Website translation and regionalization
English is one of the most prevalent second languages, and people in many lands read and understand English however, cultural differences often lead to misunderstandings that should not interfere with your message.
Website translation is one of the most cost-effective methods to reach international markets. Many companies and organizations have already realized that by translating their websites, they made possible for some people to buy their products and services.
It is recommended that the entire website is translated however, you may decide to translate only core pages on which you highlight your international offerings.
Translation companies generally accept the content to be translated in text format such as .txt, .rtf, .doc or download the content of your website directly. The translation of graphical elements (.jpg, .gif, .png, files) is a little bit complex: Translation companies can provide you the translations in a text document and you create the new images in-house (or by the web designer in charge of your website). If you can afford the extra price some of them can provide you ready-to-use translated images.
It is important to mention that web site maintenance costs will be higher. Each additional language site may increase the maintenance cost for about 120% for static site and about 60% to 80% for dynamic sites depending on the technology used. For sites implemented on some content management systems (CMS) these costs can be reduced to less than 30%.
Regionalization
We mean by "regionalization" as a process by which the content is not only translated, in addition, it is adapted to a specific local/regional market. Product offerings, marketing messages, payments and delivery processes are different for each local market. Your website should be adapted to communicate a slightly different and customized message to every new market you are trying to reach. A "regionalized" web site is commonly formed by a group of pages telling about corporate information (which are translated to multiple languages) and one product/service information sub-site especially adapted for each market/region.
