When it is published on the internet and your activity involves several geographical areas, the creation of a multilingual website is essential. However, there are some good practices to follow that are necessary to avoid making mistakes when creating your website. In this article, I will inform you of 3 errors that must be avoided to make your multilingual website the most suitable according to your activity.
Mistake 1.- Do not have pages for each language
Regardless of your online activity, if you are dealing with multiple geographical areas where different languages are used, you should have a multilingual website. You must have a page in each language. Take, for example, a website that extends its reach to France, England and Germany. If we review these countries and list all the languages spoken, we can count French, English and German. You must have a page in each of these languages for the proper functioning of your activity. You must have so many home pages, contact pages, product pages, etc … as languages present on the site. The use of the different extensions for each language should then be considered. For the 3 languages used as an example, here are some examples of URLs per language :
www.miempresa.com/fr/accueil/ for French
www.miempresa.com/en/home/ for English
www.miempresa.com/de/startseite/ for German
Mistake 2.- Translate using online software
You are an entrepreneur and you may not have the means to hire a translator for your multilingual website. You will be tempted to use the translators found on the internet to help you configure the different pages of your website. This is a mistake, not because this type of software is not entirely efficient for translation. You can understand the meaning of a word or a sentence, but you are more likely to get a translation of the word than the meaning. The only alternative is to call a bilingual person (friends, family, network, etc …) to obtain an accurate translation and therefore a quality website. The whole public will be delighted!
Mistake 3.- Mix languages on a page
If you are bilingual and are therefore in charge of creating your website, have those around you check the site. It is quite easy to make mistakes when switching from one translation to another, and sometimes several languages on the same page can be found in some sites. This is something that absolutely must be avoided. Put yourself in the place of your audience. If a potential French-speaking customer is confused in one of its pages because the language changes from French to English (for example), you may not be taken seriously and this may have very negative effects.
You always have to put yourself in the position of a potential customer when you want to maximize your experience. Be as thorough in French as in English, German or other languages!
This content has been published originally by NEOCAMINO-LE BLOG at the following address: https://blog.neocamino.com/3-erreurs-na-pas-commettre-sur-un-site-web-multilingue. If you are thinking of making use of it, please, quote the source and link to the original note from where you have taken this content. Blog.Neocamino.com.
