Translation Software 101: What is Website Translation Software? | Smartling

What is Website Translation Software?

Website translation software is designed to simplify and automate the translation and localization of content. Website translation software also goes by the name “Translation Management System” (TMS) and facilitates translation at scale.

Businesses leverage content - the words on their website - to engage users, and all of this content has to be translated and localized for worldwide adoption. Translation software is designed to keep content organized and is a way to keep necessary collaborative tools in one place. Website translation software helps businesses keep their brand tone and vision cohesive.

Translation software is designed to help reduce:

• The manual work inherently involved when translating content
• The amount of time teams spend overseeing translation
• The cost of translation

When you combine the time and money savings, translation software creates space for efficiency. More efficiency means your company can tackle other pressing projects without additional overhead.

Smartling estimates that over 50% of work related to managing website translation is eliminated when implementing the right translation software for your business. The more rapid the translations, the speedier the process, and the tighter the turnaround is on projects across the board. Translation software can save you money and time.

Who Should Use Website Translation Software?

To rise above your competition, it’s necessary to assess time spent on projects versus incoming revenue. Consider the following questions to determine if translation software could be right for you.

1. Do you spend more time than you should managing all of the moving parts of your translation project(s)?
2. Does post editing consume a significant portion of your work day?
3. Does your business require a continuously-updated website featuring dynamic content?
4. Do you send multiple messages to your translator or language services provider to wrap up a project?
5. Do your translation efforts require a tremendous amount of resources (people/time/money)?
6. Are you yet to meet your translator, the person, or people responsible for translating your website content?
7. Does the training process drain you of resources and energy to ensure translation is done right the first time?
8. Are you still using spreadsheets to keep track of your translations?

If you’ve answered yes to one or more of these questions, it may be time to consider a translation software solution to minimize the burden and scale your translation program.

What are the Benefits of Website Translation Software?

When you use a translation management software, you have the ability to manage everything related to the translation process like workflows, visual context, translation memory, brand assets, and translation resources. Enabling a translation software allows for improved quality of work, but the benefits do not stop there.

• Translation software negates incessant back and forth communication between a project manager and a translator
• It provides a full background of context for translators (glossary, brand voice, visual context)
• Enables better quality of work and acts as a courier between brands and audiences
• Cuts down on errors with quality checks
• It is automatic, so there is less time spent assigning projects and reviewing strings

The benefits of translation software are endless. In short, translation software is: scalable, versatile, simple, and allows you to have better control of your brand’s translated content.

Since websites are built on different CMS’, Smartling translation management software operates from a single translation software platform, thereby holding the power to manage all types of websites with equal accuracy.

How to Choose the Right Website Translation Software

When you are choosing translation software, keep these points in mind to help you select an option that:

• Can automatically move strings from CMS to the translation software itself
• Is integrated with TMS and the CAT Tool so your translator has context at their fingertips
• Is Cloud-based to ensure your work is protected
• That has a reliable and viable support team for when you have questions as you expand your business

About Smartling

Smartling’s website translation software has a range of utilities to aid in your localization efforts. Our translation software has native integrations for the most popular eCommerce platforms, content management systems, help desk portals, marketing hubs, and repositories to make localization effortless. And we have a team of talented translators from all over the world to provide accurate translation in any language.

Ready to learn more? Contact us to get started.

Looking to do more research? Download our Sample Translation RFP to organize your search.