Make Hygraph content multilingual: Tips to speed up translations without sacrificing quality

When it comes to expanding your business into new markets, it is essential to have your content translated and localized. It includes choosing a strategy, downloading and sending content for translation, as well as copying them back. The process of localization can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially if you are dealing with large volumes of content and doing it all manually.

The good news is that you can automate many of the steps involved in the localization process, making it faster, more efficient, and more effective. In this article, we will discuss how you can automate the localization of Hygraph content and reach new markets faster.

#Why localization is important

Localization refers to the process of adapting a product, content, or software to the specific language, cultural, and regional differences of a particular target market. The language of your product plays one of the most important roles when it comes to purchasing. Why? Because 76% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product if the information is available in their native language.

For example, a software company may develop its product in English, but to reach a wider audience in non-English speaking countries, it needs to localize the product's interface, documentation, and support materials to the target language.

Similarly, a website may need to be localized to make it more appealing to a target audience in a different region. This could include changes to images, graphics, and text, as well as the design and layout of the site.

Localization also offers several benefits including increased sales, improved customer engagement, increased market share, better user experience, increased reach and competitiveness. By localizing products, content, or software, you can reach new markets, increase customer engagement, and differentiate from industry players, leading to increased sales and growth.

#Start Hygraph localization: prepare your source content

Starting the localization process begins with preparing your source content. Below are some tips to help you prepare your source content for localization:

Choose content and languages

The first step in preparing source content for translation is to decide which content needs to be translated and into which languages. This will often depend on your target audience. When choosing the languages, consider factors such as the geographical location of your target audience, competition (see what languages your competitors have translated their products into), and language popularity.

Be consistent

Consistency is key when preparing source content for translation. This means using consistent terminology and phrasing, as well as following a consistent style guide throughout your content. For example, the same buttons texts or footer info will help save time thanks to the translation memory feature. It allows you to translate the source content only once, and the tool will automatically replicate it wherever duplicates appear, saving you time and effort.

Beware of words with multiple meanings

Words can often have multiple meanings, and these can change depending on the context in which they are used. This can cause confusion for both the translator and the target audience. To avoid these potential issues, it is important to use specific, clear language and to be mindful of words that have multiple meanings in different contexts.

#Choose your translation strategy

Once you have prepared your source content, the next step in the localization process is to choose your translation strategy. There are two main options for translation: machine translation and human translation. Keep in mind that you can combine them too. The choice of which one to use will depend on your specific needs and goals.

Machine translation engines

Machine translation uses artificial intelligence algorithms to translate text from one language to another. Its greatest benefit is that it is fast, efficient, and can handle large volumes of text.

However, the quality of machine translation can vary, and it may not always produce accurate or culturally appropriate translations. Additionally, default machine translations do not take into account the context and tone of the original content, which can lead to awkward or inappropriate translations that can also negatively impact search engine rankings.

Human translations

Human translation involves having an in-house translator, freelancer or an agency translate and review your content. This option is more expensive than machine translation, but it often produces higher-quality translations that are culturally appropriate and accurate. Human translators also take into account the context and tone of the original content, which can lead to more effective and appropriate translations. This approach can also include the post-editing machine translation approach.

When choosing your translation strategy, consider the following factors:

• The quality of the translation you require and whether machine translation or human translation is best suited to meet your needs.

• The volume of text you need to translate and whether machine translation or human translation is more efficient for your needs.

• The time you have available for translation and whether machine translation or human translation will take longer.

• Budget and whether you can afford the cost of human translation (professional agency or freelance translators).

By considering these factors, you can choose the translation strategy that is best suited to your needs and goals. Whether you choose machine translation or human translation, the key to success is to choose a strategy that is fast, efficient, and effective and that produces high-quality translations that are culturally appropriate and accurate.

#Ensure translation quality

Ensuring the quality of your translation is crucial to the success of your localization efforts. There are a lot of ways to ensure that your translations are of high quality. We’ll tell you about creating a glossary and style guide for translators and providing context.

Create a glossary and style guide for translators

A glossary is a list of words and phrases that are specific to your industry. By creating a glossary and style guide for translators, you can help ensure that the same terms and phrases are used consistently across all of your translations. This will help maintain consistency in terminology and style, which is crucial to effective communication with your client.

Provide as much context as possible

Providing context to your translation team is crucial to ensuring that your translations are accurate and effective. It will not only improve the quality of translations but also speed up the localization process and reduce the number of issues and questions from the translation team. You can provide content by adding additional string descriptions/comments, providing screenshots, or designing prototypes. For example, in localization software named Crowdin, there are several ways to provide contexts, such as Crowdin In-Context (live preview of web applications), the context for separate strings in the editor, uploading and tagging screenshots, integrations with design tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, and more.

#Localization in Hygraph

Yes, you can do localization in Hygraph manually. This involves several steps to set up the project, exporting content/giving translators access to your account, and copy-pasting translations back to the dedicated fields.

At first, you’ll need to add locales. For this, visit project settings. Then go to the content you’d like to work with and enable localizations to the languages you need. You will see ‌additional space for each language. Here you can paste your final translations to create multilingual content. Yes, manual localization can be an option when you have a small amount of content or are only targeting one or two languages. However, as your localization efforts grow in scale and complexity, manual localization can become time-consuming and prone to errors. Thus, it becomes increasingly important to use automation to streamline the localization process and ensure consistency and accuracy in ‌translations.

#Automate localization: schedule updates of your source texts and translations

To streamline your localization process and ensure that your translated content stays up-to-date, it's important and more efficient to automate ‌all of your content and translation updates. This is where the integration of Hygraph and Crowdin comes into play. With this integration, you can easily schedule updates for your source texts and translations to keep your content relevant.

The integration allows you to schedule hourly, daily, or weekly updates of your source texts and translations so that you don't have to manually update them. By automating the localization process, you can reduce the risk of human error and ensure that your translations are always accurate and up-to-date. You can also save time and effort, as you won't have to manually update your source texts and translations. This allows you to focus on other important tasks, such as developing, marketing, and promoting your product.

Here’s a quick Hygraph translation connector overview:

#Automate localization and reach new markets faster

To sum up, automating the localization of your Hygraph content can help you expand into new markets more efficiently and quickly. By properly preparing your sources, selecting the appropriate translation strategy, and automating the localization process when possible, you can ensure that your content accurately conveys your message to your target audience.

Automate the localization of your Hygraph content and reach new markets more quickly and effectively with Hygraph and Crowdin integration.