For over 15 years, Acclaro West Coast Operations Manager Lydia Clarke has helped leading international companies localize their corporate websites. In this blog post, Lydia shares four of the top considerations for an international-bound website, touching on coding languages, content management, language navigation and currency.
English-to-Japanese translation is in demand as American companies vie for mindshare in one of the world’s leading economies. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the intricacies of the Japanese language and recommend an approach to the translation process that will produce stellar results, both linguistically and economically for your business.
“Going global” can mean a lot of things to a lot of business owners, small and large. While many assume the term refers specifically to issues surrounding importing and exporting, there’s a valuable online component to attracting new global customers: website translation.
Acclaro President Michael Kriz recently broke down the process on AllBusiness.com for those still mystified by what it takes to translate a website internationally. AllBusiness.com is “one of the world's largest online resources for small businesses, providing essential tools and resources to start, grow, and manage your business.”
English remains the dominant language in the United States, but almost one in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home. Are you missing out on customers who are more comfortable doing business in languages other than English? Read on to learn how your company can profit from translation within the United States.
Based on headlines alone, China seems to swing between topics of political censorship and economic growth. And it’s true — there are turbulent social, political, and economic forces at work in China today, especially as the middle class rises and the “Great Chinese Internet Firewall” becomes increasingly porous. For both reasons, China should be on your radar if you have international expansion plans for your business.
But how much do you know about the Chinese language? If you want to serve Chinese customers, which written version is right for your website, and what about the optimal spoken dialect?
In this article we’ll talk about all of these choices and take a look at what Wikipedia has learned since launching Chinese Wikipedia in 2002. It might be just what you need to inform your strategy in China.
Is your company ready to go global? While your product and team might be ready to jump into a completely new market in Brazil or Japan, your website will probably need some help to make the transition. Website translation is a multi-step process, so knowing the roadmap before you get started will help make the process smooth for all involved. Read on for a quick overview of website translation with some tips and tricks for getting the best results from your translation partner.
A global business’ best asset is a global website. However, it’s not as simple as just translating your website — all those global customers need to find you. Your company, service, or brand may already face stiff competition in another country, making visibility a challenge. Utilizing your English search engine marketing (SEM) campaign and tailoring it for your international markets can help ensure you rank well on global search engines. Today’s post gives you some tips to make sure your website doesn’t get lost in SEM translation.
Falling out of fashion is the old startup approach to going global: Get established in the U.S. and then begin branching out slowly overseas. Tech entrepreneurs are quickly learning how internationalizing early can save money and fuel unparalleled growth.
If you’ve got the next big startup in bootstrap mode, you’ll do well to learn why adopting a global mindset sooner rather than later could be the key to reaching funding stages. From culture to code, overseas growth could make the difference.
In this article we’ll talk about the benefits of internationalization and localization for startups and take a look at major startup success stories internationally.
Responsive web design — designing websites that work across a multitude of devices — has emerged in the last year as the dominant mode for device-neutral sites. As our options for accessing web content expand to include screens of all sizes, responsive web design helps reduce the complexity of creating content for all those screens. Sounds simple, right? But when you throw the multilingual needs of a global audience into the mix, things can get a little complicated. Read on for some of our best tips for making sure your design works for multiple languages and multiple devices.
Passport? Check. Money? Check. Cat sitter? Check. Global SEM strategy? Ch…huh? Planning for a global website launch requires some forethought, much like planning for a trip around the world. Our Top 10 Tips article gives you our suggestions for making the most of your global website launch. From internal code to external user-facing content, we know how to take websites global, and we want to share our tips with you.
Byte Level Research’s 2013 Web Globalization Report Card is released, and is full of information for how to take your global website to the top of the class. Selection criteria highlight use of mobile sites, social media, the number of languages, and how easy it is for global users to find information that is relevant to their market.
Not surprisingly, Google holds the top spot. Below that, major global brands have shifted up and down the scale, and there are eight companies from 2012 who are nowhere to be found this year (including one of the former top ten!). Check out our post to find out who’s reaching global audiences most effectively, and what makes a good global website great.
To ensure a successful global website launch, it’s good to consider some issues early on in the process, such as your own content management system’s (CMS) infrastructure and capabilities for handling multilingual content, the relevancy of your content for your global users, and the general tone and style you want to impart in translation. If you’re preparing to launch your site internationally, today’s post gives you some good starting points, and links to our more detailed newsletter article on the same topic.
So your business plan is in place and you’re ready to enter new markets. But is your content ready? Developing and managing international content for multiple language markets isn’t something that happens overnight. From creating localization-ready source content to figuring out a content management strategy, there are a lot of factors to consider. But with some advance planning, you can set your international content up for multilingual success. Read on for some of our top tips for smoothing the international content creation and management process.
The devil is in the details in any language, and when it comes to ensuring your brand communicates as clearly in Japanese as it does in English, the style guide is your translator’s best friend.
Creating and maintaining a style guide is a worthwhile investment in your brand’s future. Clarity, consistency, and maintaining an on-brand voice depend in part on access to a central reference for translators as they bring your company’s products and service to life in new markets.
Sure, with infinite monkeys, typewriters, and time you’ll produce a Shakespeare play or two, but can you really gamble your international client base on the idea? In this post, we’ll take a look at why a style guide makes a big difference in localization projects.
Complex eCommerce platforms can present challenges when entering global markets. Each platform in a different market acts much like an independent entity, especially when you consider the market-specific customizations you may need. Today's post gives you five pointers to make the process easier and more cost efficient.
On December 15, the landmark exhibition Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal Asia opens at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. With over 300 paintings, photographs, screen prints, drawings, 3-D installations and sculptures featuring some of Warhol’s most iconic images, the Hong Kong stop is part of a two-year tour throughout several cities across Asia.
Thanks in part to Acclaro’s track record serving clients such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Guggenheim, Tiffany & Co., and Coach, The Andy Warhol Museum chose Acclaro to translate into Chinese their mobile app and educational resources website for the exhibition.
How does one present an artist like Warhol whose own definition changes in the context of contemporary life? Furthermore, what does it take to translate his legacy for Chinese audiences?
It turned out doing it well while on tight deadlines was an art form of its own.
When Breastcancer.org sought to expand their mission to Spanish speakers around the world, they needed more than just a run-of-the-mill translation of their website. They wanted a true partner who knew how to speak to their users accurately and compassionately, mirroring the effort and care that is evident on their English site. Acclaro is proud to have been selected as their vendor of choice. How did we meet the challenge? Read on to find out.
Last month Facebook announced the launch of Global Pages, a new structure for brands on Facebook that engage with multiple countries. This social network is definitely a key part of many social media strategies and offers some new options for international companies. Here are our pros and cons on Global Pages and their impact on brand development and global marketing strategy.
Translating your website for international audiences is the first and most important step in launching your brand online overseas. Even if your target countries have a high degree of English-speaking consumers, recent studies show that 85% of online shoppers will only purchase from native language websites.
Translation, however, is not the whole picture. Optimizing your website’s usability for these new markets will help ensure that your brand is represented well. Just as with your U.S. site, your metrics for conversions and goal completion will depend largely on how well you’ve localized and tested interface and design elements of your site.
If you’re preparing for a new international launch, be sure to take these five tips with you as you meet with stakeholders in your global expansion project. A few smart technical decisions at the outset will boost the credibility and usability of your site in the long run.
Despite Europe's economic woes, unemployment remains low in Germany and consumer confidence is on the rise. Germany is the powerful motor driving Europe’s economy forward. If you’re looking for strong purchasing power and 80+ million new customers, this Western European market is not to be overlooked.
To truly connect with German customers and get beyond winging it with your “Genglish,” you’ll want to invest early on in translation for this market. Among your top priorities will naturally be client-facing communications, such as your corporate website, marketing materials and product information.
Attention to detail will definitely pay off as you continually build and refine your German branding. In this post we’ll take a look at five pointers to help you develop your strategy and go to task.
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