While it is true that English is both the international language and the language of the internet, not everyone speaks it. Not only that, even people who do speak it are not all equally proficient and when it comes to messaging, communication, and collaboration, clarity of language is key to avoiding misunderstandings.
The fact that the majority of work is done in a digital environment means that people across the globe have a higher likelihood of working with people outside of the English-speaking world. They are also more likely to have an international audience.
These are just some of the reasons why creating multilingual content can be of great assistance. Here are a few tips on how you can organize and optimize this form of content in order to improve your digital workflows.
Conduct Keyword Research in Multiple Languages
Direct translation is not always the way to go. Words don’t just carry meaning – they carry context, nuance, and cultural significance. A phrase that works in English might sound awkward or even completely off in another language.
You might think “cheap flights” is a great keyword, but in some languages, a direct translation might imply “low quality” rather than “affordable.” That’s why you can’t just plug words into a translation tool and call it a day.
People think differently in different languages and phrase things accordingly. In English, people might search for “best budget hotels,” but in another language, users might phrase it more like “hotels that don’t cost too much.” Same idea, different way of saying it. If you don’t take this into account, you could miss out on an entire audience just because your keywords don’t match how they naturally search for things.
Saphir-Whorf’s hypothesis suggests that the language people speak shapes the way they think. This means that beyond just choosing the right words, you need to consider how concepts and ideas are structured differently. Some cultures might emphasize quality over price, while others prioritize convenience.
Ask a local to help or consult generative AI to provide you with more context. If you don’t have a fluent speaker on hand, AI tools like ChatGPT or Google’s language models can give you insights into how people actually use certain words in real conversations. Even then, a native speaker can tell you whether something “feels right” in their language, which AI still struggles with.
Standardize Formatting and Terminology for Digital Workflows
A style guide ensures consistency across languages. If you don’t have one, your translations will end up all over the place. Different translators (or even different AI tools) might interpret the same phrase differently. A style guide sets the rules for tone, terminology, and structure, keeping everything uniform no matter the language.
A glossary of terms prevents translation inconsistencies. Certain words have multiple valid translations, but if you’re not careful, they’ll get used inconsistently across different pieces of content. A glossary locks in the right terminology from the start, so you don’t end up with different words for the same thing in various parts of your website.
Formatting rules need to account for language differences. Some languages take up more space than others. For instance, French and German tend to be wordier than English, while Chinese and Japanese are more compact. So, in order to make formatting easier, you may need to convert PDF to Word. You see, if your layout isn’t flexible, text expansion and contraction can throw everything off, making certain translations look cluttered or misaligned.
Unicode and special characters must be handled properly. If your system can’t handle accents, umlauts, or non-Latin scripts, your multilingual content is going to look like a garbled mess. It’s not just an aesthetic issue; broken characters can make text unreadable and create a bad user experience. Make sure your platform supports all necessary characters from the start.
Choose the Right Translation and Localization Tools
Machine translation is fast but not always accurate. You might be tempted to let Google Translate handle everything, but that’s a risky move. While machine translation has improved a lot, it still struggles with idioms, slang, and complex sentence structures. A slight mistranslation can make your content sound robotic – or worse, completely change the intended meaning.
If you’re working on a lot of multilingual content, you don’t want to manually retranslate the same phrases over and over. Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools store translations of common terms and phrases, making sure your brand voice stays consistent across different languages. Simply put, CAT tools help maintain consistency across multiple documents.
Localization goes beyond translation to adapt content to cultural norms. It’s not just about swapping words – it’s about making sure the content actually makes sense for the audience. A joke that works in ENglish might not land well in another language, and certain references might be completely lost. Localization means adjusting everything from phrasing to images to make sure the message resonates the way you intended.
A combination of AI and human oversight yields the best results. AI is great for speed and efficiency, but it still needs a human touch. A native speaker can catch things an algorithm might miss, like awkward phrasing or unintended cultural implications.
Consistency and Optimization are Essential when Creating Digital Workflows for Multilingual Content
If your formatting is all over the place, your SEO strategy isn’t localized, or workflow lacks structure, things will quickly spiral out of hand. Once you have a clear system in place, tackling all of these issues becomes an easy task. Multilingual content should feel natural to the reader, no matter the language. With the right tools and strategies, you’ll be able to reach a wilder audience without doubling your workload.
Author Bio
Srdjan Gombar – Veteran content writer, published author, and amateur boxer. Srdjan has a Bachelor of Arts in English Language & Literature and is passionate about technology, pop culture, and self-improvement. In his free time, he reads, watches movies, and plays Super Mario Bros. with his son.