Today, we present an interview with AlfaBeta translation service. AlfaBeta is an Italian language services consultancy specializing in international communication.
1.How long has your service been translating?
AlfaBeta was founded in 1989, a year of great revolutions and major changes: the Berlin Wall fell, brave protesters stopped tanks in Tiananmen square, and an ingenious Brit invented the World Wide Web at CERN in Geneva. The web was the technology that accompanied our first steps in the world of language services, and it gradually became our main field of interest and development. This is why we call ourselves “language and web consultants.”
2. Where are you located?
Our office is in Rome, Italy, in the gorgeous neighborhood of Trastevere, and only a short distance from the center of town, St. Peter’s, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, etc. The area is full of small bars and restaurants, so if you come to see us, we’ll take you out to enjoy a nice cup of Italian coffee!
3. What are your specializations?
We specialize in international communication, mainly in the food, wine, tourism, and fashion industries.
Our main mission is to help promote made-in-Italy excellence abroad, but we also help foreign SMEs to enter the Italian market in the best way possible.
AlfaBeta also provides web translation & copywriting, multilingual SEO/SEM & social media marketing services, and so we are in fact a one-stop shop for agencies and direct clients looking for a reliable multilingual web service provider.
4. How often do you translate websites?
We translate web content daily: assignments include full website localization and maintenance work (updates, new pages, blog posts). Main language combinations usually include Italian and/or English.
90% of jobs are for WordPress sites and we usually are asked to carry out some kind of SEO task (e.g. keyword search, metatag and copy adaptation, etc.).
5. What kinds of WordPress websites do you translate most often?
We mostly translate corporate websites, so there is a lot of marketing and institutional content to translate and adapt from a linguistic and cultural viewpoint, as well as from an SEO perspective. We also translate big and small e-commerce websites, focusing on SEO ranking for relevant product keywords.
6. What challenges do you find in WordPress websites?
The quotation phase is critical, especially if the customer is not sufficiently IT-literate. We often manage to work directly with web agencies that have developed the website, and, in some cases, they can help us produce a reliable quotation by following our instructions, i.e., installing WPML and sending us content to be translated (pages, posts, strings, etc.).
Customer/agency collaboration is essential in this phase to guarantee that the content to be translated is correctly identified.
Generally speaking, the main challenge has to do with the translation of plugins and themes, but luckily WPML is more and more compatible with most of them. Furthermore, we are lucky to have WPML’s LSP dedicated support: super-efficient and expert guys who are always willing to and capable of solving the most challenging issues
7. How do you ensure that translations are accurate and match the tone of the website?
Accuracy is guaranteed by our TEP process, which is by Translating, Editing, and Proofreading web content. The Proofreading task is carried out after the translated content has been transferred to the website and is in fact also a testing task that allows us to read and, if necessary, edit the content in its context.
The general tone of the website is analyzed and agreed to by the client during the briefing phase, before the actual translation phase is started. Detailed instructions are prepared for translators and reviewers to make sure that the agreed-upon style guidelines are respected.
8. Can you give some examples of recent WordPress translations that you have completed successfully?
We have created and translated into English the website of a small winery in northern Lazio, the website of a kitchen appliance vendor (into English, German, Polish and Russian), the website of an Internet Service Provider (English) and a portal in the field of top-quality wine&food products.
Ready to send content for professional translation?
Are you interested in taking your translations to the next level by using a professional translation service?
It’s easy:
- Make sure to have WPML Translation Management and WPML String Translation activated in your site.
- In the WordPress admin, go to the WPML -> Translation Management page and click the Translation Services tab.
- Activate the translation service of your preference and authenticate it. For this, you will need to create an account on that service’s website.
- Go to the Translation Dashboard on the WPML -> Translation Management page and select content to send for translation. Add selected content to the Translation Basket.
- Finally, go to the Translation Basket tab, select to translate it using the selected translation service and send it for translation.
You can find the full instructions on the page about sending content for translation.