User manuals serve to provide instructions to end users on how to properly and effectively operate the product. Other names or forms of user manuals include user guides, technical documentation, or operational manual. For software, this could include terms such as quick start guide or software manual.

In today’s globalized economy, products are manufactured all across the world. That makes proper user manual translation crucial in ensuring international end users have an understanding of how to use your products safely and effectively.

Translation Services Market size was valued at USD 39.37 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 46.22 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 2.07% from 2021 to 2028.

As the official source of technical communication from the manufacturer, properly translated user manuals are not only important for international end users but are also a legally mandatory prerequisite for selling in many regions around the world.

What Should a Great User Manual Include?

As a key part of user experience, a great user manual should be crafted with the end user in mind. User manuals should aim to be clear and concise, including key product information and warnings of potential hazards. Users should be able to quickly find what they need to get started with using your product.

Plain Language

User manuals should always be written with the end user in mind. Limit the use of technical jargon and superfluous language to keep the document as accessible to as wide a range of users as possible.

Visuals

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Regardless of language, everyone can understand pictures and the more visuals your user manual has, the more you save on translation fees. A key part of IKEA’s international success has been their prioritization of visual instructions over written instructions.

Simplicity

Keep the manual brief and concise. This includes not only text but also visuals. The simpler the user manual, the more likely end users will actually end up reading it.

Focus on the Problem

Understand why users need to read the user manual in the first place – to use your product to accomplish tasks. When writing about product features, focus on direct and simple explanations of how users how users can use each feature to achieve their goals.

Logical Hierarchy and Flow

Develop the user manual according to how the end user will be using your product. Focus on the basics of the product before explaining advanced features. Use headings and subheadings to categorize each step.

Table of Contents

Ensure that when a user reaches for the manual, they can find what they are looking for within a few page flips with a table of contents.

Searchable Content

With the ubiquity of internet access, today, user manuals are also hosted online. Ensure your user manual is optimized for the best features of internet browsers – the search function. This way, users can instantaneously scan the entire document for keywords they need to solve their problem.

Accessible Content

Creating accessible content doesn’t just mean having the manual in a variety of languages. Ensure your user manual is still accessible for end users who may be hard of hearing or visually impaired.

Good Design of User Manual 

Design for as wide a range of audiences as possible. Keep white space to a maximum and break up long lines of text. Keep graphics simple and make sure they translate across cultures. Ensure consistency in visual and written style across all documentation.

User Feedback

Sometimes, working on a product or a project for too long will bias you towards how you see the product. Getting feedback from end users help ensure you’re creating the user manual for them.

Links to Further Resources

Keeping your user manual simple is important. You don’t want to be overwhelming users with advanced information. Consider providing links or QR codes that lead to more detailed information for advanced users. For print documentation, this can also include an email and customer hotline number.

Legal Requirements

Each market has their own legal requirements for how user manuals are written and what it must include. For example, the European Economic Area (EEA), consisting of all 27 EU member states and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, has a standardized set of directives for CE marking, which stands for European Conformity.

The CE marking, required for specific products, indicates that the manufacturer declares product compliance with relevant EEA product safety legislation. For products that fall under the 25 CE directives or regulations, a CE marking is mandatory if it is to be sold in the EEA. These requirements include mandatory translation to language(s) of the country where the product is sold, intended use of the product, descriptions of foreseeable misuse of the product, risk analysis of the product, safety information, and information on packaging waste.

What Parts of the User Manual Content Should be Translated?

Aside from visuals, all parts of the user manual should be translated. The user manual should have corresponding translations of the below information in all target languages to guarantee legal compliance:

• Intended use
• Features/accessories
• Description of the main product elements
• Description of the user interface
• Safety warnings
• Installation instructions
• Description of how to use/operate the product
• Troubleshooting section and instructions on how to solve problems
• Maintenance information
• Repair information
• Information on disposal of the product and packaging
• Technical specifications
• Table of content
• Index
• Glossary
• Warranty information
• Contact details

User Manual Translation Process

Helpful Tools for User Manual Translation by Yourself

CAT stands for Computer Assisted Translation Tool. These are translation memory tools that split large multilingual documents into segments. CAT can help save translators up to 35% of the workload by memorizing previously translated content. These tools not only save time, but also ensure style consistency and translation accuracy across various sets of documentation.

Professional User Manual Translation: Professionalism and Peace of Mind

Hiring professional translators for user manual translation provides more peace of mind for businesses. As user manuals are required for safety and legal reasons, and more importantly for end user well-being and overall user experience, hiring professional translators for the various languages included is advised.

Professional translators are able to localize to target area requirements. They understand the legal issues involved and are able to take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Finding professional translators well versed in the industry of your business is important to ensure accurate translation of technical terminology.

Readers can tell when a product manual is translated professionally. Grammatical errors and incorrect terminology will at best come off as untrustworthy to foreign users and at worst cause end users to improperly operate your product and open up your business to risk of potential legal troubles.

At HI-COM, we have a wide network of professional native translators specialized in all major industries. We offer professional full-suite multilingual user manual translation, saving your business costs and time looking for translators for each target language. As a China-based translation agency, we specialize in helping China-based companies expand abroad and international companies enter the Chinese market.

DTP Services for User Manual Translation

Every modern translation agency provides desktop publishing services, or DTP. At HI-COM, we value your time. We provide not only multilingual user manual translation but also DTP services to help your user manual look as professional as it reads. Our DTP team of technical designers help work on page-layout, graphic design, and international typesetting.

With native translators specialized in your industry and experienced technical designers to integrate all languages into your preferred format, (InDesign, AI, PDF, etc), HI-COM provides a one-stop solution for your multilingual technical documentation needs.

Contact us for your free consultation today!

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User manuals serve to provide instructions to end users on how to properly and effectively operate the product. Other names or forms of user manuals include user guides, technical documentation, or operational manual. For software, this could include terms such as quick start guide or software manual.

In today’s globalized economy, products are manufactured all across the world. That makes proper user manual translation crucial in ensuring international end users have an understanding of how to use your products safely and effectively.

As the official source of technical communication from the manufacturer, properly translated user manuals are not only important for international end users but are also a legally mandatory prerequisite for selling in many regions around the world.

What Should a Great User Manual Include?

As a key part of user experience, a great user manual should be crafted with the end user in mind. User manuals should aim to be clear and concise, including key product information and warnings of potential hazards. Users should be able to quickly find what they need to get started with using your product.

Plain Language

User manuals should always be written with the end user in mind. Limit the use of technical jargon and superfluous language to keep the document as accessible to as wide a range of users as possible.

Visuals

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Regardless of language, everyone can understand pictures and the more visuals your user manual has, the more you save on translation fees. A key part of IKEA’s international success has been their prioritization of visual instructions over written instructions.

Simplicity

Keep the manual brief and concise. This includes not only text but also visuals. The simpler the user manual, the more likely end users will actually end up reading it.

Focus on the Problem

Understand why users need to read the user manual in the first place – to use your product to accomplish tasks. When writing about product features, focus on direct and simple explanations of how users how users can use each feature to achieve their goals.

Logical Hierarchy and Flow

Develop the user manual according to how the end user will be using your product. Focus on the basics of the product before explaining advanced features. Use headings and subheadings to categorize each step.

Table of Contents

Ensure that when a user reaches for the manual, they can find what they are looking for within a few page flips with a table of contents.

Searchable Content

With the ubiquity of internet access, today, user manuals are also hosted online. Ensure your user manual is optimized for the best features of internet browsers – the search function. This way, users can instantaneously scan the entire document for keywords they need to solve their problem.

Accessible Content

Creating accessible content doesn’t just mean having the manual in a variety of languages. Ensure your user manual is still accessible for end users who may be hard of hearing or visually impaired.

Good Design

Design for as wide a range of audiences as possible. Keep white space to a maximum and break up long lines of text. Keep graphics simple and make sure they translate across cultures. Ensure consistency in visual and written style across all documentation.

User Feedback

Sometimes, working on a product or a project for too long will bias you towards how you see the product. Getting feedback from end users help ensure you’re creating the user manual for them.

Links to Further Resources

Keeping your user manual simple is important. You don’t want to be overwhelming users with advanced information. Consider providing links or QR codes that lead to more detailed information for advanced users. For print documentation, this can also include an email and customer hotline number.

Legal Requirements

Each market has their own legal requirements for how user manuals are written and what it must include. For example, the European Economic Area (EEA), consisting of all 27 EU member states and Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway, has a standardized set of directives for CE marking, which stands for European Conformity.

The CE marking, required for specific products, indicates that the manufacturer declares product compliance with relevant EEA product safety legislation. For products that fall under the 25 CE directives or regulations, a CE marking is mandatory if it is to be sold in the EEA. These requirements include mandatory translation to language(s) of the country where the product is sold, intended use of the product, descriptions of foreseeable misuse of the product, risk analysis of the product, safety information, and information on packaging waste.

What Parts of the User Manual Content Should be Translated?

Aside from visuals, all parts of the user manual should be translated. The user manual should have corresponding translations of the below information in all target languages to guarantee legal compliance:

• Intended use
• Features/accessories
• Description of the main product elements
• Description of the user interface
• Safety warnings
• Installation instructions
• Description of how to use/operate the product
• Troubleshooting section and instructions on how to solve problems
• Maintenance information
• Repair information
• Information on disposal of the product and packaging
• Technical specifications
• Table of content
• Index
• Glossary
• Warranty information
• Contact details

User Manual Translation Process

Helpful Tools for User Manual Translation by Yourself

CAT stands for Computer Assisted Translation Tool. These are translation memory tools that split large multilingual documents into segments. CAT can help save translators up to 35% of the workload by memorizing previously translated content. These tools not only save time, but also ensure style consistency and translation accuracy across various sets of documentation.

Professional User Manual Translation: Professionalism and Peace of Mind

Hiring professional translators for user manual translation provides more peace of mind for businesses. As user manuals are required for safety and legal reasons, and more importantly for end user well-being and overall user experience, hiring professional translators for the various languages included is advised.

Professional translators are able to localize to target area requirements. They understand the legal issues involved and are able to take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Finding professional translators well versed in the industry of your business is important to ensure accurate translation of technical terminology.

Readers can tell when a product manual is translated professionally. Grammatical errors and incorrect terminology will at best come off as untrustworthy to foreign users and at worst cause end users to improperly operate your product and open up your business to risk of potential legal troubles.

At HI-COM, we have a wide network of professional native translators specialized in all major industries. We offer professional full-suite multilingual user manual translation, saving your business costs and time looking for translators for each target language. As a China-based translation agency, we specialize in helping China-based companies expand abroad and international companies enter the Chinese market.

DTP Services

Every modern translation agency provides desktop publishing services, or DTP. At HI-COM, we value your time. We provide not only multilingual user manual translation but also DTP services to help your user manual look as professional as it reads. Our DTP team of technical designers help work on page-layout, graphic design, and international typesetting.

With native translators specialized in your industry and experienced technical designers to integrate all languages into your preferred format, (InDesign, AI, PDF, etc), HI-COM provides a one-stop solution for your multilingual technical documentation needs.

HI-COM is a localization and multilingual communication agency dedicated to providing China-specific strategy, social media communication and e-commerce marketing services to businesses around the world. Working with more than 100 brands, HI-COM is the go-to partner of companies that want to enter China market!  Contact us for your free consultation today!

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Are you from a non-English speaking country? If you are planning on going to Australia to study, immigrate, set up a business, or even just to travel, “NAATI” translation will be required for your personal documents. Any foreign language document that will be presented to the Australian government requires translation by a translator with NAATI certification:

• If you plan on driving during your vacation to Australia, you’ll be required to have a NAATI translation of your driver’s license.
• If you plan on studying in Australia or applying to a school there, you’ll need a NAATI translation of your diploma and/or academic transcript.
• If you plan on immigrating to Australia, you’ll be required to have NAATI translations of all official documents such as birth certificate, marriage certificates, and citizenship documents.
• If you plan on starting a business in Australia, Australia’s DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) will only accept documents translated by translators with NAATI certification. The DFAT stopped accepting translations from translators accredited by other bodies in 2018.

Read on to learn more about NAATI translation:

What Is NAATI Translation?

NAATI is the acronym for National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters. It is a non-profit body responsible for establishing and maintaining translation and interpretation standards and practises in Australia.

As the accreditation body for translators and interpreters at Australia’s national level, NAATI offers five parallel credential levels for both translators and interpreters: recognized, paraprofessional, professional, advanced/conference, and advanced/conference (senior).

The lower two levels of recognized and paraprofessional are usually only acceptable for very low demand languages.

For all other languages, documents must be translated by translators with a minimum of professional-level certification.

Advanced translators (senior) and conference interpreters (senior) constitute the highest level of NAATI certification and are required for high-level international summits and conferences such as UN meetings.

NAATI accredited translators have a letter of accreditation and will include a special stamp on their work as evidence that their translation is NAATI certified.

You can find a full directory of current NAATI accredited translators and interpreters on the NAATI website

When Do You Need NAATI Translation Services?

Documents requiring NAATI translation include birth certificates, marriage certificates, divorce papers, diplomas, academic transcripts, police checks, payslips, and bank statements.

While NAATI translation is not required for private business translations such as marketing documents and product descriptions, choosing to work with NAATI certified translators and interpreters offer many benefits when entering the Australian market:

• NAATI certified translators have proven they meet the exacting professional translation standards at Australia’s national level.
• They are in tune with Australian political and cultural sensitivities.
• Since NAATI certification expires every three years, NAATI certified translators must constantly demonstrate they are active within the field.
• As practising professionals, NAATI translators can be trusted to treat sensitive documents with confidentiality.

Documents That May Require NAATI Translation Services

• Payslip Translations

• Academic Transcript Translation

• Bank Statement Translations

• Birth Certificate Translation

• Marriage Certificate Translation

• Death Certificate Translation

• Driving License Translation

• Divorce Certificate Translation

• Police Report Translation

• Degree Translation

• Financial Translation Services

I Want to Study in Australia, What Documents Do I Need to Have Translated by a NAATI Certified Translator?

In order to study in Australia, you will most likely need to provide your Academic Transcript Translation, as well as a Bank statement in some cases. These translations require a NAATI NAATI translation seal.

We provide high quality document translations that are accepted by Government departments and universities and licensing authorities, including the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP).

If you require your documents to be translated by a NAATI translator, contact us and we will ensure your application process – at least the translation part of it – is as painless as possible.

How  Can You Find a NAATI Translator if You Are Not in Australia at the Moment?

Here at HI-COM, we deal with Chinese, Russian, Spanish and any other NAATI translations daily! We provide NAATI certified translators capable of providing the highest quality. Preparing a document for Australian authorities requiring a NAATI translation may seem a little daunting, but don’t worry.  We have a 100% acceptance rate with all authorities that ask us for a NAATI stamped document.

We use experienced and highly skilled translators who are experts in their specified fields.

In need of NAATI translation services? Shoot us an email!

How do we work with NAATI translation?

Send your documents to us and we will provide a high-quality NAATI certified translation from and to more than 40 languages within a few days (depending on the number of documents). HI-COM has created a pool of resources in Australia so that you don’t have to worry, even if you are not in Australia right now! We will provide the most qualified translator for your needs who will know exactly what you are looking for! Our translators have more than 10 years of experience and work on NAATI translations every day!

Get a free quote for NAATI translation services in 15 minutes by email!

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation services to businesses around the world. In need of NAATI translation services? Contact us today for a free quote!

How should you translate a website to Chinese in order to reach this huge audience and their thriving local markets? When it comes to emerging markets such as China, Brazil, and Russia, booming imports and e-commerce markets have made these counties and cultures impossible to overlook. In this article we will describe how to translate a website and show you how to avoid problems when localizing it.

Today, more and more businesses and individuals are opting for Mandarin language website localisation in order to better communicate with their potential Chinese audience. However, Mandarin is a complex tonal language that requires a highly skilled team of translators, to localise a website successfully and ensure that any cultural nuances and values, as well as most appropriate search queries, are taken into consideration.

Entering the Chinese Market Online: Translation, Localization, or Transcreation?

Translation

Translation should be seen as a first step in the process of getting your website to reach Chinese audiences. Professional website translation into Chinese stays true to the content and tone of your original website. Precision and accuracy of language is the priority. This step is important for guaranteeing that the core details of your website content is preserved when translated into a different language.

However, while translation by itself may be sufficient for purely technical writing, it is not effective as the sole method of entering the Chinese market. For content that serves marketing purposes such as website translation, it is important to consider translating the spirit of your brand to fit its new cultural context and reworking content to be culturally specific.

Transcreation

Clever wordplay rarely carries over in translation, especially for unrelated language pairs like English and Chinese. This can be a major stumbling block for translation when it comes to things like brand names, slogans, and various marketing collateral.

That’s where transcreation comes in. Combining translation and creation, transcreation is a technique where both the content and emotional resonance of a message are preserved during translation. It’s a process where the target of translation is ideas, concepts and feelings rather than exact words.

In transcreation, creative liberties are taken with the source translation. Culturally specific talking points are recalibrated to fit the new cultural context. Language specific wordplay is reworked to preserve its memorability without sacrificing meaning. The resulting translation may not be a direct translation of the phrase, but it replicates the emotional impact of the content across languages.

For transcreation to be effective, transcreation teams must have a strong grasp of the nuances of both the source language and the translated language.

Localization

Localization is a crucial step in increasing the effectiveness of your website translation in China. The process of localisation involves optimizing the translated website and content to adapt to the new cultural and digital context of the target language. When localisation is executed well, it helps your brand feel native to the new cultural context it has been translated into.

High calibre website localisation requires translators to not only have native level familiarity with both the source and target language and culture, but also in-depth knowledge of your brand’s industry. Website localisation experts take into account SEO optimization for the target language, cultural connotation of visual signifiers, and differences in digital habits and infrastructure of the new market.

The high level of precision, adaptability, and knowledge involved in localisation make it the most effective step in website translation.

What to Keep in Mind when Localizing Your Website in China

When localizing your website, it’s important to keep in mind the key differences between Western and Chinese internet infrastructure.

Payment options

While in the West, the arena of online payments is dominated by credit cards and Paypal, in China, Alipay, WeChat, and Unionpay are the major players in the game.
Alipay and WeChat capture a combined 95% of the Chinese mobile payment market share while UnionPay has an effective monopoly on the card payment market. This means website localisation must include localisation for Chinese payment systems when it comes to e-commerce functionality.

Social media

Most Western social media platforms are not accessible in China. Instead, the country has its own social media ecosystem that international brands must learn to navigate in order market to Chinese consumers.

Currently, the major platforms dominating the Chinese social media ecosystem consist of WeChat, Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu. Weibo and Douyin have counterparts outside of China, which are Twitter and Tik Tok respectively. However, WeChat and Xiaohongshu are relatively unique in their market niche. WeChat dominates instant messaging to the point where it has effectively replaced text messaging and email while having developed a full digital ecosystem of its own. Xiaohongshu, as a relatively newer player in Chinese social media, is a social recommendation platform that combines elements of Yelp, Instagram, and Pinterest.

This radically different social media landscape in China means that website localisation for the Chinese market requires adapting websites to fit into this new ecosystem. It is important to keep in mind that China’s social media platforms, with their unique functionalities, have also informed the digital habits of Chinese internet users.

User experience: write for your reader, not yourself

We recommend doing a localized marketing study before creating your content, to familiarize yourself with your (new) audience. If you are not in China yet, doing a benchmarking of your competitors will also be very useful.

This way, you will have an angle or a story that resonates with the local market in the most effective way. Looking to attract mothers? Young entrepreneurs? Imported car owners in their 40s living in second tier cities? The key is to know who you are talking to, to make the best impression and achieve faster customer acquisition.

There are a number of companies who do full market research; you will probably need some local help on that one. But if you don’t want to go this far, you can start with a simple website localization within your own research abilities.

Another point worth mentioning: even if you get your audience targeting right and the text is catchy, your (prospective) customer will leave the website if your navigation or functionality is not up to scratch.

It may be hard to believe but User Experience or UX has developed into a science; it is an actual profession for people to learn about the preferences of your consumers and adapt your website to fit their preferences and expectations.

While this is more of a web design topic, we suggest thinking about your consumer’s behaviors on your website when it comes to wording and calls to action at each step of their experience: interest – consideration – purchasing – after sales: support and feedback.

Do you use the right words to intrigue your Chinese audience? Do you turn viewers into customers easily? How easy is your website architecture to navigate around? Are visitors able to leave a review on your website or your social media page?

Translate a website with the right tools

When talking about website localization tools, one cannot avoid CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools such as Trados, which ensures your multilingual content can be dealt with in a smoother, more consistent, and more efficient manner. Other popular localization tools include DejaVu and Across, which may not have the might of Trados, but are nevertheless widely used by localization professionals and localization service providers.

Machine translation tool. This tool is mostly used by freelance translators and works well for certain language pairs. However, if you take a language with a specific writing system and grammar structure, such as Chinese, Arabic, Japanese or Korean (and many others), machine translation technology has its uses, but is not reliable enough to be used without extensive proofreading and corrective work.

Desktop publishing tools are used for content presentation and design. Language-specific correlations will help you to predict the layout in advance, but you will still need to ask localization engineers to assist with the DTP.

Local Colours

Adapting your colour to a local culture may also be a good idea when finalising the localization of your Chinese website localization project.

The appropriate choices of colours may subconsciously push your consumers closer to your brand. The favourite colours of Chinese audiences are red and gold.

Green is somewhat negative, especially when it comes to men. In north America and Europe, Blue represents peace, trust and security.

Yellow is a positive colour in most countries except Germany, where it represents envy. Purple is often associated with royalty, however, in Brazil and Thailand purple is the color of mourning, similar to White in China, Korea, and some other Asian countries.

Have a website to translate? Check with our team how much time will it take!

Translate a website to Chinese: choose an attractive call to action

With regards to customer acquisition, it is important to make your customer’s life as easy as possible and provide the chance of buying/emailing/joining in one to two clicks. The attention span of the average Chinese customer shopping online is much shorter than that of a Western customer.

This is due to the rapid pace and ‘everything-in-one-click’ lifestyle of China, where people are accustomed to being served or purchases completed in milliseconds; the 24/7 online support of 99% of e-commerce platforms is no-exception, payment is done in one scan plus one click, and most things are done automatically.

Almost no-one is using online-banking as they used to – everything is linked to mobile payment. The new Chinese Consumer is therefore very time sensitive: do not waste their time. Long convincing texts – NO. Page after page of explanations – NO. Your copy should be easy to read, brighten the mood, make a point quickly and make purchasing an easy click of a button or scan of a QR code.

Search engine friendly content: local search engines

Now, Search Engine Optimization is a topic for a whole different article, but let’s talk about your content optimization for the China market. As you probably already know, Google is blocked in China, and it is all in hands of BAIDU. Nevertheless, there are still title tags, meta tags, page titles, and images to think about.

Its not enough to translate your website; the localization of your website is absolutely necessary. It is not OK to just translate your tags and titles, since that will not guarantee that your local consumers are actually using those words. Using a well-known example, “pants” and “trousers” might be used interchangeably in one country, while the whole UK market will assume that the former product is underwear.

Keyword optimization and localization is a must for every market; you can’t just assume what terms will work and not being a native speaker will not help either. By purchasing the right SEO tools that will show you which keywords are searched how many times in a particular region will save you a great amount of time and money.

Doing the localization in-house is not something we recommend, but if you want to give it a shot, here is a tool that can be useful. Of course, there are more professional tools available on the market, as well as researchers, comparison campaigns and so on.

More information about Baidu SEO can be found in this article by Engage-art.

The legal side of Chinese website translation: forbidden terms in China

As you might already guess, it is not enough to just translate a website. Localization is much more than working with dictionaries! When working on Chinese website localization, you may be in for a few surprises regarding your marketing content.

There is a fairly extensive list of words and phrases you cannot use, most of which refer to being the best, strongest, fastest, original, 100% or even “real leather”, and violating this law will lead to a fine up to 300,000 RMB or even 300 days in jail! Now, if you want to protect your marketing director from this fate, check the full list of forbidden terms on our dedicated article here.

Make sure your content is legal in the country you are hosting and marketing your website in/to.

Further reading:

Forbidden terms in China that can not be used online

Brand name translation: new company/brand name – is it necessary?

Since the writing system in China is dramatically different, your brand name/company name will be translated whether you want it or not, so you better have the time and resources to have it done.

To see examples of some brand naming failures in China and some useful information on how to avoid similar fates, please see one of our previous articles.

You can go a few different directions here: a phonetic way – sounding it out, making your new brand name sound like the old one – but using local characters. Be careful here, because two characters may have a positive meaning separately, but put together they might change the whole picture.

The second way would be to actually translate the meaning of the brand – this of course works well for companies and brands that actually mean something (like Apple).

Don’t forget that double checking the final list of the possible name translations will save some time and money, as well as prevent you from some embarrassing situations. No matter how perfect you think your final translation is, make sure to show it to a test group to assure your meaning is not lost in translation. And don’t rush to translate a website to all the languages possible, it takes time to do research and testing for each language.

Example of Good Website Localization

An example of successful website localization would be Dentsply Sirona. The Chinese version of the website has highly technical medical product descriptions that are expertly translated. Source language terms are kept to a minimum, with all product names translated. Product descriptions are clear and have plenty of terms for Chinese SEO.

On the homepage, the header is welcoming, with a call to action for visitors engage in their native language. The footer is fully fleshed out, allowing Chinese visitors to learn more about the company, read their blogs, search for products, and even apply for a job.

The only improvements would be to establish Chinese social media channels and translate the company name into Chinese, something that would require intensive transcreation.

How Should Your Website Translation be Organized?

The website of any international company should be translated into the languages ​​of all countries where the goods or services of this company are sold. The easiest and almost free way to make a site multilingual is to use automatic translation, for example Google.

However, the bounce rate percentage (percentage of users leaving the site without scrolling down) in this case will be extremely high, which can adversely affect the site’s position in search engines.

In addition, the accuracy of the transmission of meaning will be approximate and will constantly change depending on the updates of the machine translation engine. Such a translation may mislead the user and certainly will not contribute to strengthening the image of the company.

Therefore, most companies decide to localize their websites with the help of professionals. In this article, we have compiled general web localization recommendations based on HI-COM’s many years of working experience.

Step1. Determine which sections of the website can be localized and which translated only

The cost of changing the text of the site increases in direct proportion to the number of language versions of this site. Often, at the end of a project, a translation company will find a long list of typos, logical contradictions, inconsistencies, etc. noted in the source text of the site.

Not all such inconsistencies can be resolved by the translator without the participation of the customer, or when the customer finalizes the site’s content after the start of the translation.

All this leads to confusion and significantly increases the terms of work on the project.

It’s vital to estimate the project budget. Is it really necessary to translate the entire site content or can it be limited to individual pages? Do the “News”, “Articles”, “Reviews” sections need to be translated?

Step 2. Work on the structure of the website and estimate the volume of technical work on it

A. How will multilingualism be implemented?

You can organize language versions of a site in the following ways:

– Domains with the same name in other zones (yoursite.ru, yoursite.de, yoursite.fr, etc.);

– subdomains with language designation (ru.yoursite.ru, de.yoursite.ru);

– directory with language identifier (yoursite.ru/de/);

• Substitution of content.

The first method is the most difficult and costly. Some domains may be busy and will have to be redeemed.

Changing the design or features will require edits on each site. At the same time, this method gives the greatest freedom for localization.

The structures of individual sites will not be tightly interconnected. In addition, each site will be separately indexed and ranked by search engines independently from others.

A multilingual site using a subdomain is technically no different from using a separate domain for each language, so this method is only advisable to use if it is not possible to purchase all the required domains.

A directory with a language identifier is the most common and easiest way to implement a multilingual interface. Many site management systems have free or low-cost plug-ins (such as WPML for WordPress) to implement this option.

In some systems (for example, Joomla), such a plug-in is already built into the basic functionality. All the advantages and disadvantages of this method are related to the fact that you still have one whole website.

This can, for example, cause difficulties when work on the site’s content is decentralized – for example, when different branches of the company are responsible for each language version.

The option with substitution of content is used extremely rarely due to the negative impact on website promotion. Pages in different languages ​​in this case may have the same URL, headings, keywords, which will negatively affect their promotion.

B. Will the structure of all language versions of the website coincide?

The need for different structures with separate language versions of the site can be caused by various factors: delivery or order features, or  legal features (for example, different requirements for the protection of personal data). Assortment of goods, promotions, and news may vary.

C. Will the functionality of all language versions of the site coincide?

Creating a multilingual website can lead to an extension of the functionality: automatic conversion of prices into different currencies (units), changing the format of dates, etc.

D. Is website design suitable for multilingualism?

Text in different languages ​​can vary significantly in graphical terms. If the site design was developed for languages ​​based on hieroglyphs or characters (for example, Korean or Chinese), then most likely it cannot be used without modifications, for example, the German version of the site. Long German text just doesn’t fit inside buttons.

Refinement of the design may also be required in case of localization in languages ​​with reverse (RTL / LTR) writing direction (for example, Arabic or Hebrew), where it will be necessary to arrange the main modules in a mirror.

E. Are there any editable sources for all audiovisual materials (diagrams, graphs, videos, presentations)?

The lack of editable files can significantly increase the cost and timing of layout work.

In addition, if the text or subtitles are part of a bitmap image, either the image below them will be lost when replacing the text (the translated text will be placed in the “text box” with a background fill), or you will have to pay for the long-term work of manually rendering these parts of the image.

F. Flags or languages?

Flags symbolize countries, but not languages. It is necessary to use them very carefully to indicate the language versions of the site so as not to confuse or offend the user.

If the flags of the United Kingdom or the United States do not mislead the user, then many of the more rare languages ​​cannot be denoted by flags.

For example, the flag of which country should be designated to Arabic, Hindi, Persian, etc.?

When using language names, it is very important not to indicate them in the main language of the site, i.e. instead of “German” and “Chinese”, indicate “Deutsch” and “中文”.

G. Is the site encoding suitable for displaying content in different languages?

If the project will use not only Latin or Cyrillic, then there is almost only one option for implementing multilingualism – you need to use Unicode, usually UTF-8.

H. Do I need to try to automatically detect the user’s language?

There are many ways to determine the user’s language and redirect them to the desired language version of the site. It is important to understand that none of these methods is absolutely accurate.

A user, by mistake redirected to the wrong language version, should be able to quickly change it.

J. What page of the site will the user access when switching between languages?

Ideally, switching the language on any page should lead to the opening of the same page in the desired language.

This principle will not work if only part of the materials are translated. Another option is to send the user to the translated home page of the site.

Step 3. Arrange materials required translation/localization

A. How will the export of the translation and subsequent import of translated pages be carried out? Does it make sense to automate this process?

With small sites you can do without automation by copying the text into an Excel file. It is highly undesirable to use MS Word for these purposes.

Firstly, it is more difficult to structure the content elements and it will be more difficult to search for them and correlate them in different languages ​​(in Excel, no matter how many languages there are, the translation can be entered in the next column).

Secondly, any professional translation company is able to work with HTML markup. If you send an Excel file containing the markup tags in the cells for translation, then all the tags after the translation will remain in their places.

This is achieved with the help of special translation software that blocks tags so that the translator does not accidentally delete them, and also allows you to compare the original and the translation and make sure that all tags are kept in place.

For larger projects, setting up export of content for translation may be an effective solution. This can be done either with the help of modules (for most popular CMS, such modules already exist) or by independently understanding the database structure of the site where the content is located.

B. Check that you didn’t forget anything when submitting website for translation:

– menu items;

– the contents of all modules and plug-ins;

– submitting forms error messages;

– templates of emails sent to the user by the site;

– meta tags and keywords;

– text on images and subtitles for video;

• legally relevant texts (confidentiality agreements, delivery terms, product catalogs, price lists, specifications, etc.).

Step 4. Hire translation company or set up an internal translation team

Modern translation is a complex, multi-stage process, which, in addition to the translation itself, includes various project preparation and quality control tasks: compilation and approval of a glossary, editing by a second translator, automatic control of formatting compliance, transfer of digital values.

For localization of the site in five languages, for example, a team of 12-15 people may be involved. Managing such a process requires specialized knowledge.

Based on our experience, the customer will not normally be able to significantly save funds by organizing this work on their own.

Be sure to make at least an approximate work schedule. Will all the text be sent for translation at once? Do you plan to regularly translate any other materials (news, audit reports, press releases, etc.)?

Knowing such information will allow the translation company to plan resources, and a more stable team will work on the project, which will positively affect quality.

Step 5. Linguistic testing

After the website translation is completed and the test assembly of the multilingual site is prepared, you can proceed to linguistic testing. Linguistic testing allows you to identify errors that are impossible or extremely difficult to notice in the previous stages of work.

These errors include:

• Semantic errors due to lack of context. Such errors practically do not depend on the competence of the translator, since the translator does not work with text in the shell of the site, but most often receives text uploaded to Excel, where the content elements are not grouped in the way they are grouped on the site pages.
• Distortion of formatting due to the variability of the text length (the text goes beyond the borders of the buttons or its incomplete display).
• Errors with fonts (for example, when the font used does not contain the characters of the desired language).
• Invalid hyperlinks (for example, leading to another language version of the site).

Step 6. Work on multilingual SEO

Modern search engine optimization is largely a linguistic task. Correctly selected frequency keywords can only be done by a person who is fluent in the target language. Ideally, if the keyword list should be ready before the translation begins. This will save energy and time on processing the content afterwards.

Translate a Website Using Professional Services: Companies and Prices

When deciding to translation a website as well as localize it, you shall choose a reliable, experienced partner who is working in your target market.

Normally, website content localization services will include original website extraction, evaluation of the content length, translation and/or transcreation, localization of the commercial terms and marketing taglines, and even in some cases content integration. Not to forget a specific aspects of SEO localization that includes the localization of targeted keywords, translation of meta tags etc.

Prices for website localisation vary depending on specificity of the content and the size of website. Big websites may receive a “bulk” discounts, so to say that the price is decreasing based on the volume.

To find out more about website localization services please contact HI-COM, a multilingual localization expert that works with more than 40 languages worldwide.

HI-COM is a digital marketing agency dedicated to providing China-specific strategy, social media communication and e-commerce marketing services to businesses around the world. Working with more than 100 brands, HI-COM is the go-to partner of companies that want to enter China market!  Contact us for your free consultation today!

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One of the most common tools in the advertiser’s toolbelt, good voice-over can make a campaign sing to an audience. If done well, it can make good copy, and make it great. For international brands operating in China, there are several considerations that need to be made, in order to make the most of what voice-overs have to offer, and to avoid the worst of what a misguided voice-over can do. Below, we’ll look at the particulars of why voice-overs need good localization in China, when video voice-over is necessary, and how the typical work process works, from start to finish.

Localization of Voice-over in China: What and Why?

China’s mediasphere is increasingly distinct from just about everywhere else in the world, and as such, techniques such as voice-over must be adapted to suit the local context. On the digital front, domestic innovators have created media platforms and services that are analogues in some respects with their international counterparts, but bear significant and important differences. Comparisons that are often wheeled out by ‘experts’ on digital marketing in China may previously have needed to be taken with a grain of salt; now, like a tequila slammer, they need to be taken with a whole lot more.

Yes, WeChat is similar in some ways to WhatsApp. But it’s just as similar to Facebook, or Twitter, or even Venmo. Yes, Weibo may appear similar to Twitter, but its functionality is different – micro-topics, rich media, threaded comments, events and reward systems make it stand apart. The same can be said for the other media platforms that currently dominate the Middle Kingdom, when viewed through the lens of comparisons with international platforms: Xiaohongshu (Instagram), Bilibili (YouTube), Dianping (Yelp), iQiyi (Netflix). The comparisons sort of make sense. In some ways. But in just as many ways, they are either incomplete or misleading.

When it comes to localization, it is the differences that matter the most. Each of these platforms contain functionality that can support content with voice-over, but much of it is distinct from other platforms. An advertisement with voice-over is a tried-and-true method to grab a potential customer’s attention, but it must be suited to a platform’s functionality and audience.

For example, ads on iQiyi are more like traditional TV commercials, running around 60 seconds, with full arcs and high production value. On platforms like Dianping and Xiaohongshu however, ads are much, much shorter, and are often made in an informal faux-amateur style, with a host or KOL. The voice-over script, tone and delivery has to be carefully curated, in line with platform-specific considerations. For international brands wanting to enter or increase their share in the Chinese market, adaptation is simply a must.

When is Video Voice-over Needed?

Website / online store videos

Chinese consumers are well-known for wanting as much detail as possible on the products or services they buy, and for wanting to know that what they’re buying is authentic. A website or online listing with a video, accompanied by a high-quality voice-over, can make the difference between converting a prospect into a customer. It is the kind of extra note of professionalism and attention to detail that all consumers seek.

Social media videos

Now that so many Chinese consumers own smartphones, and are big fans of short-video platforms, new opportunities for international brands seeking to make a name in the Chinese market. Well-produced, high-quality videos often require voice-over that is appropriate for the audience, and attune to the latest trends in online social media.

Exhibition videos

Art is booming in China. New collaborations between Pompidou and the West Bund Art Centre, and Tate and the Museum of Art Pudong, are just the tip of the iceberg. With the expansion of the art market, international institutions are flowing in. Nothing is worse, however, than bad translation at an art exhibition. Doubly so when it’s voice-over. Language in these circumstances must articulate complex ideas with precision, navigating the intersection between concepts related to art history and technique, and the interpretation of the work on display. Done well, voice-over can guide visitors through this often-difficult journey. Done badly, it can confuse and confound.

E-learning platform guides

E-learning is huge in China. In fact, due to Covid-19, it’s become huge everywhere. Worldwide, the industry is now valued at $250bn. With a projected annual growth rate of 21%, it’s set to hit $1tn by 2027. There is no reason why e-learning platforms shouldn’t internationalize; with few of the associated assets being physical, they are perhaps one of the easiest services to take beyond domestic borders. For clients and customers, it’s important to create a fast understanding of what a given e-learning platform offers, and then to follow through with a frictionless user experience. Clear, well-localized guides using voice-over are a quick, easy way to achieve this.

Guided audio tours

Audio guides in museums used to be clunky affairs. They would involve renting a tape player or mp3 player, with headphones, and flicking through the recorded passages, usually according to a pre-set route. Likewise on city walking tours, or even bus tours, listeners had little control over what they might hear and when, or how. Smartphones have changed the game entirely. With the help of interactive pages, mini-apps, QR-code scans and more, listeners are able to listen in a dynamic, flexible way. This opens up opportunities for tour providers to become much more creative with their voice-over format, creating a dialogue with the listener, wherein both parties share control over the experience.

Public address systems

Whether it’s during an event, at a pop-up store, or on a means of transportation that caters to people who speak different languages, public address voice-over is ubiquitous. It’s often said in the world of user experience design that good design is invisible. The same could be said for voice-over in public address. The aim of public address is to convey information. The recipient should be focused on that information, not on the voice-over itself. The voice-over therefore needs to sound natural, properly-localized, and therefore, ‘invisible’.

Voice-over Process

Client sends their original video and/or audio

When it comes to localization, it’s usually the case that the client has source material in one language. If not, they will have something similar to what they need, and can provide it as a reference. This is sent to the localization agency first, to gain an understanding of what the project entails.

Script writing and/or translation of the script

Some clients do not have scripts, some do. In the former case, it is the job of experienced, native script-writers to come up with something that will be interesting, culturally-resonant and that accurately conveys the ideas in the campaign. In the latter, it is a matter of translating, localizing, and often improving the existing script.

Provide samples from a selection of voice-over artists

Once the script is ready and approved, the agency will send the client a selection of samples of varying tones, accents and genders. The client will pick based not just on whether they like a given voice, but based on whether it fits the company image, might resonate with the target audience, and suits the content of the video.

Send the script to the artist

The voice-over artist will often practice before recording, becoming familiar with the different highs and lows, the energy, and refining their cadence. This will often be sent along with the original video for reference in tone, or another video from another campaign for the same reason.

Artist records the audio in partnership with the studio network

Generally, the agency and the artist will go together to an audio studio and record options. The agency will do its best to represent the client, and communicate their vision to the artist. It is the job of the studio sound engineers to refine and apply the recording.

Send the audio to the client

Once the options are recorded, they are sent to the client. The client might then offer feedback, and request small changes.

After validation of the audio recordings, the mastering of the audio track and application to the video track can be completed. The client can receive the video on the same day as the recording.

HI-COM has had over five years of experience providing voice-over services. We have accrued a good range of artists and studios, and have an efficient, working process. As a certified translation service, we can help translate, localize and record materials in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, and more. Moreover, with our expertise in digital marketing, we can advise how best to adapt videos and audio clips to best suit whichever platform they will be hosted on. Drop us a line, send us a file, and let’s start the conversation.

As one of the hardest-hit industries during the global COVID crisis, across the world, the hospitality industry faces a long road to recovery. However, in China, the hospitality industry has already bounced back, having experienced year-over-year growth already by the autumn of 2020, with strong numbers going into 2021. How can foreign brands take advantage of China’s healthy hospitality industry amidst a global hospitality industry downturn?

A major hurdle for any brand entering a foreign market is localization. This entails having a deep understanding of the culture of the market you are trying to appeal to. By nature of the field, successful hospitality companies must resonate with the aspirations of their home market. To replicate this success outside of their home market, hospitality brands must ensure their brand identity feels at just as home in a new cultural context as it does back where it was born.

Transcreation

First impressions are vital – for consumers this comes from seeing or hearing your brand name for the first time. The translation of your brand name will set the tone for all future interactions with your local market. “Transcreation” is a term used to describe the process of creating new meaning out through transliterations – bringing new meaning into a new context from an old idea.

With Chinese being a glyph-based system as opposed to the alphabet systems of many other languages such as English, brands often have to come up with creative transliterations of their names when entering the Chinese market.

For example, when the American sandwich franchise Subway entered the Chinese market, it chose the name 赛百味 (sài bǎi wèi). Not only is it a phonetic match, but the last two characters mean “hundreds of flavors” in Chinese, hinting to Chinese customers of the customization potential of its sandwiches.

Another hospitality industry example would be the Marriott Hotel chain. Taking a different route and dropping the phonetic match altogether, it took on the Chinese name of 万豪 (wàn háo) meaning ten thousand wealthy elites, situating it perfectly in the Chinese luxury market.

Not only is the transcreation process important for the name of your brand, but also for slogans. Many companies have learned the hard way that direct translations of their slogans don’t translate over into Chinese. For example, KFC’s finger lickin’ good slogan was initially translated into “eat your fingers off”.

Learn more about what makes transcreation different from translation in our article.

Localized Brochures and Menus

Those who have spent any time in China and eaten at local restaurants undoubtedly have seen their share of laughter inducing and sometimes bewildering English translation bloopers. As a foreign brand moving into the Chinese market, make sure your menu and brochure translations into Chinese don’t make these same mistakes.

For the hospitality industry, localization helps ensure that your brochures and menus are specific in their language, using the correct lexicon and up to date terminology. Especially in Chinese cities with less international influence, strong localization helps customers understand what exactly it is they are seeing on the menu, even if it is something they’ve never encountered.

Learn more about hospitality industry localization services by professional translators here!

Blogging and Articles

We all know that China has a wholly different set of social media and ecommerce infrastructure than the West. For example, email, while ubiquitous in the West, is used by less than 40% of those online in China. That means mailing lists and other digital marketing strategies reliant on email are just not effective in China.

WeChat, however, is ubiquitous in China. Localization services help you format your blog and article content to match the platforms used for digital marketing in China. Understanding the myriad other popular social media and ecommerce platforms and how to optimize your content for them is a vital part of any localization strategy for entering the Chinese market. Hospitality brands should be looking to top social media and social ecommerce platforms such as Little Red Book, Douyin, and Weibo to establish a strong local digital presence.

In addition, blogs and articles can make use of transcreation in helping your audiences better understand your brand background and context. Content tailored for the local market provides a sense of connection and care for local customers, a crucial goal for businesses in the hospitality industry.

Audience Targeting

Just as your home market isn’t a monolithic demographic, neither is the new market your brand is entering. By learning to differentiate according to the local market’s different demographic segments, your digital marketing campaigns will feel native to customers.

In China, the cultural demographics split along city tiers, with first and second tier cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou being much more international. But that doesn’t mean lower tier cities should be ignored – the economic might of these third and fourth tier cities is rising as China’s economy expands.

First and second tier cities in China tend to have more international influence, with residents being more open to more Western lifestyles and tastes. They have more exposure to international brands, larger expatriate communities, and higher incomes. This also means they have more experience and are more discerning about international trends than their counterparts in lower tier cities. The rising purchasing power of the fast-growing middle class in lower tier cities is a market that is a demographic that should not be ignored.

In addition, with China’s economic growth being a relatively recent development, there are also major generational differences to be aware of in the localization of your brand identity and digital marketing content.

Conclusion

The success of foreign brands entering the hospitality industry of China will rely heavily on how well they can localize in the fast-paced Chinese environment. Choosing a strong partner for localization and digital marketing services is essential to make your brand feel like home for Chinese customers.

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing professional translation and interpreting services to companies all over the world. Working in over 40 languages, HI-COM is the localization partner for hundreds of companies and brands. Contact us today for your free consultation!

If you would like more information regarding localization services, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

HI-COM ASIA is a professional multilingual translation agency working in more than 40 languages and offering a wide range of services. We work in a wide range of fields including finance, medical, legal, SEO and digital marketing. One of our most recent projects at the end of this year was set up with our IT partner QP Software for the marketing agency DIGITAL RETEX working with the DUCATI brand.

1) Case study – RETEX AGENCY – DUCATI

The project was the Technical SEO Optimization & SEO Optimized Translation into Mandarin for the new version of the website of a major brand: DUCATI, one of the renowned clients of the DIGITAL RETEX agency.

The different translations were in simplified Chinese to meet the brand’s desire to develop in a new and growing market. We took care to optimize the SEO translations in Simplified Chinese by taking into account the different possible meanings from one language to another as well as the localization to the culture and dialects whose words and characters used may have alternative meanings.

2) THE DUCATI BRAND

Ducati is a brand that is part of Italy’s “Made in Italy” heritage and is one of the best known motorcycle brands in the world. Founded in 1926 in Bologna, Italy, the various models of motorcycles offered by the brand are sold all over the world, from Japan to the United States and many European countries. This is why DUCATI now wishes to move into a new market: CHINA.

To do this, the creation of a website in Chinese and referenced on BAIDU is essential.

3) WHAT IS SEO OPTIMIZED TRANSLATION and SEO TECHNICAL OPTIMIZATION?

In order to better understand the project established for DUCATI, it is helpful to ask the question: what is SEO optimization and what are the benefits? SEO (Search Engine Optimization) represents the translation of a website while adapting the words and written content to contain certain keywords in order to improve the referencing of the site. This means that prior to the translation, research must be carried out on the target audience, the market, the competitors and the keywords to be targeted. An SEO-optimized translation will aim to choose keywords that are important to the brand in order to create content around it and thus improve its ranking on search engines in relation to it, here on BAIDU. For a good SEO translation it is also important that the keywords represent popular searches and that they are repeated consistently in the content created. If your site is placed in the highest searches and on the first page you will generate more clicks on your site. More clicks means more traffic and increased sales and therefore more revenue for the brand. For example, if your company is based in Italy and you want to sell your products in China, in order to successfully penetrate the Chinese market, it is essential to optimize your website and content specifically for Chinese consumers.

Baidu has become the leading search engine in China, it has a 90% penetration rate in the Chinese market and holds 68.44% of the search engine market share there. It should be noted that Google is not allowed in China.

Thus, SEO optimization is not enough on its own, the technical optimization of the site must be efficient, otherwise the potential customer may not find your site because BAIDU will not be able to reference it properly if the technical aspects of the back office are missing. What is the purpose of technical SEO? It is to complete and write on each page and article of the site the meta description, title, description of images etc. so that BAIDU knows what the page is about and thus reference it correctly. In this case the algorithms are Chinese and the requests are made in Chinese characters. The indexing robots will focus mainly on Mandarin content. In addition, the IT team can work with software linked to the back office of your website in order to check each step of the process and the functioning of all technical aspects.

Thus, in addition to the creation of content adapted to the market that includes certain SEO keywords, the meta description and title of the pages and articles created is as important as the SEO-optimized translation.

4) OUR WORKING METHOD – OUR PARTNER

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing Chinese-specific social media communication and e-commerce marketing services to companies worldwide. Working with over 100 brands, HI-COM is the partner of choice for companies looking to enter the Chinese market. Contact us today for a free consultation!

Our main mission was to ensure that the content we created was translated in an optimized way with respect to searches and keywords while working on the technical aspects to ensure that each page has a unique and optimized meta description, title, and tag as well as keywords.

HI-COM took care of translating the entire original website into Simplified Chinese while making sure to target the keywords in order to integrate them into the translated content and our partner carried out integration of the meta description tags.

Once this work was done, we started the implementation on WORDPRESS in the back office for all the information on the new Chinese version of the website.

We worked on the creation of more than 70 new pages and 200 existing ones. Since this work concerned the Chinese version of the website, the website was adapted for the BAIDU search engine. Baidu is the equivalent of Google in China, as the latter is not allowed in the country. The SEO on BAIDU is somewhat different from the SEO on Google but is still based on the same principles.

Additionally, the choice to translate into simplified Chinese was made because it is now the version of the Chinese language most used in China since the 1960s.

Finally, the META TAG DESCRIPTION is very important for the referencing of the site because it contains html information that search engines use to understand the content of the page. It is also what will appear when your site appears on it and thus allows you to be better referenced if it is well optimized. By optimizing these meta tag descriptions, Baidu users will be able to find you based on the type of product, the name of the brand and the category of the product, all based on keywords to be highlighted in characters and pinyin (written letters) and in simplified Chinese.

At the end of the optimized translation and technical implementation on the site, we conducted an SEO audit to verify the performance of the added and improved points including meta tag description, image formats, page loading speed and broken links or duplicate pages and whether the implementation of the different elements was successful or not.

We would like to thank DIGITAL RETEX and Ducati for trusting us with this project.

Contact us now for your translation projects, web integrations or other projects! 

HI-COM is a professional translation agency working with clients from different fields, carrying out multiple translation projects of all types.

One of our most recent projects was an SEO-optimised translation for the MYA agency for a well-known beauty brand.

1) THE PROJECT

Our agency’s mission was to provide localisation, transcreation and SEO-optimised translation from French into 6 languages (English, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish and Turkish). We were therefore responsible for localising the product sheets, blog articles and other material on the brand’s website.

2) THE MYA AGENCY

MYA Agency is a 100% digital agency working in 3 different countries: France, Belgium and China. This agency is specialised in the digital visibility of brands, webmarketing, natural referencing and Chinese marketing.

MYA assists its clients with improving the visibility and reputation of the brand on search engines as well as content writing!

With more than 10 years of experience serving SMEs, manufacturers and start-ups, MYA has developed real expertise in this field.

3) WHAT IS OPTIMISED TRANSLATION, LOCALISATION AND TRANSCREATION?

What is SEO-optimised translation and its benefits?

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) translation refers to the process of translating the content of a website into a specific locality; this means that research is required to understand the cultural references and social attitudes of your target location.

It is important to carry out a translation that is SEO-optimised in order to improve your website’s ranking on search engines. An SEO-optimised translation will aim to choose keywords that are important to the brand in order to create content around it and thus improve its search engine rankings in relation to the brand.

In addition, for a good SEO translation it is also important that the keywords represent high searches and that they are repeated consistently in the text. Effective local SEO can also help you generate more clicks on your international website.

More clicks means more traffic, increased sales and therefore greater revenue for the brand.

For example, if your company is based in France and you want to sell your products in China, in order to successfully penetrate the Chinese market, it is essential to optimise your website and content specifically for Chinese consumers.

Thus, SEO translation alone is not enough; the localisation of the site must be efficient, otherwise the potential customers may move on in a matter of seconds.

What is the purpose of website localisation?

Its main purpose is to adapt content to a specific language and culture for local consumption. In some cases, the translator can work on localisation elements for the same language. For example, a text for the Chinese market compared to one intended the French market will use a different vocabulary with an adaptation to the culture of both countries.

More than a simple translation, website localisation aims to help brands and companies target a larger number of potential customers. The advantage being to increase brand awareness and revenues.

However, it is not enough to simply translate the content of your website, such as meta titles, meta tags and image descriptions. You will need to consider other cultural factors that could impact your content, such as fashion, colours, customer behaviour, etc.

Product descriptions written correctly in one language represents a professional and trustworthy business otherwise your products will not be perceived as relevant to your target audience.

What does transcreation consist of?

Transcreation is a term used to refer to the process of adapting the source content from one language to another according to its cultural and regional characteristics. In other words, the definition of transcreation is to convey the meaning of the original sentence taking into account its social and cultural context.

For example, when focusing on a marketing transcreation, you need to determine whether your marketing message will translate correctly. Communication slogans, for example, need to be more than just translated, but need creative transcreation to maintain meaning and to choose the right terms in relation to the language.  This method is unique as far as presentation is concerned because it involves adjusting the message in another language.

Transcreation is a so-called creative process that relates to the field of advertising and marketing.

Transcreators have some of the same skills as translators, but they also have skills in writing advertising and marketing content.

4) WHAT WERE THE PROCESSES APPLIED?

The content translated, localised and transcreated for MYA’s end client included new fragrance and make-up ranges that were to be displayed on the brand’s international website.

In addition to the translation, we worked with retail experts in the different target countries to ensure that the most appropriate and suitable keywords were applied for each national market, in order to strengthen the brand’s SEO ranking in each of these countries.

Firstly, one of our business developers was in charge of the direct contact between the project managers and the agency.

Our project managers were then responsible for finding the translators and transcribers specialised in the cosmetics field and native speakers of the required translation languages.

Proofreaders also specialising in the cosmetics field had to proofread the various translations and our production manager was responsible for the control and quality of the translations provided.

HI-COM is a multilingual translation agency dedicated to providing companies worldwide with Chinese-specific social network communication and e-commerce marketing services. Working with over 100 brands, HI-COM is the partner of choice for companies looking to enter the Chinese market!

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What is localization?    

Localization is the adaptation of a product or service to meet the needs and interests  of a particular language, culture or country.  More specifically, with regards to international e-commerce businesses, localization can also refer to the adaptation of a website and marketing strategy, to ensure that it effectively appeals to a particular audience. For example, rethinking factors such as visuals,currencies and the way in which a product is marketed, will better help businessesmeet the expectations of their international customers. 

Furthermore, if your target audience speaks another language, adjusting the content of your site will not only to help it rank on search engines such as Google and Baidu, but it also means that it is far more likely that your visitors will actually convert into customers.

Why is localization important?

Website localization helps businesses to reach a higher number of potential customers, increase their brand awareness, and as a result leads to higher revenue. It also boosts SEO, when done in the correct way.

For example, if your business is based in the UK and you would like to start selling in China, then in order to break into the Chinese market successfully, it’s crucial that you optimise your website and content specifically for Chinese consumers.

However, simply translating the content on your website, such as meta titles, meta tags, and image descriptions is not enough. You should instead consider other cultural factors that could impact your content, such as fashion, colours, customer behaviours, etc. as by doing so, consumers will feel as though they are able to relate to and trust your products.

Furthermore, a recent survey showed that multiple online shoppers agreed that when seeing well-written product descriptions in their own language and websites hosted on country-level domains, meant that a business is much more likely to be professional and trustworthy.

Another reason localization is important when expanding your business overseas, is because if a visitordoesn’t feel as though the website is relevant to them or their culture, then they will leave and as a result, will increase your bounce rate.  This will mean that search engines will not consider your products to be relevant to your target audience.

What is SEO localization?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) localization is the process of translating website content into a specific locality; meaning that research is needed in order to understand any cultural references and social attitudes of your target location. Therefore, when planning to sell in a foreign market, it is vital that you understand how consumers are already searching for similar products or services and that you are aware of the search terms being used. You can then use these words and phrases within your content to reach out to more consumers.

For example, your business could be in the fashion industry and you might be planning to target countries such as the US and the UK.  In the American market, they use the word “pants” for trousers, whilst in the UK they instead refer to them as “trousers”.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that your keywords are appropriate for the market you plan to enter as it is common for terminology to vary from one country to another, even if the language is the same.  It is also important that they are high search key words and that they are repeated in the text consistently.

Effective localized SEO can also help you to generate more clicks on your international website. More clicks means more traffic, increased sales and therefore higher revenue. But in order to achieve these goals you’ll need to prepare your content and carry out thorough market research in order to know what keywords, links, graphics and layouts will be most relevant for your target market.

Localizing SEO for your website  

Here are some things to consider when localizing your website:

• Define your target market and audience
• Keyword research in the country you plan to target
• Content localization
• Keyword and content testing to make sure that they are relevant to search engines

To localize your website you need to firstly decide which languages and countries you plan to target.  It is important to analyse potential markets and pick those where you have higher chances of selling your products or services successfully.

You can then conduct specific research in order to evaluate competitors and learn about current cultural issues.  Once you have decided, you can then make a realistic plan and start with a limited number of countries.

As previously mentioned, it is important that you optimise the translated content for the correct local keywords and that you use the relevant phrases in your page titles and meta descriptions too, as people don’t tend to speak in a rigid and formal manner.  It’s also important to work with human translators because machines can struggle to translate colloquial language.

Moreover, with the increased popularity of voice searches and users searching in keywords, localization is an essential process if you want to boost your SEO and successfully penetrate the global market.

For more information on why localizing is more effective than simply translating, click here. 

Click here to find out how to localize mobile apps successfully! 

 Or to get in touch to find out more about effectively localizing your social media, website or for marketing support.

Why not consider working with translation company, HI-COM, to help with your localization, keywords and to boost your SEO.

HI-COM is an international communication and localization agency with years of experience in the Chinese market. With offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong, HI-COM serves its loyal customers in more than fifteen industries, including tourism, hospitality, e-commerce, and retail.

When it comes to dual localization, brand name translation, especially into languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic, can be very sensitive, and despite the fact the end result may only consist of one or two words or characters, the amount of time, research, and effort involved to arrive at this point can be enormous. This is especially the case in China, where one character may have several meanings, and these meanings may morph into something completely different when paired with another character.

8 out of 10 brands localize their brand name when entering foreign markets. In markets like China it is necessary because local customers may not be able to pronounce your brand’s usual name.

To illustrate this, 好（hǎo) means “Good”, and 好坏 (hǎo huài) means “Very bad”!

What is the process of brand name translation?

When working on brand name translation, it is important to follow the methods applied by professional naming agencies. The goal is not only to find a Brand translation that will mean and/or sound the same as the original, but also to make sure the new name will be positive, sound right, be original, and fit the new location’s market.

Brand names can be translated in different ways. They may reflect phonetic specifications, meaning or be more independent, or include both.

The brand name translation process includes 4 key parts:

1. Brand Image definition
2. Definition of the target audience
3. Benchmark of existing competition and their brand names
4. Brand name translation

Brand Image Definition

When conducting research on Brand Image, one should include the brand’s attributes (what type of organization it represents, what it stands for, the meaning of its logo etc.), association (the meaning and emotions that the brand name brings out), targets (the type of audience the brand is aiming for), domestic market (the category to which its loyal customers belong), and price positioning (is it a luxury, mass market or niche brand?). This research is critical for creating a successful foundation to brand name translation.

The second step is about defining key words associated with the brand. This can be done in focus group studies.  Ask your group what they think are the main associations people make when hearing your brand’s name. Then work around the key words they have used to describe your brand.

Why should you translate and localize your brand name when exporting your company?

You need to ask yourself how your customers will pronounce the name of your brand. Do they include words or sounds that may have a different meaning in another language or that could cause offence?

When it comes to translating your company name or even your product name, it’s important to ask yourself these questions. You can either transliterate the name which means create a name that sounds like your brand or one that is spelt similarly. Or you can also transcreate which means creating a name that has the same meaning as your brand name even if the spelling is quite different.

At HI-COM we offer both of these services to help you expand your market especially in China, where the native language looks and sounds completely unlike Latin languages.

Find more about brand name translation here!

For example, your focus group thinks that your brand is associated with modern fashion and ethical/responsible products. When describing high quality association, they use words like young, good quality, design, and fresh. And ethical association was all about sharing, support, and charity. Even with such limited information, brands like TOM’s come to mind. The goal is to create a new brand name that will not distract from the brand’s current image but at the same time, ensure it sticks in the minds of the brand’s new audience.

Definition of the target audience

The goal of this research is to find out who are we talking to. The Brand’s market research and your marketing strategy will be at their most useful here. If you are working on a brand name translation of a famous cognac brand that wants to enter China market, your market may be:

• 25-35 years old (demographic), youngsters and young-at-heart who are looking for a subtle and modern cognac
• They are energetic, modern, sophisticated drinker

Benchmark of existing competition and their brand names

One of the most important tasks here is to determine who the relevant competitors are, analyze their names and find similar trends.

Take into account the origins of your competitors, as translated and original names may play by different rules. Try to see what similarities the translated names have. Can you apply these trends to your brand name translation?

Brand name translation – putting it all down

Now, when you have all you need, you can now start the actual brand name translation process. Decide on how important it is to be close to your original name phonetically. See how many syllables the brand name has, and (if you work with Chinese brand translation) what meaning each syllable shall have. Pay attention to cultural norms and habits. For example, Hyundai Accent had consistently declining sales in the Russian market, until it was renamed as Solaris.

Of course, a strong linguistic background is required to choose the best variations, that will not sound strange together.

How big brands translate brand names to Chinese

It is very important to leave brand name translation work to the pros, otherwise you might end up on the pages of “failed marketing” articles. But be careful, even pros can fail. Therefore it is important to double check your results with an extra focus group before you make it official.

1. Funny on the ear

A buzz around AirBnB’s new Chinese name 爱彼迎 （àibǐyíng) appeared after the seemingly innocent characters 爱 (love) and 迎 （welcome) (which does not mean, but sounds like another character 淫 (yín) with meaning of “”lust, excessive, loose” ）were separated by a second character 彼, making the name sound a little like a word for female genitalia. The original meaning of 彼 is “those”, but its spelling is not so important, as it sounds the same. And considering that the business of Air BnB is based on inviting strangers to your home, this may give some a strange impression of the company’s main line of business…

2. Brand name translation: Missing the point

Examples of major campaigns such as KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” being translated to “bite your fingers off” in China a few decades ago, and Pepsi’s “Now it’s Pepsi for those who think young” translated as, “New Pepsi is for people with the minds of children” have basically become classics in failed marketing.

3. Brand name translation: Irrelevant meaning 

When translating a brand name, keep in mind that the characters have to remind a customer of your scope of business. So if you are in the automotive industry, pick characters that represent speed, safety or even an animal like a “precious horse” (BMW with their 宝马 （bǎomǎ）), or a tiger on a road (Land Rover with 路虎（lùhǔ) ). If you work in the IT business, opt for words relating to “ideas”, “progress” or “knowledge”.

When Google picked 谷歌（gǔgē）, which literally means “a village song”, their supporters were, let’s say, a bit confused.  And in the case of Best Buy,  百思买 （bǎisīmǎi） their name is more of a warning: think a hundred times before buying!

4. Skipping a translation 

So as you can see, it’s a minefield out there. No wonder some companies have never localized their brand name in China. Look at GAP, or Facebook, for example. But if the first one has 3 letters and somehow fits into local minds, the second one is called by the users as they please which can be a good excuse to turn a brand into a joke (脸书（liǎnshū））, and in the worst case scenario an English name of a brand will be long/complicated/unmemorable for Chinese customers, so they will just not talk about it, putting a stop to word-of-mouth. This actually happened to Hermes; for the first few years, Chinese customers simply did not talk about the brand, giving the company no choice but to pick a Chinese name.

You would think that companies as big and as prestigious as Hermes would know better and would never make poor judgment on such an important task as brand name translation, but apparently no one is immune. So think twice before deciding to do such a job in-house.

In the early 2000s, Dosirak instant noodles from Korea entered the Russian market. “Dosirak” is what is written on the Korean packaging to this day. The product did not sell well as the brand name sounded too funny to local ears (associated with a “person who has very frequent bowel movements”), and the noodles were renamed to “Доширак” (Doshirak). Given that the letter “sh” doesn’t exist in Korean language.

Looking for a trustworthy professional with experience in China in brand naming? Then HI-COM is here for you! We are an international multilingual expert that makes communication easy, professional and engaging. With our rich pool of resources all over China and an ever-ready international team, HI-COM will make sure your message is fully understood, localized according to the highest standards, and delivered on time! Contact our team today!