To open up new revenue sources of a website, a most effective approach proves to be to enlarge its direct audience, so as to gain extra exposure and eventually lever the website’s profitability through advertising or its premium services provided. It is reported that non-English speakers take up 64% of the overall netizen population and they without exception prefer browsing websites in their own language for both business purposes and private online activities. Ergo, website localization gains its ground in the industry.

Since websites are structured using many different technologies, website localization can be a much more complex process than document translation and may require technical support from web engineers for procedures like separating localizable files from the source code, etc. To localize a website could be as time-consuming as building a new site, and, therefore, building streamlined website localization workflow now seems an inevitable trend.

The following is a systemized website localization process deployed at CCJK and based on its previous experience in various localization projects with discrepant requirements.

1. File Analysis

To seamlessly localize a website, source files of the original website must be provided, so that the localizer can well assess the technical difficulty, workload, lead time and other engineering aspects of a website localization project.

2. Project Preparation

To initiate the website localization project, the localizable resources should be extracted from the source files of the original site, including all the textual contents, user interface, images, etc. A terminologies glossary and other reference files or instructions should be prepared as well.

3. Translation

The resource files for software localization will be subcategorized and sent to professional translators with pertinent specialties for language translation. For some web pages concerning the core functionality of the website, further technical support from the website owner’s engineers might be needed.

4. Review & Editing

After the translation and proofreading by the translators are done, test engineers will run in-context review of the translated contents including the user interface and images and make possible further editing of the translated files to ensure the accuracy and suitability of the translation.

5. Translation Memory Updating

When the language side of the website localization project is finished, the translation memory will be updated using the translated content in the new files.

6. Operational Test & Bug Fixing

The localized version of website will be structured using the translated files, and test engineers will test the website functionality and make possible repairs if necessary.

Also Read: Q & A – Website localization and promotion

Take a look at how we helped our client by localizing their project for Website Translation Services . Click here to read the complete case study