Localize dynamic content and cut costs with these 5 crucial tips

In this post, we’ll learn what dynamic content is, why it is important to translate it fast, and how to automate its localization.

Dynamic content is content that you or users continuously add to your website. This includes e-commerce product descriptions, travel reviews, movie subtitles, app store blurbs — everything that changes daily (or hourly) and requires quick handling.

“Can’t read, won’t buy”: A recent industry report revealed that by 2020 you will have to have your content translated to 48 languages. Otherwise, you will miss out on a hefty slice of the globalization pie.

First of all, you need it fast. Every hour of delay is an hour of missed customers or opportunities. Second, it comes in huge piles of small text chunks. Translating them one by one (whether through an agency or a freelancer) means too much time spent on sending things back and forth and other non-productive work. Finally, it comes pricey. A modest online store generates monthly content worth thousands of dollars in translation — so you must optimize your localization costs wisely.

Smartcat has an open API that you can easily integrate your website with. Send new content, have it automatically assigned to a translator, get a callback once it’s ready, and publish the translation on your website. More complex scenarios are possible, too. If you already have translators you trust, you can add them to your team and send them invitations until one of them accepts the job. All this is done with the API, of course. Money matters are always of primary interest. Which brings us to —

1. Use machine translation + post-editing. Instead of translating from scratch, post-editors take a machine translation output and make it grammatically and semantically correct. It is much quicker and less expensive than the “normal” way of translating, and the quality is usually good enough for general understanding. In other words: “Can read, will buy.”Plus, Smartcat lets you use a variety of MT engines, including the latest neural engines from Microsoft and Google, which produce significantly better results, and an adaptive one from Lilt, which “learns” from your texts as you go.

2. Accumulate knowledge. With Smartcat, you won’t need to translate (or pay for) the same (or similar) text twice. The platform “memorizes” all your translations through what is called, guess what, “translation memory”.Besides, translators working on your texts can suggest additions to your corporate glossary. By maintaining this glossary, also known as “term base”, you can ensure consistency across all your globalized content.

3. Work directly with freelancers. In Smartcat, you work directly with freelancers, only paying an industry-low commission of 10% to Smartcat (compare it with the usual 60% for conventional translation agencies).Moreover, we can help you build a permanent team for any language pairs and subject areas. We will even test the candidates at no cost to you!

4. Approach different content differently. Hire high-quality human translations for the most popular or critical texts and, for what’s not so important, employ post-editors (or even use raw machine translation — for free). And if a certain item performs well in a specific country, translate its description into that country’s language. In Smartcat, you have plenty of options to choose from — all of them available through the API.

5. Let your customers pay for translation. If your platform allows members to sell their own items (or promote their own content), you can provide translation as an additional service to them.For instance, you can create a “Localize My Content” button that will translate the text via Smartcat API and charge the customer for it. If you want, you can even add your own fee on top.

Venturing to new markets can be scary — but Smartcat and its family of 100,000+ local translators are here for you to make your journey as enjoyable as possible. Sign up now, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know to ensure fast and efficient localization of your dynamic content.