no influence to be conform ! You can adapt the website content with legal requirements in the according to country specific needs different language/country and legal requirements environment

Unlock your information• Decide what information need to be • translated • changed • localised • hidden per language

Best practise to startyour multilingual website

Understanding your information• What is your difference between a single language and a multilingual website?• What is your information structure?• What information you need to provide to your customer in what language/version?

The differenceSingle language sites Multilingual sites• Single audience of • Multiple group of customers customers• Focus on the content • Focus on information as a whole• Optimised structure for the information • Structure is different for the localised languages

Be prepared

Be preparedThink about your multilingual site beforeintegrating it!• Avoid fighting the missing translations - move on completing what is needed• Use the separation of information when logical• Use all available elements to create a complete user experience in each language

Not all information fit

Avoid ...• to worry about duplicate content and other SEO tricks• to confuse your user with forcing him to view your site in a specific language• to copy everything into a different language just for the sake of having a second language on your site

Make use of ...• your menu structure as navigation and limitation of your website in each language• specialized information structures such as language related sections/categories• specialized information per language rather than general translation of everything

Multilingual websites are fun! Let them fly!

Questions? More? alex.kempkens@thinknetwork.com http://twitter.com/akempkenshttps://www.xing.com/profile/Alex_Kempkens http://www.linkedin.com/in/akempkens

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Simplicity of managing multilingual websites

by Alex Kempkens on May 30, 2011

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