Hello again. This lesson is on localization workflow. Localization is a key part of the global web marketing process. Without having a localization team or agencies in place, there is no way to scale and be relevant. Certainly you could use tools like Google Translate, but for most users those will not be an effective way to receive their content. In order to do localization well, you need to have a strategy and process in place, and vendors that you work with who make things much easier. It also requires ongoing training, and an understanding of how to do the operational work well. You'll learn knowledge about how to do translation effectively, the steps required in the localization process, and how to work effectively with localization agencies who can help you make these implementations. In essence, localization is about understanding your audience. It's not merely translation where you take a word and translate it into another language. Localization takes into account culture, context, and relevance. You must become culturally aware. This extends beyond words to include images and videos. Various cultures respond differently to different messages. Some images will resonate more depending on country of origin and cultural relevance. If a culture is new to you, consider testing to see whether a message or visual on the website will truly resonate, or if it might offend this audience. Let's walk through a simple example. Suppose you have three popular English keywords that you know deliver results, and have sufficient search demand. You're thinking about how to translate English content into other languages. Suppose you've taken that English content, those three keywords and translated them into German, French, and Spanish. You're looking at the demand, or relevance, or some of the other keyword measures we discussed earlier. Often, that keyword you thought was ideal for English shows either very little demand, is culturally irrelevant, or just doesn't resonate in another language. If your SEO lens reveals a lack of demand, not enough people are looking for that content, then you must get creative determining other keywords that will prompt strong responses in those languages, or agree that this choice of keywords is the best you can do all other things being equal. This is an inherent challenge. It's common. It comes up anytime you talk to those with a translation or localization background. For example, say you're looking at digital marketing but you want to translate that into French. In English it has 1,600 monthly searches. But when you translate that exact phrase into French, it gets only 70. It can go the other direction as well where a keyword that has great resonance in another language, is not the term your team wants to use for your primary English content. The point here is that you won't automatically get keywords exactly right when it comes to having the highest demand, just do the right thing for your audience. Right in such a way that the content makes sense culturally for each language you translate into. This is why it's important to consider native speakers to help with your translation efforts. It can be challenging to justify localization because there is an expense required. You need to pay for services, either at a localization agency, or through a competent internal team you train or hire. It's important to let your current traffic, while marketing focus guide how you prioritize localization. Clearly, one major purpose of hosting different sites or sections in other languages is to provide information in those various countries, but nothing irritates customers more than poorly translated copy. If it were as simple as using something like Google Translate, they do it themselves. Therefore, you need to have copywriters who speak the target language intimately, to capture the nuances of what you're trying to say. There are ways to scale localization by thinking through levels of engagement. This is not a boil the ocean exercise. Start with the simplest deliverable, keyword research by a native speaker. After that, maybe you'd use a documented localization process. Once that's in place, if business continues to justify moving forward, maybe consider localization agencies, training and reviews. I'm going to walk through each of these in more detail. Here's Level one; suppose you're starting with content in English or your native language and you want it translated into a few other languages because there's a business case for it. You could hire a native speaking person who has a basic understanding of keyword research. You can find translators on UpWork or Fiverr. You may need to train them in SEO basics related to the desired language. But you can start simply by using the Google Keyword Planner, or another keyword research tool, then demonstrate how you want keyword research done for another language. You might consider other options for translation. You can take the path of lower quality and lower commitment which is crowdsourcing, or machine learning, translation, utilizing Google Translate, or another automated translation tool, but I recommend that you consider localized keyword research where quality increases in proportion to the training, and skill of your translation team. The highest quality comes by working with a local translator. This incurs a higher cost, and requires greater commitment. Some situations call for a localization process that's documented. For example, in a multinational enterprise. You may want to put in place a step-by-step documented repeatable process, or ask for it, if you're working with team with something already established. This might include number one, in-country keyword research, two, map keywords to a preferred landing page for the languages you're translating into. Three, localizing those keywords and content while being culturally sensitive regarding video and images. Number four, you could establish a review process where the editorial SEO and web teams collaborate regarding the kind of localization you're doing, involving many perspectives in content review increases accuracy. Number five, finally, that localized content then goes live in the launch. This is a mature way of thinking about localization because it emphasizes quality control, requires communication among teams to ensure that nothing is missed and it ensures the process is as efficient as possible. Most multinational companies eventually hire a vendor, or vendors to handle localization. If you go this route a vendor strategy becomes a partnership where you're choosing translators well by picking freelancers, or agencies, with experience in your countries. Ultimately, you should give these teams some freedom, encourage them to capture central idea of your message and adapt that into native written content to best capture your audience's attention. Here are a few things to keep in mind if you go this route. Make assignments by language, not by product so that you capture the linguistic expertise of your workers. This creates consistency across a single language. Ultimately, your search needs can complement other websites, or collateral, or copy needs that you have for localization. So that you have the same vendors working on multiple deliverables for a launch, or a product release. You might consider a translation guide for a more sophisticated organization. This brief document covers the tone of voice in writing style. You could even do this in video or some other visual way to help your workers better understand expectations. In this way you're sharing with your translation provider or partner the best practices so that expectations are clear. You might also build a glossary or dictionary of common terms and phrases that require particular translation. Here's where you'd include brand terms that you don't want translated, or specific criteria for how phrases that are pertinent to your industry are translated, and make assessments at a per language level of how you think through your industry terms, what that means for content on your site. One final step I recommend, is to develop a review process. Building a review process provides needed quality control to ensure the effectiveness of your localized marketing copy. Typically, you'll have linguistic reviewers for targeted regions. They may sit in country or have native language speaking ability. They won't have the same level of buy-in as employees, or clients you work with directly. Having your regional or geographically based teams sign off on the content, engenders further buy-in and ownership of the content that's going live. You also increase ownership by setting up a long-term engagement with your chosen vendor or partner increasing accountability, and quality through a coordinated review process.
