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By Andres Heuberger

An enormous amount of hype surrounds the topics of web translation and globalization. However, there are instances when it is inadvisable to translate an organization's web site.

You won't find many translation companies eager to tell you not to globalize your site. But the fact is, there are good reasons why it may not be in your best interest:

1. It's free on the Internet—why should I pay for it?

When it comes to international content you have three options:

1. Mirror your English site;
2. Base content on a subset of the English site; or
3. Develop unique content for each target market.

Sites that offer well-written, jargon-free, simple content may wish to consider using one of the free Internet-based translation services (such as www.freetranslation.com) as an attractive alternative. Beyond being free, these services offer a wide range of languages that do not require updating if the underlying site changes.

For smaller companies this alternative provides an ideal way to "get your feet wet" with minimal investment of resources. But keep in mind that the quality of the translation varies greatly and that the more complex your site, the more prone to mistranslation this process is.

2. Low Return on investment

Whether or not to translate a web site is a business decision and it should be treated as such. Some companies are getting swept up in the mad dash to internationalize their web sites without looking at the underlying financials.

For companies that are in very small niche markets or companies that will do business in the domestic market only, providing a multilingual site may be a waste of time and money.

Also, many companies lose sight of the expense following the initial translation of a web site. If a company's business model calls for fresh content through regular updates, a substantial investment in technology and translation services will be needed to carry this across multiple languages.

To maintain a multilingual web presence, companies typically budget around $50 per page per language per update. A small site with 60 pages in four foreign languages undergoing three updates per year would need to budget a minimum of $36,000 for maintenance of its multilingual web presence. A company may simply be too small (or underfunded) to sustain this kind of ongoing expense.

3. English is lingua franca

In a few narrow industries, English really is the main language being used. One example is international currency trading. For companies supporting this industry, a multilingual web site might not make sense. If your customers don't want or need a translated site, you may want to think twice before creating one.

4. Insufficient resources to service international users

Companies run the danger of getting caught in the multilingual web hype. "I want to sell globally and so I need a multilingual web presence," the argument goes. This may be true but it is not the whole picture.

Once it is determined what you want, the real question is what can you afford? For instance:

a) Who will your support foreign customers? Issues like language-skills, time zones, and accessibility will become important.

b) How will international distribution be handled?

c) Who will reply to incoming emails, faxes, and telephone calls from abroad? Having a Spanish web site, for example, is like telling the world at large: "We speak Spanish. Come and talk to us."

Web globalization is not a one-time undertaking. By committing resources to today, you are in fact committing tomorrow's resources as well. And these resources are significant, especially if a site contains anything more sophisticated than text and tables.

One way to solve this dilemma is to prioritize translation spending. Scrutinize the revenue potential, Internet connectivity, size, and translation expense for various prospective international markets and base the translation decision on this analysis.

5. Who is responsible?

Many companies lose sight of the demands that a globalization effort will place on the organization. Does the required breath and depth of skills exist? What functions or departments need to be shored up with additional staff? Will internal politics and turf wars sabotage the venture?

Structurally, web translation may reside in any one of a number of different departments: Marketing, Engineering, International, New Media, Information Systems, Communications, R&D, etc. Across software companies, there does not appear to be a commonly chosen "place" or person responsible. The function appears to wind up with whomever doesn't move fast enough to get out of the way.

This has the undesirable effect that translation is not managed effectively. The best people and resources are put on other projects with higher profiles, leaving globalization efforts to fall short of its goals.

6. Bad timing

The risk of entering too late (i.e., competitors are already established) must be carefully balanced with the cost of rushing into a market too early (i.e., when no market exists yet). In many online segments, companies invest substantial resources into being first. Because this involves venturing into uncharted territory, your competitors may benefit by learning from (and avoiding) your expensive mistakes.

Enter the world with open eyes

hile you cannot afford to ignore the global market if you wish to maintain your leadership position, you can still exercise a healthy understanding of the demands and potential pitfalls to building a multilingual web presence. Carefully analyze the situation before committing your company's resources.

Andres Heuberger is an editor at multilingualwebmaster.com. He frequently writes on issues related to technology, translation, and regulations. Rants and raves can be sent to aheuberger@multilingualwebmaster.com.

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