Blog / Online Reputation Management Services / Translation vs. Localization ? What’s the Difference?

Translation vs. Localization ? What’s the Difference?

• By Erica Sunarjo
• Last updated: April 10, 2024
• 7 minute read

Whether you’re an internationally-recognized car manufacturer or a mom-and-pop shop looking to expand, the internet has changed the reach and visibility of your brand, forcing you to better know the audience you are marketing to worldwide. This means your content may require translation.

Anybody, anywhere, can hit the Google search bar to find information about your business. What they find will influence whether they become fans of your brand or write you off entirely.

You’re probably familiar with general brand strategy, but what happens if you plan to market to countries or languages you aren’t familiar with?

Or what if you’re getting a barrage of social media posts and reviews in a language you don’t speak?

You’ll need to invest in localization and translation services for your properties, like your website, and for reviews or social media posts that people write in different languages.

• Language translation converts words from one language to another language.
• Localization adapts content to another market.

This article will cover truly reaching global markets by localizing your content and simply translating the language.

Sections

• The difference between translation and localization
• What is language translation?
• What is language interpretation?
• What is localization?
• Who provides translation and localization services?
• Tips for localizing your branded content

The Difference Between Translation and Localization

If you are planning to publish content in a language you don’t speak, your first instinct may be to run it through Google Translate and call it a day. But doing something like that could end up causing more damage to your brand than good.

When it comes to taking your brand global and reaching diverse audiences, the distinction between translation and localization becomes crucial.

Machine translations offer basic, verbatim translations that are often riddled with errors. These errors can cause major damage to your reputation, and can make your content difficult to understand.

What is language translation?

Language translation converts words from one language to another language. Good translation is more than just about conversion, it’s about context as well.

For example, the type of Arabic spoken in one country can be totally different than in another. Knowing the difference is key to good translation.

Translation key points:

• Literal conversion: Translation involves converting text from one language to another while maintaining the original text’s structure and meaning as closely as possible.
• Word-for-word: It often results in a word-for-word or phrase-for-phrase rendering of the content, emphasizing linguistic accuracy.
• Preserve source culture: Translations typically prioritize retaining the source culture’s nuances, idioms, and references, which can sometimes lead to content feeling foreign or awkward to the target audience.
• Use cases: Translation is suitable for technical documents, legal contracts, and content where precise language and terminology are paramount. However, it may not resonate with local audiences or capture cultural nuances effectively.

Why machine translations aren’t enough:

• Verbatim output: Machine translations, like those from Google Translate, provide verbatim conversions, often failing to capture the context, idioms, and nuances of the target language.
• Risk to reputation: Errors and inaccuracies in machine translations can harm your brand’s reputation, making your content appear unprofessional and unreliable.
• Understanding difficulty: Machine-translated content can be challenging to understand due to linguistic anomalies, which can deter potential customers and users.

What is language interpretation?

Language translation pertains to words that are written. Interpretation is different because it deals mainly with the spoken word. Interpretation is more nuanced because it takes cultural cues into account.

What is localization?

Localization is the process of adapting content to another market.

For example, if you are selling baby food in the United States, the language and images you use might be different than what you might use in another country.

One mythical example is that of a horrible localization guffaw in Africa.

The story goes like this:

A large multinational corporation once attempted to sell baby food in an African nation by using packaging designed for its home country market. The company’s regular label showed a picture of a baby with a caption describing the kind of baby food contained in the jar. African consumers took one look at the product, however, and were horrified. They interpreted the labels to mean that the jars contained ground-up babies!

The truth verification site Snopes says the tale above isn’t true, but it makes a good case for what could go wrong if localization isn’t taken into account.

Localization key points:

• Cultural adaptation: Localization goes beyond mere translation. It involves adapting content to the cultural, linguistic, and contextual preferences of the target audience.
• Contextual flexibility: Instead of a rigid word-to-word conversion, localization allows for flexible adaptations that consider the target culture’s customs, idiomatic expressions, and sensitivities.
• Enhanced relevance: Localization aims to make content more relatable and engaging for the local audience, often by incorporating region-specific references and insights.
• Use cases: Localization is ideal for marketing materials, websites, apps, and multimedia content where audience engagement, cultural resonance, and user experience are paramount. It ensures that your content feels native and resonates with the target audience.

Who provides translation and localization services?

Reputable translation services will employ real, native speakers to translate your content. A translator will take the style and purpose of your content into account, in order to produce a translation that retains the same essence of the original. Translation is the first step in reaching a wider global audience.

As mentioned above, localization, on the other hand, goes beyond a simple translation to account for cultural and regional preferences. Localization extends beyond written content to include colors, images, societal codes, power, relationships, the list goes on.

There have been plenty of business successes and failures that have hinged on how well they handled the localization of their brand. For example, Coca-Cola is called Kekoukele in China, which means “tasty fun.”

Coca-Cola, is called Kekoukele in China, which means “tasty fun.”

Translation and localization are both critical to expanding your brand into global markets.

Tips for localizing your branded content

• To find the best countries to start localizing or translating for, a good place to look is your Google Analytics “Visitors by Country.”
• Use a professional localization and translation firm. Just do it.
• Make sure the people working on your campaign are from or located in, the country you are targeting. French in Canada is different than French in Paris.
• If you will be localizing your website, see the WC3 recommendations here. And for a guide to doing it, look here. At Reputation X, we find many mistakes with Hreflang tags. Learn about them before you start.
• Ask someone in the target location other than your translator to proof the work before it goes live.

Tags: Online Reputation Management Services, Reputation Marketing.