Localization is one of the essential steps to make your project — website, app, or game — successful. Studies show that more than 60% of buyers and customers value localized content. So, the importance of localization is unconditional.

However, many companies see website localization services as ‘leftover’. But it should work like this: localization is not something you should do in the last turn. To make localization professional and effective, it is necessary to have a clear workflow in place.

If you are still using massive spreadsheets, email threads, and outdated applications and tools, now is the time to optimize your localization workflow and become at least several steps ahead of your competitors.

So, What Is Localization Workflow?

Localization workflow is an organized process to make content localization possible. The main goal is to get the localized content for the target locales.

It is important not to have any localization workflow — the idea is to execute website localization services as smoothly as possible.

Why Do You Need a Website Localization Workflow?

Globally, localization workflow is needed to make the content adaptation effective, continuous, and complete. Well-organized localization workflow helps overcome the challenges and avoid common mistakes companies make when localizing their content for new markets.

Before you start localization, you need to define your strategy to know the destination you are reaching. A well-defined workflow serves as a checklist for the localization team that helps check themselves whether they forgot something or not during their work.

However, almost every leader — about 98% — believes that strategy implementation takes more time than strategy formulation. So, it is not only essential to formulate a strategy, but also to start implementing it and making it better with every iteration.

So, what are the essential steps of the modern website localization workflow? How do you need to organize it to make localization professional and perfect?

Here are the necessary parts without which localization will become a tough and even senseless process.

1. Make pre-localization preparation

Preparing your project for localization is as important as the high-quality translation itself. Before you start localizing, it is essential that you:

• Define your target markets
• Choose languages for translations
• Do internationalization for your website
• Consider date formats, currency symbols, and other things that might differ for various regions
• Create brand books and voice & tone for your product for different locales
• Develop guidebooks, style guides, and terminology glossaries for translators

2. Prepare files and assets for localization

Another thing to do before localizing and translating the content is to extract all the textual content from the code into the resource files. Today, modern localization tools support various source file formats and can automatically extract the source strings from the code and make them available for translation.

One of the best decisions is to do it through API. Modern localization tools usually provide you with this option. Using API, you get a direct connection between your TMS and your code, so it will be unnecessary to upload all the files manually.

It will make the process safe and more independent as your team will not need to interfere with the code and will not ruin something there eventually.

3. Create a strong localization team

A professional and robust localization team is one element that makes your localization workflow smooth. You have several options — from hiring freelancers to set up your internal localization team.

However, we recommend choosing professional website localization services. Localization agencies have vast experience working with different projects and have experienced linguists in their teams that use top-notch management systems and localization tools to deliver professionally localized content.

4. Set up localization tool environment

Another point to pay attention to is your company’s tools for localization. Usually, here, we talk about translation management systems (TMS). The goal of TMS is to ease the localization workflow, automate the process, and manage all the communication and documents in one place.

Translation management systems should be tightly integrated with your company’s tool system to speed up the entire localization workflow.

5. Translation of content

Of course, translation does not mean simple linguistic translation. When we talk about translation, we mean adaptation and transcreation of the content. Localization includes not only linguistic changes; it should be more about changing context and the message when needed for another region.

This stage in the localization workflow is straightforward — localization managers translate and adapt the content to the new market to make it sound and look native and local.

6. Revise your localized content

Revision is the next essential step to delivering high-quality localization. It is needed to correct grammar, spelling, voice, and tone errors. Some of the checking can be done with the help of automated tools. However, these grammar and spelling checking tools will not tell you whether you fully understand the context or not.

The easiest way to revise is to use TMS. This tool will help all team members to collaborate in one place. For example, TMS makes it possible to leave comments to the original translators or content owners.

7. Incorporate localized content into the product

After the content is proofread, it is time to integrate it into the project and release new locales. Today, most TMSs allow you to download the content in the same file format as you uploaded it.

However, as we have mentioned before, API can make all the stories even easier. If there is an API for your TMS, localized content can be imported automatically. So, you can insert localized strings directly in the code, where you put the identifying tags for needed translation.

8. Monitor your content and update if needed

It might seem that localization is finished when you release a new version in a foreign language. However, it is not exactly true. The localization process should not ever end if you want to maintain the high quality of your product.

You should monitor how users accept your localization, what they say, and what the stats of the localized versions is. It is essential to look at feedback from your actual users or social media to respond quickly if any changes are needed ASAP.

Bottom line

Creating a strict and well-organized localization workflow is a huge time and money saver. Do not forget to document your workflow and ensure that every team member understands and uses it.

It will help you avoid any unnecessary actions — you will concentrate on the next step and know for sure what you are going to do next.