Getting Your Language Right: 10 Considerations for the Multilingual Site

We have all been talking about the White House Web site redesign, but the discussion of multilingual content on the site has been a bit muted. A quick peek at the site will reveal that yes, content has been translated into Spanish (see the Spanish version of the site) but the navigation persists in English.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Many sites fall into the same trap, generally starting out with a good intention to offer multilingual content but ultimately failing.  This failure sometimes means not translating navigation, as is the case of the White House, or just posting content in different languages deep into the site without any supporting navigation at all (for example, the FDA Fact Sheets.) In some instances, navigation is translated, and content is not (for example, the HUD site.) 

So what should you keep in mind if you want to provide alternatives to English? Here are 10 important multilingual considerations:

1. Decide the content strategy for your Website: Is it globalization, internationalization, or localization? For instance, is your goal to provide the same user experience to those with a non-English language preference, or is similar access good enough?
2. Examine your budget.  Do you have the funds now, and for the next three to five years, to maintain multilingual content? It can be expensive, time consuming, and you may be juggling a lot at once, depending on the need for timely translation of content as well as ongoing changes to the site navigation to keep up with the required changes. And when calculating the amount of time it takes to translate the content, always pad if English is your native language. Someone else may need to review the final content that understands the language and culture of your audience and ensures that you are getting your point across, accurately, and without offense.
3. Consider search engine optimization (SEO) as a major issue for your multilingual content, since not all major search engines and directories handle multilingual content gracefully (if at all) and thus your content may not be displayed, or displayed well. This extends to reviewing your metadata schema to see how it will be translated, revisiting the need to have your site taxonomy in the different language(s), and committing to a thorough conversion job.
4. (Re)evaluate your content management system (CMS) and how it can help you - not only manage the multilingual content, but also the creation-translation-management-delivery lifecycle of your content.  
5. Content layout may need to change, and that includes things like positioning of graphics on your pages. Don’t be surprised to learn that adjustments to the English-page layout may actually solve a lot of your problems, but allow for changes such as text layout since not every culture reads left to right.
6. Don’t assume that translations from English to the target language will achieve your goal. You will still need to consider cultural implications of your site and its content, such as preferred (and conversely not preferred) colors, text layout, format of salutations, measures, currency, formality, and even the font size.
7. Test your site. Then test it some more. Then hand it over to a user group that is representative of your audience to test if further. I believe that someone in a testing group would have pointed out the need to translate the White House site navigation. Likely into many different languages.
8. If you don’t know what you are doing, don’t do it. Take time out to research more and reach out to multilingual content experts. Don’t just put content out for the sake of getting it out, ignoring the shortcomings – like that Spanish content with English navigation.
9. If you are subject to the Access for People with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and many folks in the Federal arena are unaware of the requirement, read the policy in detail and understand the implications. Then determine how this policy works with your Web strategy, and what that means both for your budget as well as the functionality you are providing. It may mean having to place the English-language nice-to-haves on hold and prioritizing other languages before further enhancing your site.
10. Regardless of your desire or requirement to get multilingual content out on your site, consider showing thought and commitment to the audiences you are trying to serve. Allow site visitors to feel like the information you put out there – in English or not – was really intended to benefit them, and at the end of the day, that they truly got your best work.