going global:

running a
multi-language
website

www.redant.com
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

Why run a multi-language website?

The Internet is ever-changing, and while English is still the main language used online, others are rapidly catching up.. With the
global spread of the Internet, it is important to consider how a multilingual approach to a website can benefit you and your
customers.

As Internet access becomes more widespread across the world, people from developing countries such as China, India, Russia and
Brazil are beginning to browse the web on a more regular basis. The graph below shows that user numbers in China are
increasing by several million each year.1

Internet Users in China 2000 - 2009

February 2010

2000 23
2001 34
2002 59
2003 69
2004 94
2005 103
2006 137
2007 162
2008 253
2009 384

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Source: www.internetworldstats.com - Copyright© 2010, Miniwatts Marketing Group

As more people begin to use the Internet in these countries, so the number of online purchases increases. By reaching out to
these countries in their native languages, increasing the usability and ease of the purchase process, we can substantially increase
the buying audience of a website.

Another benefit of having a multi-language website is the advantage of multilingual SEO. Users do not have to rely on using
English search terms in order to find the website; they can comfortably search in their own language and find what they are
looking for.

Although it may be tempting to translate into the ‘easiest’ languages, it is always best to target an audience based on real need.
It is important not to underestimate the authority that a multi-language site brings to a company or brand. An accurate,
professionally translated site indicates a real investment into the language market and is more likely to result in increased traffic
and sales.

But while a multi-language site undoubtedly has many benefits, it is a costly process. You need to take many things into account
when translating, including:

• Costs for a professional translator in each language, involving copy for each page of the website – on large websites, this can
be a very time-consuming and expensive process.
• On-site support in multiple languages.
• Browser support for your audience, which could incur extra development costs.
• Artwork and imagery containing each language – you will need to update these each time the artwork is changed.
• Search Engine Optimisation in multiple languages to ensure your site will appear prominently in search engines worldwide.
• Fonts supporting characters from multiple languages.

2 1
Graph from http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/cn.htm, last accessed 20/01/11.
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

It is also important to consider your branding and how this will translate to a different audience. There are several famous examples of
branding that has not translated well into other languages. For example, when Pepsi launched its “Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation”
campaign to a Chinese audience, it translated as "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave"2.

Failing to appreciate differences in language could harm your brand and ultimately affect the success of your website. Although the costs
may be high, the long term benefits of a professional translation are manifold.

It’s not just about the language

In order for your website to appeal to a market in a specific country, your website must contain accurate and meaningful translations.
However, you must also consider how to approach other cultures, both from a branding and user experience perspective.

Some brands have managed to supersede cultural differences by, in a sense, creating their own culture. A good example of this is Apple –
choose any country from their language selector, http://www.apple.com/choose-your-country/ and the branding and approach is the
same. Most brands do not have the same luxury, and must be mindful of appealing to a variety of different cultures.

Make sure to take into account:

• Colour – colours have different meanings from culture to culture. For example, green might be acceptable to a Western audience, but
is a forbidden colour in Indonesia.3 Make sure that the look and feel of your website reflects what you want your audience to
experience.
• Imagery – interpretation of images can vary from country to country. Ensure that any imagery you plan to use on your website carries
the correct meaning for your audience.
• Browsing habits –these can vary depending on country or language. Hebrew and Arabic are written from right to left and may require
different user interfaces to accommodate them (for example, a next/previous interface may have to be reversed in order to suit the
required user experience).
• eCommerce – ensure that your basket and checkout process is familiar to the target audience and that all necessary information is
collected.

If in doubt, you may consider conducting a focus group from your chosen market to collect feedback on the user experience, or consulting
a localisation expert to pick up any glaring errors.

Which translation tools are available?

In order to run a multi-language website you will need translations for each language you wish to support. There are two ways in which
you can do this; use a free or paid-for automated translation tool or a professional translation service.

There are many automated translation tools available online. Many of these are available for free, and some of the most popular are
provided by search engines, such as Google Translate [translate.google.com] and Babelfish [babelfish.yahoo.com].

Although they have improved significantly over the years, automated translation tools have their limitations – you get what you pay for –
and are prone to inverting sentence meaning, or replacing common terms with more obscure words that do not equate in the other
language. Take this example:

2
3
From http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/09/13-unfortunate-translations-that-harmed.html, last accessed 21/01/11.
From http://www.globalization-group.com/edge/resources/color-meanings-by-culture/, last accessed 21/01/11.
3
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

“Guess what Google Translate called "bicycle" when it encountered our Dutch site with the word "rijwiel" (another term for bike
instead of the somewhat more popular "fiets")? It called it a penny-farthing!”4

A professional translation ensures proper grammar and spelling and removes this element of confusion; it instils confidence in its
audience and increases the stickiness and usability of the website. There are generally two ways in which this can be done:

• If your company is multinational, you may be able to use your staff in each country to provide translations. The advantage to
this method is that your translators will understand the company and audience; however the text may need checking for
grammatical or spelling errors.
• Paid for services – while paid for translators will have professional training, they may not understand the company’s audience
and any specific terminology your company uses.

Red Ant offers a Translations module that allows you to enter in a term or phrase you wish to be translated. Individual users can
then log into the CMS and view a list of these terms, to translate as necessary. This allows quick and efficient translation across
multiple languages from the same interface.

Setting up a multi-language website through one CMS can be a complicated process as each content item will need to be input
multiple times. Using a connected interface saves some of the man-hours required to make multi-site content possible.

Don’t just translate - copywrite!

One mistake commonly made on multi-language websites is that the professional translations end up reading ‘dry’. As a lot of
agencies are run by English-speakers, the text in translated sites can have a ‘hard’ feel to it and lose some of the creativity from
the original copy.

Ensure that you pass on an identical brief when you hand over work to the copywriter so that the emphasis and meaning of the
text remains the same.

Is IP redirection an efficient way to determine a user’s language?

Some websites make use of IP redirection in order to send users to a particular version of the website. IP redirection records the IP
address of your computer and matches it to a geolocation – for example, logging onto a computer in Germany might take you to
the German, or .de, version of a website by default.

IP redirection can be very useful if done well – for example, if a German speaker visits your website from a computer in Germany
they are unlikely to want to see a website in English or French. However, there are a a couple of pitfalls to IP redirection that you
will need to consider:.

• Users abroad on holiday or business may wish to choose their language rather than be presented with a default based on
their location.
• Users in some countries may speak different languages regionally.. A user recounts an experience where this was not
accounted for:

‘My advice would be to allow the user to choose the language AND location if both are appropriate. Take Belgium on the Epson
example - that asks you to choose Belgium - then to choose between French and Flemish, with French at the top of the screen.
There are twice as many Flemish-speakers as French in Belgium and they might have expected top billing. Equally, German is also
an official language of Belgium (67,000 speakers) and is not represented, English is used by many of the institutions in Brussels.’5

A more advanced solution is to use a combination of IP location and language negotiation to detect what language a user is likely
to want, based on what they have set in their browser. The advantage of this is that it will guess at a user’s preferences much
more accurately. However it will depend on a user being logged into their personal computer – if they are logged onto a public
computer, the preferences may be set differently to their preferred language.

4
From the forum thread Are Multi-Language Sites Obsolete?, http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?t=674908, last accessed 20/01/11.
4 5
From http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/archive/index.php/t-1156.html, last accessed 20/01/11.
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

There are some occasions where you might like to ask a user which language they want before they access the website. For example,
when a user clicks on a link from an email, it may be a good idea to prompt them to select a language before they go through to the
destination. It may also be possible to track and store a user’s language preference for return visits.

How do you allow users to select their language?

Make sure that the method you use for allowing a user to choose their language is in prominent view. Most multi-language websites will
have a language selector in the header at the top of the page, allowing the user to access it from any page on the website. Remember,
the user may not enter the website through the homepage – they could easily access an internal page through a search engine, so they
must be able to select the appropriate language from any entry point.

Never assume your users wish to see a site in a certain language – give them the choice. A common way in which to do this is via a
language selector dropdown or icon at the top of the page, usually indicated by a country name and appropriate flag. The German rail
website bahn.de is an interesting example.6

However, there are disadvantages to using a flag to represent a language. For example, which flag should you use for English, since there
are several countries that speak it? For this reason, it might be better to use a flag to represent a country than a language.

A site may be dedicated to customers in France, but be available in both French and English language versions. Equally, a site may only be
available in English language but have localised versions for different English-speaking countries. It should be made clear to the user
whether they are changing countries or changing languages.

Facebook is a good example of a site which uses a simpler version of a language selector. The picture below shows how it lists language
versions in their native language in a straightforward and easy to use style7:

By keeping this user-friendly, simple approach, we are able to make it easy for users of multiple languages to browse the site efficiently
and minimise any disruption to the experience.

Another option is to offer the user a JavaScript overlay asking them to choose a language from a list of common suggestions. If you
choose to use an overlay, it is beneficial to use cookies to remember the user’s choice, so that they do not encounter the overlay each
time they try to access the website.

Which fonts should you use on multi-language websites?

The font choices on multi-language websites are important. Some fonts, including standard Windows fonts such as Arial and Verdana, are
Western and do not support characters from other languages.

It should be part of your testing process to ensure that all characters display correctly when viewing a foreign language version of the
website and that no text is displayed in an unsupported font. It is especially important that fonts display properly in the language selector
– this will likely be the link used to move from one language site to another, and it needs to be readable.

Your databases must also support multiple character sets in order to store information and return the correct characters on the front end
of the website.

6
From www.bahn.de, last accessed 20/01/11.
7
From www.facebook.com, last accessed 20/01/11. 5
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

How can you use multi-language in online communities?

Many online communities and forums will restrict users to one language. Users can sometimes get frustrated by the use of other
languages they do not understand; it breaks up the sense of community and fragments discussions, and often results in a poor
experience for non-English speakers. Online Community Report has discussed the role of the site owner in an instance where five
languages were to be used on a particular website:

‘The site owner will need to manage the community carefully … one way to handle translations is to make certain the community
understands it has a role to play in the task. All users should be able to – and be encouraged to – "vote" on which content is most
valuable for the wider community…’8

Communities can be split into language-based discussion areas or enforce a community-wide language rule, whichever is felt
most suitable for the website and its users. Language-based areas do have the disadvantage, however, of segmenting users. Each
language will need to have an active community within itself for the overall community to work and become ‘sticky’ – if there is
too much segmentation, users will feel there is little on the website for them and will be less inclined to return.

In a situation where the community is used to seek help or advice, it may be advisable to have multi-language support forums in
order to ensure users get advice tailored to their needs. In this case, communities can appoint language ‘ambassadors’ to
manage or answer questions in certain areas.

Social networking

As an increasing number of websites embrace social networking as part of their digital strategy, it is important to consider how
you can make use of social networking sites to boost your presence in multiple countries. Consider what you will offer to each
market. Is there a need for a Facebook group in every language? Who will monitor each group and how should the content differ?

Although channels such as Facebook and Twitter may be the most familiar to Western audiences, there are other social
networking sites that may be more popular elsewhere. For example in Brazil, the social networking site Orkut had 36 million
unique visitors in October 2010, while Facebook was far behind with 9 million.9 It is important to research the sites that are
popular in your market, and plan your strategy accordingly. For statistics on popular social networking sites, see Red Ant’s
whitepaper Planning and Managing a Digital Strategy10.

8
From www.onlinecommunityreport.com, last accessed 20/01/11. 9 From comscore.com, accessed 21/01/11.
6 10
Planning and Managing a Digital Strategy, www.redant.com/digital-strategy-whitepaper/
going global: running a multi-language website www.redant.com

Best practice checklist

• Use country-specific domains, e.g. .fr and .de for relevant countries when possible – if these are not available use subdomains
e.g. fr.domainname.com, or domainname.com/fr. These make it easier for foreign language users to find your site and are
better for search engines.
• If you have a .com domain, it is advisable to choose the language of your widest audience – but ensure that users can easily
switch to the language of their choice.
• Ensure that your choice is consistent for each country.
• In general, don’t have more than one language on the same page.
• You may occasionally need to mix languages in the case of news articles, contact details or forums, but this should never
confuse the user.
• Ensure that the page defines the language in the code. This helps search engines find your page when users search using
different languages.
• Ensure that translations are professionally checked before site launch. This will involve a lot of time but will ultimately result
in a better site for your users, and a greater chance of international success.
• Ensure that you have services in place to support the languages on your website, or explain that the user will need to
read/speak English to receive support.
• Do use IP redirection, but only if you do it properly – always let the user choose their country via a language selector or
similar on every page.
• Check that error pages, field validations etc. are translated correctly in order to ensure a consistent experience for your users.
• Understand your audience. Research your competitors in international markets and see what they are doing – what may work
for one country may not work for another.
• Ensure that popular browsers in your target countries are supported by your website.

7
 If you would like to talk further about
multi-language websites, or require Red
Ant to help you along this path please
feel free to contact us on:

0845 459 3333

E: international@redant.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/red_ant www.redant.com