Chinese Website Translation Basics
China has the largest population in the world. Its online market growth is number one in the world as well. Even though there may be some challenges with Chinese website localization (which content management system to use, which translation agencies, who in your company can drive the project), it is the only way to open up opportunities to increase your company’s global revenues by capturing more of the Chinese markets around the world.
Internet in China
In China alone, the population is over 1.3 billion. If you include overseas Chinese population and people in Taiwan, the number reaches to almost 2 billion. According to the report from CHINA DAILY, China’s Internet users hit 538 million. In the first half of 2012, the number of internet users increased by 25 million and the number will keep growing. China’s internet users alone equal the population of the United States and Brazil combined.
Due to language and cultural complexities, there are many critical considerations to review before localizing your website or content for Chinese Consumers. GPI has produced a more comprehensiveĀ Chinese Globalization White Paper that covers these issues in depth.
Chinese Language
Mandarin and Cantonese are the main SPOKEN Chinese languages. But there are numerous dialects spoken in different regions/provinces in China. In terms of modern WRITTEN Chinese, there are Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. For more information on Chinese languages, please see Chinese Translation Services: Simplified versus Traditional Chinese.
Chinese Website Translation Basic Steps
There are 16 basic steps in a Chinese Website Localization Project:
- Website Translation Strategy including Content Management System review and workflows
- Source File Review
- Project Kick-off
- Subject Matter Training and Research
- Chinese Glossary Development
- Initial Chinese Search Engine Optimization of content
- Chinese Cultural Correctness Assessment
- Chinese Translation Editing and Proofreading
- Chinese Localization of all Graphics
- Formatting of Chinese Documents from the website
- Chinese Localization of any Multimedia
- SEO and Internet Marketing
- Website QA/Testing
- Delivery to Client
- Final Edits and Archiving of Files
- Ongoing Chinese SEO and Internet Marketing
For more detailed information on Chinese Website Translation, please see Translation Services.
Chinese Website Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Basic Steps
The search engines in Taiwan include Google, Yahoo and Bing that are commonly used in the Western World. For China, Baidu is the single most important search engine. For more information on Baidu, please refer to our blog: China: Land of Search Engines, Search Marketing and Social Media.
Chinese Search Engine Marketing Services may include:
- Comprehensive website translation and localization
- Multilingual keyword phrase research, refinement and localization
- Multilingual Search Engine Optimization and copy writing of main site content
- Multilingual Search Engine Optimization of meta-tags, titles, alt-tags, heading tags, HTML, etc.
- Submissions to major locale (in-country) and international Search Engines
- Website traffic and keywords ranking reporting
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign content localization
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) country-specific campaign management
