You’d think translating a WordPress site would be easy for a company like ALM, right? Well, no, it really isn’t that simple! Every website is different and every translation connector works differently. When a regular client contacted ALM about using our website translation services to translate their WordPress website into 12 languages, our tried-and-tested process had to be tweaked somewhat to accommodate the setup created by their developer.
Client
Our client is a company that connects and protects people and uses a system to report misconduct. They partner with large multinational companies to enable misconduct reporting, which helps create a more honest and transparent culture within organisations.
Scope
- The client’s Marketing Manager contacted ALM asking for a quote for translating a WordPress site into 12 languages (including Chinese, Japanese and European languages)
- The style and tone of the translation were critical to our client as they needed to ensure positive brand representation across all languages.
- Their Marketing Manager was planning to copy and paste the translated content into the back end of WordPress, which would have meant over 80,000 words being manually inserted.
Solution
- ALM assessed the website and suggested they work with a connector that would extract the text from the website.
- ALM selected suitable translators and reviewers and created a team to translate the content in the most appropriate way for this particular client.
- ALM explained that copying text manually whilst translating a WordPress site was not an effective solution for placing translated content into the back end of the website.
- ALM also recommended using ALM’s multilingual SEO service on any money pages (those pages which are high profile and to which our client wanted to attract the most traffic). The client agreed with the solutions offered which included keyword research and page optimisation by our translation team.
- The WordPress localisation process evolved as we assessed and translated the content because each template for the pages worked differently.
- When extracting the text, ALM worked with the client and developer to ensure that the text for translation was selected by the connector to avoid leaving English in the site.
- Settings and fields were customised to ensure that all items were included in the text for translation.
- ALM also imported the target language text into the site (usually done by a developer) and worked with the website developer to “tidy up” the target languages before doing an in-situ sign-off.
- The in-situ sign-off ensured that the site’s functionality worked in all languages and any bug fixes would be done before the site went live.
Results
- ALM translated a WordPress site into 12 language sites which has now gone live.
- The keywords from the research results were included in the translated money pages and also within the Yoast environment to produce a better ROI.
- Our client can now communicate effectively with their target customers across the globe.
- ALM saved internal costs for the client by avoiding a copy and paste process which would not only have been time-consuming but could have resulted in copy and paste errors, which would have had the potential to damage the brand.
- ALM demonstrated that a customised approach is essential when dealing with website localisation. All sites are written differently depending on their Version, CMS and how each company’s Web Developer creates their sites.
- ALM also demonstrated that working in close partnership with the client and the web development team was critical for achieving the best results, and saving time and costs.
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