Tips to Fast-Track Your WordPress Website Translation

Marketers have enough to do to manage their websites and campaigns in one language, let alone several. When it’s time to reach other audiences around the world, the effort can quickly become time-consuming and overwhelming.

Website translation, especially, can get a bit tricky. Websites are more complex, often involving embedded technology and images. Keeping up with constant content additions and changes adds another layer of difficulty. Many content management systems (CMS) recognize this problem and offer tools to help streamline the process. Even so, complications often arise that make it challenging for your team to effectively manage and maintain the translation process on their own.

The best way to solve this common struggle is to work with a language services provider that specializes in website translations. An experienced vendor can deliver a turnkey solution for any CMS, giving your marketing team the option of participating as much or as little as they like. 

For instance, let’s consider the impact of this approach for businesses using WordPress. This open source software is the most popular CMS, powering 38% of the world’s websites, including well-known brands such as TechCrunch, Sony Music, and Rolling Stone. Marketers can use its multilingual plugin to streamline the translation process, but they can save more time and improve the process further by working with a translation provider that specializes in WordPress WPML deployments.

Getting started with website translation

Your marketing team may find themselves in a number of scenarios as they consider how to approach website translation:

  • You’re considering or starting a website redesign project. This is the perfect time to add languages to your new site.
  • Your website may be partially translated, and translation needs to be completed or expanded.
  • There may be new content that has been added to your website that requires translation into one or more languages.
  • Perhaps your website has been translated, but the translation process isn’t integrated into your workflow, requiring manual copying and pasting of content.
  • You may even have a fully translated site with a relatively efficient process in place, but the person in charge of website translation has left the company.

Regardless of your situation, the WordPress WPML Plugin is often the first solution multinational companies leverage to solve the translation dilemma – and for good reason. The WPML Plugin is designed to make it easy to build multilingual sites. It’s a tool that allows companies to translate website pages and posts, and it can be compatible with every theme or plugin that uses the WordPress WPML.

However, there’s still a lot of setup and maintenance work involved for your marketing team. After the plugin is installed, there are many steps required to complete the translation process. You need to configure the layout for the languages and address all of the items – both static and dynamic – on the site including:

  • User Interface
  • Pages
  • Blogs
  • Images
  • Menus
  • Categories
  • Multimedia content
  • Downloadable content
  • Widgets and third-party content
  • SEO
  • And more

Depending on the volume and complexity of your site content, the process can quickly become overwhelming. If you have questions during the process, it can be hard to get immediate assistance. Maintenance is another headache altogether, especially if new content and images are added to the site on a regular basis. The complexity of both setup and maintenance grows with the number of languages being added.

It becomes all too easy for your marketing team to get pulled in other directions, and their plates are probably already full. As a result, the translation process falls off the radar. When this happens, you can’t reach customers or employees in their native languages, thus losing business and possibly not complying with certain regulations. Fortunately, you can spare your team this headache and fast-track the translation process.

Partner with a WordPress-savvy translation provider

When you work with a language service provider that specializes in WordPress WPML deployments, all of the heavy lifting is taken off of your marketing team’s shoulders. You can remain involved in the process as much or as little as you like, with the option of a complete turnkey solution in which the translation provider manages the initial and ongoing processes for you.

Your team only needs to purchase the WordPress WPML Plugin and determine the content requiring translation. Your language service provider will handle the rest, including:

  • Assisting with the setup and configuration of WPML
  • Processing source XLIFF/XML files
  • Creating glossary/style guide
  • Translating, editing, and proofreading
  • Implementing your subject matter experts’ translation feedback
  • Uploading translated XLIFF/XML files
  • Completing website quality assurance (proofreading via testing/staging)
  • Updating glossaries and Translation Memory
  • Performing final User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

Throughout the translation process, the bilingual subject matter experts on your team have the option to be involved in such tasks as the creation of glossaries or style guides, and side-by-side translation reviews. After the translation vendor has completed the QA process, your marketers can participate in the final website review process. Since they’re closest to the original content, they’re in the best position to identify any content issues or errors. However, participation in the review and editing process is entirely optional, giving your team the opportunity to focus on their other obligations.

A translation provider with proven expertise in the WordPress WPML Plugin will help your marketing team avoid getting bogged down in the details of website translation. They can take on the heavy lifting, allowing your marketers to spend more time on developing campaigns that drive business growth.

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To set up a call to further discuss your needs or additional information, please send an email to info@translate.one