Choosing the best translation services for your needs
Translation DTP Transcreation Localisation Copywriting International SEO
When you first come across language services, you might be confused:
“Transcreation? Localisation? Translation? I just want my content in another language!”
In truth, all translation services have their place, and you might need most of them at different times – Each of them might need different teams of translators, processes, tools and pricing structure. This is why it’s important to use the right service at the right time to make sure your translation project is successful.
So, which service is right for your situation? Let’s start by understanding the differences in each one:
Translation
Translation is the process of rendering text from one language into another. Which is like saying “writing is the activity of composing text” – technically correct, but oh so broad.
Usually, translation is categorised based on the sector it targets and the expertise that a translator needs to have to do a good job.
Some popular categories are:
- General translation
- Technical translation
- Financial translation
- Legal translation
- Marketing translation
According to the specialism, different translators will be needed – affecting both turnaround times and pricing. A legal, technical or medical text, for example, will require a deep knowledge of the selected field as well as translation experience, which will increase the cost of translators for the agency and will affect the final price. The increased complexity and/or research needed will often make the translation take longer.
This is a non-exhaustive list of file formats that can be translated:
- All Microsoft Office file formats: DOC/DOCX, XLS/XLS, PPT/PPTX, etc.)
- PDFs
- HTML
- XML
- SGML
- CSV
- Java Properties files
- InDesign (IND)
- Illustrator (AI, EPS)
- Quark Express files (QXD)
- .PO
- .RESX
What is Desktop Publishing (DTP)?
DTP refers to a service used mostly when translating marketing and printed materials, carried out in the original sources files of a graphical document and includes typesetting and formatting to deliver a print-ready translation.
What is localisation and how does it differ from translation?
Wikipedia defines localisation as “the process of adapting a product to a specific country or region”.
The main difference between translation and localisation is that the target culture, as well as the language, must be taken into account in order to successfully adapt the product to local markets. This means making sure that the content as a whole, including references, pricing, time and date formats, and at times even colours and images, fit in and are familiar to the local culture.
Localisation is not confined to countries where different languages are spoken: often it can be useful for a single language that has regional or national differences – for example, South American and European Spanish, but also UK and US English.
Now, there is some confusion: lately the terms “translation” and “localisation” have been used interchangeably, especially when referring to “good translation”. So, it’s good to clarify with your vendor.
Localisation is most often required for the adaptation of websites, software, and video games and usually has a strong technical component to it. It is (or at least it should be) often followed by a QA process, carried out by native speakers.
Website localisation
Localising your website into other languages can be one of the best investments you make.
It’s a great way to:
- Test new markets relatively inexpensively
- Increase traffic by repurposing existing content
- Improve user experience for non-native speakers
- Improve conversion rate by increasing trust from foreign visitors
- Take advantage of lower cost-per-click or advertising rates in countries with fewer competitors
The website localisation process:
- Scoping – Most translation projects should start with a translation brief. In this document, you will outline your company’s tone of voice, what your goals are and provide glossaries of branded terms you wish to preserve in the source language.At this stage it’s important to let the agency know what parts of your website you wish to translate. All of it? Just the blog? The “money pages”? How about the T&Cs? This information will dictate the choice of translators needed to be allocated to your project based on competency and, since website localisation is charged on a per-word rate, you will be able to get an initial idea of price.At Toppan Digital Language, we’ve created tools that allow us to extract text from your website pages and run a first analysis, for a fast ballpark quote.
- Quoting – To finalise the quote, it’s important to provide the translation agency with your original documents, to allow them to determine an accurate word count. At this stage, the source content will be checked with translation tools to find repetitions in the text, which can be discounted from the final price.Usually, you can send your website content in several formats. Some agencies (like Toppan Digital Language) also offer CMS and API integrations, making it easier for you to select content for translation, get a quote and reimport the translated text in the right places while keeping the code intact.
- Translation
- Translation – First, a project manager selects one or more professional linguists based on a combination of factors: their experience, familiarity with your brand and/or industry, previous track record and quality score. The linguist will then translate, often using translation tools to improve output and consistency.
In Toppan Digital Language’s case, we host the tools ourselves, and our translators sign in our portal to access them. This has two main benefits: on one hand, we can work with the best translators in the industry, regardless of what software they own (we don’t charge them to use ours).Also, our clients’ work resides on our secure server, meaning the translators cannot access documents without our approval and cannot copy and paste or download confidential work. During the translation process, project managers keep track of the work and relate any queries to the client and feed the answers to the team of translators. - Revision – This step of the process is carried out by another, equally qualified native linguist who checks grammar and style while making sure the meaning of the source text is preserved.
- Translation – First, a project manager selects one or more professional linguists based on a combination of factors: their experience, familiarity with your brand and/or industry, previous track record and quality score. The linguist will then translate, often using translation tools to improve output and consistency.
- Importing content – Usually, clients are in charge or inserting the translations into their own sites. When we work on source files such as HTML, our tools ensure your code is protected at all times, making re-importing your translated content safe and hassle-free. As mentioned earlier, using CMS integrators makes it easier to import translations into your site.
- QA – This optional step of the process involves a professional linguist using the website and checking that the translated version satisfied its users. In particular, they look out for:
- Technical bugs such as text that overruns text boxes due to longer words in other languages or translated text inserted on the wrong pages of your site.
- Style and grammar errors once more, now with the bonus of seeing the translations in context.
This service is usually charged per hour.
Find out how much it would cost to translate your website here:
What is Transcreation and how does it differ from translation?
Transcreation is often described as ‘creative translation’, but in fact it is far more complex than this.
Transcreation, carried out by translators who are also copywriters in their own language, takes into account the cultural and contextual differences between source and target markets, which often means making cultural adjustments beyond the point of localisation.
As a result, the transcreated text should read as if it were originally written in the reader’s native language and deliver exactly the same impact and evoke the same emotions as the source text did to readers in the original language.
An example of translation vs transcreation can be seen below:
What is Multilingual Copywriting?
Sometimes, the translation of content is not the best approach to engage with consumers in new markets. These consumers have their own unique culture and identity – that’s why brands may choose to engage with their international customers with content created specifically for them.
Copywriting is a highly creative process and as such requires detailed briefing and an open channel of communication with the end client to ensure that work is created to their specification.
Reference material is a large factor in ensuring the copywriter has the necessary information to produce copy that meets the requirements and expectations of the end client. Some examples of reference material include information about the target customer, images of products, previous examples of creative content, and brand’s tone-of-voice guidelines.
Multilingual copywriting is carried out by native-speaking writers. In this case, their writing ability is much more important that their understanding of other languages.
What is a Certified translation?
Clients will often ask for a “certified translation”.
In this case, the most important thing is to ask which kind of certification they need, as there isn’t a single, global certification.
Normally, a translation certification from an agency consists in a stamp and an accompanying letter stating that the translation has been completed by a professional translator and is, to the best their knowledge, of high quality and true to the original text.
This is certainly the case in the US and UK, but to complicate things, different countries have different certification systems in place. For example, in France and Spain, translations to be used in court will have to be carried out by “sworn translators”.
In some cases, translations will need to be accompanied by notarisation, an extra step where a notary is required to certify the translator’s signature on the affidavit used to attest the accuracy of the translation.
Machine translation: what is it and how does it work?
With the recent advancements in AI, Machine Translation is on everyone’s mind.
But what is it? And how good is it?
The term “machine translation” (MT) refers to the use of computer software to translate text automatically.
There are different types of machine translation:
- Rule-based, where software attempts to model the rules of a language;
- Statistical, where the computer attempts to learn from large amounts of text that have been previously translated;
- Neural, which, unlike the traditional phrase-based translation systems, uses a single, large neural network that can be trained with existing content and a feedback loop to produce more accurate translations over time.
Isn’t it better to machine translate and post-edit?
Although general, raw machine translation still leaves much to be desired for, when machine translation engines are customised, they can provide a better result.
During the process of customisation, human translators train a specific engine to handle a specific client’s work.
To make machine translation a realistic option, you need to meet these criteria:
- At least 20,000 aligned translation segments (source and target text)
- A large body of monolingual reference data, to train the style
- A large body of bilingual reference data, to train the grammar
Why not just use Google Translate (or Bing)?
First, let’s look at how Google Translate works:
We test Google’s machine translation regularly to see how the quality compares.
The hypothesis is that one day Google’s quality will be sufficient that it can replace the translator in the translation process, and then be edited by a professional human translator to get it up to the required quality.
All of our testing so far has shown that it is more time-consuming correcting Google’s translations, but there are deviations from language pair to language pair, and according to the type of text.
In our tests, Google Translate has consistently performed better when translating English into Spanish and Italian than it has translating into French and German. It also translates general texts – simple communications and simple grammatical phrases – far better than more complex specialised texts.
However, even in the best cases we have so far found that the time required to correct the machine translated text means that it is more cost-effective to translate from scratch.
International Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
It’s impossible to talk about content without mentioning SEO, no matter which language you operate in.
Building a site and forgetting about it hoping for traffic is the online equivalent of opening a shop in the desert. In the same way, a localisation of your site alone often won’t be enough if it’s not executed with SEO in mind.
Sometimes referred to as global or multilingual SEO, international SEO is the optimization of a website for internet users within a specific locale. This service is often executed in conjunction with website translation and it helps building the online presence of a business in a foreign country.
Our Approach
We go through a detailed account set-up process for each new client to build a profile of exactly the right linguistic team. We then hand-pick a team from our pre-vetted database of language and translation professionals. Where necessary we head-hunt through our global network. Our network of professional translators extends around the globe and includes more than 6,000 expert linguists. They support our translation services from on-site locations all over the world.
Translation Quality
Because of the volume of work we do, we regularly work with many of the world’s best professional translators. Our translation workflow tools continually track and assess the performance of our translators, but there is no substitute for the quality assurance and customer service provided by our in-house expert linguist Project Managers. Our translation services have been independently audited and awarded the ISO 17100 and ISO9001 quality standards. Internally we have created a client service charter which distills our aspirations into a set of key principles that guide the way that we work, the way that our clients are treated, and the way that we deliver our translation services. Call us to find out how we can help you manage your translations.
