Professional Multi Language Website Design

Multilingual web design projects are by their nature more complex to roll-out than single-language sites. Some multi-national companies therefore choose to roll-out a more distributed web presence, where each site is single-language, but is driven from the content of the “corporate” site.

This is achieved by using a standard site design with translated button text, etc. Each system would have its own content management system, allowing the local internal web/marketing team to update their local pages as required.

The advantages of this approach are the speed with which a language site can be added/implemented because each site is completely self-contained. Also each location can easily implement unique local pages to support the specifics of their local marketing/sales activities.

This can be effective if there is strict control over the brand direction and content implementation of each site, but the typical issues associated with this approach is that over time, control can be lost and so brand control and content can drift away from corporate guidelines somewhat.

When very tight control of brand identity and content is required, the best approach to take in delivering a multi lingual website is to implement a centralised multi-language content management system. This approach allows every aspect of the web site to be translated into any number of languages, from the buttons and banners to the text-based content; the whole system is driven by a central content management system.

The advantage of this approach is uniformity across every aspect of the site in every language, but the trade-off is the fact that unique local pages are very difficult, if not impossible, to deliver.

This implementation is the most complex to implement. It provides the control aspect of a centralised multi language design, but also some of the flexibility of a distributed approach.

This is achieved through a web design that is flexible enough to handle the different page requirements of each site. In some cases, these will be “sub-pages” and so they will not impose any demands on the top-level page and menu design. But in most cases there will be a requirement to differentiate the main page and menu structure designs.

The advantage of this approach is that a central team can manage all the requirements of a global web presence. Brand and content control can be maintained while also providing unique local content where required.

The only disadvantage of this approach is the complexity of initial setup and this requires a very professional approach to briefing and implementation of the site and content management system.