The Benefits of Using a Translation Plugin in Your Content Management System

To compete in an increasingly global economy, you need to attract customers from all over the world. That means making your website accessible in multiple countries… and in multiple languages. Translating your website is the first step.

If you use a content management system like WordPress or Adobe Experience Manager, you have access to plugins that enable relatively quick and easy translation into multiple languages. Add these plugins and you can enjoy several benefits, including:

Greater consistency across websites

Your website may need to be localized to fit the unique requirements of each country, but the overall look and feel should be the same regardless of your primary language. Translating your content outside your CMS may result in changes to your site’s themes and plugins that affect your site’s layout and design.

Your website will benefit from localization, but each website should feel like it was launched by the same company whether it’s written in English, Spanish, Arabic or Mandarin Chinese. A translation plugin allows you to translate your text while keeping the rest of your site intact. Whether you want to translate into two languages or twenty, your website will be customized to each country’s language but still maintain your overarching layout and design – and protect your global brand.

Faster translation

For a long time, translating web pages required creating text versions of each page and then sending them to a translator or a group of translators. The translators would create the translations and then send the pages back to you. Next, you’d have to copy and paste the text back into each specific country site. Even with email and FTP sharing, the process can be time-consuming and delay your launch into different countries.

Using a plugin directly in your content management system, your translation team can work directly on the page, making the necessary changes while seeing the impact on the overall layout. Since everyone is working in the same platform, the back-and-forth between your web team and your translators is reduced dramatically, and so is your timeline for entering a new market.

More efficient project management

It takes time to design and launch a website. It takes even more time to translate one into another language. The more languages you want to target, the longer it takes… and the greater the chance of a snafu derailing the process. A translation plugin helps project managers streamline the process and minimize potential pitfalls.

Working within a CMS allows you to take a bird’s-eye view of your entire translation project. You can see which languages are being targeted, who’s responsible for each translation and the progress on each website. It also helps you identify any issues that may delay your launch or affect translation quality. Instead of having to keep track of multiple projects managed on disparate channels, you can use a translation plugin to manage and centralize the entire process in one place.

Greater searchability

In the U.S. Google is king, but this isn’t the case in other countries. Web users in China use Baidu, while Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russia. What’s more, the keywords that perform well in the U.S. don’t perform the same elsewhere. Most French web users won’t look for a translation website – they’ll look for one that offers traduction services.

Using a CMS translation plugin allows you to optimize for both multilingual users and multilingual search engines. Content is translated without affecting the layout or design, including SEO elements. Also, translation plugins are compatible with SEO plugins, so you can adopt an effective SEO strategy for each of your target markets. The result is a higher search engine ranking and more visitors wherever you want to reach them.

Higher-quality translations

Just as translators have an easier time working within a CMS translation plugin, so do editors. A plugin from a reputable translation company offers both automated content and the assurance of reliable post-editing from a team of experienced linguists.

While machine translation is improving, it still doesn’t match what a human translator can provide, e.g. an eye for detail and the ability to choose the right word. Once your content goes through a translation plugin, it can be reviewed by a human translator with the expertise to adapt your content to the specific nuances of the target language. In short, a translation plugin combines the best of both human and machine translation.

Creating a website becomes much easier with a reliable content management system. When you’re ready to put your website on the world stage, consider using a translation plugin.

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