View Larger Map

Bilingual Website Do’s and Don’ts

April 8th, 2009

A truly bilingual city

Photo Credit: scazon

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Many business owners would love the opportunity to create a bilingual website, and why not? What a fantastic tool to appeal to your French, Spanish, Japanese, etc. demographics by letting them know that you’re thinking of them in your business ventures.

But there’s a fine line to walk with bilingual websites. They can be a classy addition to your website if done properly, or a complete disaster if not. So let’s take a look at some ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ typically associated with bilingual websites.

DON’T: Begin translation before one language is finished

This is a bit of a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how often this mistake is made. Sometimes people will think “Well, this part of the website is done. Now let’s do the French side.” They couldn’t be more wrong. Chances are you will revisit that page or section before the project is complete and make changes. It’s almost inevitable. You don’t want your project to drag on forever because you can’t get both sides to sync.

Therefore…

DO: Wait until your first language section is complete

You’ll make it much easier on yourself by waiting until one language of the website is finished before moving on to the next portion. Not only does it let you focus on one thing at a time, but it will keep your translation costs down since most translators charge per word, which brings us to the next point…

DON’T: Translate it yourself

When people speak, they don’t speak properly. There’s a lot of slang in today’s language. For instance, even as I’m writing this, I’m using contractions such as “don’t” or “you’re”.  It’s not proper English, and every language has them. What you don’t want is your website to offer one message in English, and a completely different message in French or any other language.

DO: Hire a translator

If you have any second thoughts about your language speaking abilities, by all means bring in a specialist. Every language has different meanings for different words, derivatives of certain words, and so on. Proper grammar, spelling and punctuation are essential. If you don’t think you can do it properly, then don’t.

DON’T: Play favorites

There’s nothing more aggravating for a potential customer than to visit a website and see an “under construction” message, or an animated graphic of Garfield chasing his tail. Sadly, you see this all too often. A user will visit a nice website with a French option, only to find out that half the French pages aren’t finished, or are not up to date, or even worse, just repeated English content. Needless to say, there’s a good chance they won’t be returning when you do have something to tell them. If you can’t keep both portions of your website up to date, stick with what you can handle.

DO: Keep everything together

Remember, your website is a total package, so make sure that when you update your Products section with all of the great new features of the year, the French portion gets the same treatment. If someone called your office and you spoke with them in another language, you’d still give them the best information possible. Make sure your website does the same.

Now that you’ve seen a few of the mistakes commonly made with bilingual websites and how to properly manage the translation process, contact Point.Click Media to find out how our translation services can benefit your website.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted in Branding Tips on April 8th, 2009

Have a Question? Leave a Reply!