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It’s time for another Localization Roundup, and on this date we remember the events of September 11th, 2001. Those of you who were old enough (18 years already!), probably recall exactly where you were and how you felt at the time you heard the news of what happened on that day.

This reminds us that for us translation is a mission to build bridges and bring people closer together. We love seeing people communicate and understand each other better. We hope that helps bring peace and goodwill.

And speaking of communicating effectively, today’s Localization Roundup includes an article showing what happens when you try to send your message carelessly without hiring qualified translators for your website localization project. It also includes an article that will help you find appropriate markets for your message. Finally, we have an article that focuses a little less on localization and more on the kind of strategic business planning you need to do if you are thinking about localizing your website or software.

Mexico’s English-language tourism website hilariously mistranslated the country’s most popular spots, the latest of several embarrassing gaffes

This is what happens when you use raw Google Translate or other machine translation text on your website. A machine translation engine doesn’t know when it’s saying something ridiculous (even if you put a fancy word like “neural” in front of “machine translation”).

Machine translation can be a powerful tool to help translators improve the efficiency of their work, but you still need a professional translator “in the loop” to have excellent translations.

Take it from those who learned the hard way.

https://www.insider.com/mexico-official-tourism-website-ridiculed-for-auto-translate-errors-2020-8


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How To Use Browser Language & Analytics To Find New Markets

In this article Mohamed Hedi Lassoued explains how to use your website traffic analytics to figure out what languages you should localize your website into.

We went over the same topic a little in this article—How to Boost Your SEO With Website Localization—but Lassoued gets down to a little more detail on exactly what to do.

https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/16083-browser-language-new-markets.html


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Name Your Brand with a Global Audience in Mind

This article is from a veteran in the localization industry, Nataly Kelly. A board member of Multilingual Magazine and VP of Localization at HubSpot, Kelly has great insights from the region where localization and marketing connect.

This article goes over how that intersection of marketing and website localization affects a company’s choice of brand name for foreign markets.

It covers considerations such as international SEO, legal compliance, and pronounceability.

It further reminds us how many gaffes could have been avoided by a good focus group (as we explain in this article about Pepsi’s attempt to capitalize on Black Lives Matter).

Finally, the article reminds us: it’s all about your customers. Talk with your current customers from target regions to get their input and advice.

https://hbr.org/2020/09/name-your-brand-with-a-global-audience-in-mind

That’s our roundup for this week. Leave a comment below to share any great localization or translation articles you have read lately.

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