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Creating and Maintaining an
Internationalized Web Site
Brian “Bex” Huff
Chief Software Architect
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Agenda
Intro to multi-site management
Translation vs. Localization
Localization tools and process
Common issues with translation management
Localization steps
Case study
Cutting costs
International Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
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Global Software is Different...
No longer "software", its "gigaware"
• Applications meant to (potentially) support a billion of something
New problems always crop up with a billion of something
• Every order of magnitude changes the landscape
In our case, we need to think of a billion people...
• What percentage use right-to-left languages?
• What laws, regulations, and cultural taboos do you need to keep in mind?
• When is it a good time to do scheduled maintenance on a global website?
• What's the best way to do global search engine optimization?
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Beyond Single-Site Management
Initial state: a large number of internal and external Web sites
• Intranet, records management, document management
• Customers, partners, and supplier extranets
• Content delivery to multiple portals and applications
How did we get here?
• The web is the standard for high speed communication and interaction
• Business need for targeted communication in multiple regions
• Audience expectations for topic-specific or “micro-sites”
Some or all of which need to be localized and/or translated
• Creation and maintenance can be difficult
• The alternative is inconsistent branding, lost customers
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How Multi-Site Management Helps
Lower site management costs, and more accurate content
• Content and sites managed by business, not IT
• Content can be reused, converted, translated, and re-purposed
• Faster implementation time for new sites
• Single infrastructure / architecture cheaper to maintain
Enforce brand guidelines
• Common centralized templates, style guide, and digital assets
Centrally managed Web content
• Records and retention management for discovery, litigation and risk
management
• Content usage analytics (contribution and consumption)
• Workflow approvals
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Translation is not Localization!
Translation:
• Taking content relevant for one region or audience, and translating it
word-for-word into another language used by that audience.
• Example: government web site translated into all official languages
Localization:
• Taking content relevant for a general audience, and changing the syntax
of the content to appeal to a sub-group
• Localization usually includes translation, but not always
• Example: some product statements cannot be made in certain countries
Which do you need?
• How many languages do you support?
• Should different audiences see different content or navigation?
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Is it a Localized Site, or a Microsite?
Some locales may be very active
• Their site looks almost nothing like the global site
Do you want to manage this process?
• Requires everybody to use the exact same process
Or, do you want "active locales" to have total control?
• Completely different content
• Completely different navigation structure
• Completely different web applications
• At this point, it’s no longer a localized site, but still can re-use content
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Benefits of Localization Management
Cost savings
• Content translated once instead of multiple times
Go-to-market time savings
• Sites launched quicker by re-using exiting translated content
Brand management
• Central repository for localized images, and positioning content
Frees up resources to improve the site
• Focus on new features that enhance revenue
• Web campaigns, interactive targeted Web marketing, etc.
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What Tools Do We Need?
Oracle Universal Content Management
• Document management
• Metadata tagging for country, language, audience, translation state
• Flexible security model
Oracle Site Studio
• User-friendly contribution for knowledge workers
• Business users have one place to go to manage localized data
Translation Workflows
• Route content to business owners to localize for a specific audience
• Route content to external partners for translation
• Route to reviewers for final approvals
Custom Components
• Localization process varies wildly...
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Translation Process
Internal translation resources vs. translation service?
• Use 3rd party translator for all changes, or just big projects?
• How will you handle file management between you and the translator?
• Do they need Site Studio access, or source files?
• Does the translator offer an API to manage translation?
What types of source content need to be translated?
• Word docs, XML, PDF, images, flash, video, resource bundles, etc.
• Can the company handle everything you need?
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Internal Workflow
Initial questions
• Does your organization have an official language?
• How many locales will create their own content?
• Will some locales be more "active" than others?
• What content needs to be translated, versus localized?
Workflow and routing
• How will new content be routed for translation / approval?
• How will small changes be routed?
• Which people and which tools will need notifications?
• Will there be internal approval of translated content?
• When will non-translated or partly-translated content go live? Never?
• When will content be considered “stale”?
• How long will you tolerate “stale” content”
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Internal Workflow, cont.
Understanding changes
• Do you plan to set up a mechanism to categorize changes?
• What content is critical, and what is “nice to have”?
• What languages are critical, and which are “nice to have”?
• Who determines priority? The author? The locale manager?
• Is all content localized? If not, who makes the decision?
Brand management
• How much flexibility should/will each localized site have with branding?
• When the global company re-brands, will you require re-localization?
• Will the re-brand be all-at-once, or rolled out eventually?
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Who “Owns” The Localized Site?
Establish Web site ownership rules
• Creating guidelines for maintaining current Web site content
• Who owns the budget for content translations?
• Who owns/obtains ownership of the domain?
• Can you obtain ownership of the domain or do you have to use an
alternate URL?
• Are you planning to release a localized version but do not have a local
office in the country?
Who officially owns Web site branding in your organization?
• Each localized site need one primary contact / owner
• Without one, stale content is guaranteed
• Understands the language / need for localized content
• Responsible for keeping content up-to-date
• Coordinates with translators
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Site Maintenance
Content relationships key to long-term maintenance
• Original vs. translated items - helps automate processes & workflows
• Which items belong to which Web sites?
• groups content for appropriate searching, replication, bulk translation, etc.
Are originals ever used on multiples sites?
Oracle UCM Implementation
• Use metadata to control language, region, audience, relationships
• Use accounts to control region-specific content security
• Workflows can become overwhelming
• Need a more report-based approach to what work needs to be done
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Governance and Microsites
A "localizable" site needs a universal style guide
• Governance about navigation, content, images, styles, and applications
• Locales that conform are easier to translate / manage
• Without one, your pages may not meet the audience’s needs
Compromise: locale-specific "microsites"
• Primary localized site follows the universal style guide
• If locales need a radically different look, make a microsite
• Small handful of pages / apps, specific to the audience
• Not re-usable by other locales
• “Deep Links” to main site
Benefits
• Allows for 100% control of UI, content, apps, and navigation
• Majority of localized site follows style guide 15
Translation Challenges
Translation workflows vary wildly
• Different departments have different translation needs
• Time frames, monitoring, participation
• Should consolidate into UCM, and have different workflows per item
Costs
• There's a startup cost for any translation
• Ideally, we could submit all items logically similar
• Requires different departments to pay for different things
• Batches should be one bill, not a dozen
• Figuring out who-pays-for-what can frequently be a surprisingly hard
problem
• So, each department submits their sub-batch, which increases costs
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Translation Challenges, cont.
File Management
• Making sure the translators are working with the latest revision
• Use the API supported by the specific agency
• Push new content, pull translated content
Lack of transparency
• Who is really doing my translation?
• Agencies receive files, then outsource to freelancers
• Content owners rarely get direct communication with translators
Politics! Politics! Politics!
• To cut costs, organization may want to standardize on ONE tanslator
• But, different regions prefer different translators, which causes issues
• Who has budget? Who knows the market?
• Who can determine quality? Who knows the overall strategy? 17
Localization Steps
Localize applications
• Relatively simple
Localize navigation
• Trickier, but needs infrequent updates
Localize content
• Requires constant updates
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Application Localization
Labels, buttons, error messages need to be stored as
translatable strings
Different locales have different formatting rules
• Date strings
• Phone numbers
• Numerical / monetary
Different locales have different laws
• Regulations about what can be bought / sold
• Regulations about storing user information
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Localizing Content-Rich Applications
Separate "labels" from "content"
Labels are short one-word, or one-sentence bits of text
• Used on buttons, web forms, and UI displays
• Controlled entirely by development
• Changes rarely after first launch
• Use a language pack to manage labels
Content is multi-line displays, and sometimes images
• Used as descriptive test for forms, sales, marking material
• Controlled by people outside of development
• Changes frequently after first launch
• Use Open WCM to manage content
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Navigation Localization
Section labels and URLs need to be translatable strings
Sections need to be enabled / disabled depending on locale
• Some sections are "global" and should be translated
• Other sections are "local" and might only exist in one local
Variations
• Do you want locales to automatically get new content / sections?
• Or, must they approve / enable them before going live?
• Or, different rules for different locales?
Use Oracle Site Studio for navigation
• Store in the project file
• May need custom code for URL localization
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Content Localization
If a 3rd party translator is needed, select one with an API
• You’ll need to be able to automatically submit items for translation
Start with global content
With one-click, spawn an initial “localized” content
• Use metadata to control language, region, translation state
Spawn a workflow for managing translated content
Internal resources verify translations
• Or, may do the entire translation for some changes
Need reports on the “state” of your whole site
• How many items in the queue waiting for release?
• Do you have a translation or approval bottleneck?
• Email notifications may need to be disabled
Most organizations have wildly different routing rules... 22
Oracle Translation Workflow Dashboard
Direct availability:
content is released
immediately once
translated and
approved
Or, synchronized:
content is not
released until all
items are
translated and
approved
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Example Implementation
New global e-commerce website
• Some locales were more “active” than others
• Not all products / pages available in all regions
• Need to localize navigation as well as content
• Highly regulated industry, with potential for long approval processes
Oracle Site Studio 10gr4 plus Weblogic Portal
• Navigation managed with Site Studio project file
• Content displayed with WCM_PLACEHOLDER service
Localization and Personalization in Portal
• User selects region/language upon first visit
• Allows for translation of application labels and error messages
• Different regions have different products available
• Different users have different prices, based on different contracts 24
Additional Tools
Navigation Dashboard
• Allows quick and easy localization of navigation
Locale-aware portal controller
• Each locale uses a slightly different navigation structure
• Some locales are 95% similar to the "global" locale
• Some locales are 95% different
• Each UCM service request passes along the locale
NextBestLocale
• Sends back the content item
• If translated item is available, send it!
• Otherwise, send the "next best locale"
• Useful to help slowly build out localized pages
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“Next Best Locale”
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Navigation Dashboard
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Localization Tips
Test multiple translation vendors
• Some are better with different kinds of content
• It’s common to need multiple vendors, based on departmental preferences
Enforce a style guide for consistent content
• Makes translation more standardized / cheaper
Always have a single “site owner” for the localized site
• Responsible for keeping content up-to-date
• Coordinates with chosen translation house
• If an “owner” is not assigned – the risk of stale/stagnant localized sites
increases
Submit projects in large batches
• Translation has overhead: large projects are more cost effective
• Can be difficult if project is cross department, paid for by multiple internal
departments
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Reducing Costs: Translation Memory Software
Database of words and phrases you translated previously
Benefits
• Ensures more consistent language on your site
• Assists translators, and reduces costs
Most translation companies use it to cut costs
• But... if you’re the first, you pay the full costs
• Other departments, or even your competition, may benefit
• Might want to use translation memory software in-house
Example: World Server
• Keeps a database of what you've translated
• Slims down what needs to be translated before shipping to 3rd parties
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Reducing Costs: Crowdsourcing
Allow your community to translate your site for you
Benefits
• Less strategic content can still be translated, at a slower rate
• People have a “path” to localized content, if you don’t have the money/time
Example: Lingotek
• Submit documents to translation firms, direct to freelancers, or the
community
• Translators earn cash or “points” after translation
• Depends greatly on what motivates your community
• Engage partners / resellers to do your translations
• Save translation memory to private or open-source databases
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International SEO Tips
Have a top-level domain in the country of interest
• Global site: company.com
• French site: company.fr
• British site: company.co.uk
Make sure content follows W3C accessibility standards
• "alt" tags for images, no JavaScript navigation
• This is gigaware, after all!
Make sure content contains valid markup
• Clean and lean HTML is easier for web spiders to parse
• Put important content at the top of the HTML
• Ensures search engines "understand" what your site is "about"
• Don't embed content or navigation in IFRAMEs or Flash
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International SEO, part 2
Avoid the META KEYWORDS tag: it's ignored by search engines
• <title>, <h1>, and <h2> tags are much more important
• Put localized keywords there, but keep it to 5-10 words
Localize your META DESCRIPTION tags
• Sometimes appears as a snippet of text in search engine result pages
• Make each page's description unique, if possible
Use user-friendly, localized URLs
• If a keyword is in your URL and <h1>/<h2> tags, it will be highly ranked
• Be sure the URL contains words, not numbers/code
• Avoid links that say "click here!"
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International SEO, part 3
Create a sitemap.xml file for each locale
• http://www.sitemaps.org/
• In general, ensure web spiders can see locale-specific navigation
Advanced: use metadata to create Microformats on your page
• Enhances search results pages with "Rich Snippets"
• hProduct: a product your company sells
• hReview / hReview-aggregate: reviews on those products
• hCalendar: event
• hCard: contact information for people
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Special Thanks to IOUG!
Join us at IOUG Collaborate, 2011
• April 10-14, 2011
• Orlando, Florida
• http://collaborate11.ioug.org/
Call for papers now open:
• Deadline: Friday, October 1st
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Questions?
My Company: http://bezzotech.com
My Blog: http://bexhuff.com
My Self: bex@bezzotech.com
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