内容本地化策略

Setting up the content localization and, thus, configuring the interface language of the product in such a way that the right language is rendered to the right user is extremely important for each digital platform. That’s why we have decided to translate and share with you this expert article by Nicolai Goshin from Hellicht Medien.

对于每个数字平台而言，设置内容本地化，从而以正确的语言呈现给正确的用户的方式配置产品的界面语言是非常重要的。 因此，我们决定翻译并与您分享来自Hellicht Medien的 Nicolai Goshin的这篇专家文章。

And we strongly hope that some strategic points would be valuable for your localization projects!

我们强烈希望一些战略要点对您的本地化项目有价值！

背景和初步考虑 (Background and preliminary considerations)

Digital projects targeting audiences in different countries or different language areas are doomed to take advantage of localization strategies. So we must answer the following question: which users should be given which content in which languages? The question at the first sight seems simple. But later in this article we will point out why this topic is, in fact, complex. And, of course, we will also address how to deal with this complexity.

针对不同国家或不同语言领域的受众的数字项目注定要利用本地化策略。 因此，我们必须回答以下问题：应该为哪些用户提供哪种语言的哪些内容？ 乍一看，这个问题似乎很简单。 但是在本文的后面，我们将指出为什么这个主题实际上很复杂。 当然，我们还将解决如何处理这种复杂性。

Let's assume a scenario in which content (for example, an online magazine) is available in three languages: German, English, and Arabic. The goal is ideally to provide content to each user in their native language. If this is not possible, the content should be provided to the user in the language that they best understand apart from their mother tongue.

让我们假设一个场景，其中以三种语言提供内容(例如，在线杂志)：德语，英语和阿拉伯语。 理想的目标是以每个用户的母语向他们提供内容。 如果无法做到这一点，则应以其母语以外的最佳语言向用户提供内容。

Please note, this is an expert article. In what follows, we will take a strategic and technical deep dive into the subject. So if you would like to stop reading now, there will be no hard feelings. Otherwise, prepare to buckle up: we are about to begin!

请注意，这是一篇专家文章。 接下来，我们将对该主题进行战略和技术上的深入研究。 因此，如果您想现在停止阅读，将不会有难过的感觉。 否则，请准备好系好安全带：我们将开始！

As we dig deeper into the topic of localization in this article, there are two mechanisms that we need to understand at the outset. The first one is the browser's language setting, and the second one is the IP of the user.

随着我们在本文中对本地化主题的深入研究，一开始我们需要了解两种机制。 第一个是浏览器的语言设置，第二个是用户的IP。

浏览器语言设置 (Browser language setting)

Every time a website is queried, the web browser automatically sends to the server the browser language, which can be configured by the user via the browser settings. The default language is the language of the operating system. It is important to know that the majority of users are not aware that they are able to change the language. Each language typically consists of two parameters: the language itself and the region. Germany uses de-de, i.e., German-Germany, Austria uses de-at, meaning German-Austria, and the US uses en-us.

每次查询网站时，Web浏览器都会自动将浏览器语言发送到服务器，该语言可以由用户通过浏览器设置进行配置。 默认语言是操作系统的语言。 重要的是要知道大多数用户都不知道他们能够更改语言。 每种语言通常都包含两个参数：语言本身和地区。 德国使用de-de，即德国-德国，奥地利使用de-at，即德国-奥地利，美国使用en-us。

In addition, the user can specify a list of languages in their order of preference, such as, for example: en-us, en, de. In this case, the user's first choice is US region English, region-independent English is their secondary option, and region-independent German is their alternative least wanted.

另外，用户可以按照偏好顺序指定语言列表，例如：en-us，en，de。 在这种情况下，用户的首选是美国地区英语，其次要选择是与地区无关的英语，而对他们而言，最不想要的是与地区无关的德语。

用户的IP地址 (User's IP address)

The IP address ("IP" for short) is the user "address on the Internet". This is an assigned number that can be used to identify the user on the web and contains information about their location. For example, you can determine the country from which the visitor accesses the website by the IP address. This is possible because specific IP ranges are assigned to individual countries. For example, the IP addresses in the range between 2.16.240.0 and 2.16.255.255 are assigned to Germany. If a user has the IP address 2.16.265.100, we know that this person is accessing the Internet from Germany.

IP地址(简称“ IP”)是用户“ Internet上的地址”。 这是一个分配的数字，可用于在网络上标识用户，并包含有关其位置的信息。 例如，您可以通过IP地址确定访问者从哪个国家访问网站。 这是可能的，因为特定IP范围已分配给各个国家。 例如，将IP地址在2.16.240.0和2.16.255.255之间的范围分配给德国。 如果用户的IP地址为2.16.265.100，则我们知道该人正在从德国访问Internet。

It should be noted that there are other methods that can be used to determine the user's location. However, we will omit them at this point, since they ultimately provide the same information as the IP address does.

应当注意，还有其他方法可用于确定用户的位置。 但是，由于它们最终提供的信息与IP地址相同，因此我们将在此处省略它们。

Thus, we now know that there are two sources from which the information about the user's language or location (country) can be retrieved. At this point, we'll look at how we can use this information for localization, meaning adapting content to different languages.

因此，我们现在知道有两个来源可以从中检索有关用户的语言或位置(国家/地区)的信息。 在这一点上，我们将研究如何使用此信息进行本地化，即使内容适应不同的语言。

语言本地化 (Linguistic localization)

The simplest and most common form of localization is a linguistic one, which is based on the browser's language setting. This method assumes that the user has set the desired language in their browser preferences.

一种最简单，最常见的本地化形式是一种语言形式，它基于浏览器的语言设置。 此方法假定用户已在其浏览器首选项中设置了所需的语言。

In Germany, most users use de-de, de, and en. This combination implies that German-language content is preferred for Germany (de-de). If no such content is available on a particular website, German content from any other region will be used next, even if it is not specific to Germany (de). If no other German-language content is available, the final alternative of English (en) will be used.

在德国，大多数用户使用de-de，de和en。 这种组合意味着德语(de-de)首选德语内容。 如果特定网站上没有此类内容，则接下来将使用来自任何其他地区的德语内容，即使它不是特定于德国(de)。 如果没有其他德语内容，将使用英语的最终替代形式。

In the scenario that we described in the introduction (an online magazine with German, English, and Arabic versions), all shoppers who have set their language code to de should receive the German-language content. In other words, these are all users whose primary language is de-de, de-at, de-ch, de, and so on.

在引言中描述的情况下(在线杂志上有德语，英语和阿拉伯语版本)，所有将语言代码设置为de的购物者都应收到德语内容。 换句话说，这些用户的主要语言是de-de，de-at，de-ch，de等。

For users who also understand English or Arabic, the situation is a bit more unconventional. While the German-speaking countries (which are gathered in the so-called DACH region) all border each other geographically, the same is not true of English- or Arabic-speaking countries. For example, English is spoken in the US, England, and Australia. In addition, English is the language that is best understood by people after their mother tongue in most parts of the world. This is why it is often specified as the secondary language in all the browser settings.

对于也懂英语或阿拉伯语的用户，情况就有点不合常规了。 虽然德语国家(聚集在所谓的DACH地区)在地理上彼此毗邻，但英语或阿拉伯语国家却并非如此。 例如，英语在美国，英国和澳大利亚使用。 另外，英语是世界上大多数地方人们以母语说的最好的语言。 这就是为什么通常在所有浏览器设置中将其指定为辅助语言。

So, if we configured the website localization based solely on the browser language in our described scenario, users from the US and Australia would receive our English-language content. Users from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates would see Arabic content. So far, so good.

因此，如果在我们描述的场景中仅基于浏览器语言配置了网站本地化，那么来自美国和澳大利亚的用户将收到我们的英语内容。 来自埃及和阿拉伯联合酋长国的用户将看到阿拉伯语内容。 到目前为止，一切都很好。

基于浏览器语言设置的本地化的缺点 (Disadvantages of localization based on the browser language setting)

This type of language determination becomes problematic if the language set in the browser does not correspond to the user's native language. This can be the case, for example, when a German-speaking user works in Germany at an international company where the operating system and, by default, also the browser is set to English (en). This user would then see English-language content, even though their native language is German.

如果在浏览器中设置的语言不对应于用户的母语，则这种类型的语言确定会变得有问题。 例如，当说德语的用户在德国的一家国际公司工作时，操作系统和默认情况下还将浏览器设置为英语(en)，就可能是这种情况。 然后，即使他们的母语是德语，该用户也将看到英语内容。

A similar problem arises in countries where the official language or language of business is generally English, but where the population speaks a different language. This is the case, for example, in countries such as the United Arab Emirates.

在官方语言或商业语言通常为英语，但人口说不同语言的国家中，也会出现类似的问题。 例如，在阿拉伯联合酋长国等国家就是这种情况。

基于IP的地理定位 (IP-based geographic localization)

The disadvantages of linguistic localization are in part offset by IP-based localization. Under the latter method, the language is determined based on the country from which the user is accessing the Internet.

语言本地化的缺点部分被基于IP的本地化所抵消。 在后一种方法下，根据用户从其访问Internet的国家/地区来确定语言。

At first glance, IP-based localization seems like a watertight solution, because it resolves the above described case where a diverging language has been configured by the browser. Thus, with this method a user in Germany always receives German-language content, even if their browser is set, for example, to English as the primary language.

乍一看，基于IP的本地化似乎是一种防水解决方案，因为它解决了上述情况，即浏览器已配置了多种语言。 因此，使用这种方法，即使在德国的用户将其浏览器设置为例如英语作为主要语言的情况下，德国的用户也始终会接收德语的内容。

基于IP的本地化的缺点 (Disadvantages of IP-based localization)

So, is IP-based localization a panacea? Whoever thinks so is wrong. The underlying assumption is that all users who are in a single country are native speakers of its language. And that is, of course, far from the reality. Someone who is in Germany, but speaks English only, for example, would see all web content in German, even though the site is also available in that person's native language.

那么，基于IP的本地化是灵丹妙药吗？ 谁这么认为是错的。 基本假设是，单个国家/地区的所有用户都是其语言的母语。 当然，那离现实还很遥远。 例如，某个人在德国，但只会说英语，即使该网站也以该人的母语提供，也会看到所有以德语显示的网络内容。

Finally, IP-based localization ignores the browser language setting and is based on location exclusively. For example, we become overwhelmed with this flaw when we are surfing the Internet while on vacation and fail to see any content in the mother tongue. Instead, the web pages are rendered just in the language of the country where we are present.

最后，基于IP的本地化将忽略浏览器语言设置，并且仅基于位置。 例如，在度假时浏览互联网时，我们变得不知所措，而母语中看不到任何内容。 而是仅以我们所在国家/地区的语言来呈现网页。

组合本地化 (Combined localization)

In order to work out a more optimal solution, both outlined approaches can now be merged so that we can handle these borderline cases better. We mean those cases where we should not rely upon the IP address or the browser language solely. As previously described, this is valid for non-native speakers of the language in the country of stay and users with misconfigured browser language preferences.

为了制定出更好的解决方案，现在可以将两种概述的方法进行合并，以便我们可以更好地处理这些临界情况。 我们指的是不应该仅依赖IP地址或浏览器语言的情况。 如前所述，这对于停留国家/地区的非母语使用者和浏览器语言首选项配置错误的用户有效。

这就是我们处理此类情况的方式： (And this is how we handle such cases:)

1. We use IP localization as the primary criterion, i.e., we come out of the geographical location of the user, such as Germany, for example.
   我们将IP本地化作为主要标准，例如，我们来自用户的地理位置，例如德国。
2. Then we check if the determined location has also been set in the browser language settings. If there is a match, we display the content in the appropriate language. If the two data sources don’t match, then we will use the IP localization. The underlying assumption here is that a user from a given country is likely to have mastered the national language to some degree.
   然后，我们检查浏览器语言设置中是否还设置了确定的位置。 如果存在匹配项，我们将以适当的语言显示内容。 如果两个数据源不匹配，那么我们将使用IP本地化。 这里的基本假设是，来自特定国家/地区的用户可能已在某种程度上掌握了本国语言。
3. Finally, we check if the content is available in other browser languages, too. If so, we show a popup (similar to a cookie notification) informing the user that the web page is also accessible in alternative languages they’ve listed in their browser settings. So that website visitors can then switch to another language or close the popup with a single click of the mouse.
   最后，我们检查内容是否也可以使用其他浏览器语言。 如果是这样，我们将显示一个弹出窗口(类似于cookie通知)，通知用户该网页也可以使用其浏览器设置中列出的其他语言进行访问。 这样，网站访问者就可以切换到另一种语言或单击鼠标来关闭弹出窗口。
4. Cookies are used to find out whether the user has switched the language or dismissed the popup. And in the next session, the content will be displayed in the language of choice.
   Cookies用于确定用户是切换语言还是关闭弹出窗口。 在下一个会话中，内容将以选择的语言显示。

For example, a user accessing the Internet from Egypt but using a browser with German set as the primary language would see such a popup. The content would initially be displayed in Arabic. However, the user will all together see the following message in German: "This website is also available in German. Would you like to switch to the German version?".

例如，如果用户从埃及访问Internet，但使用以德语为主要语言的浏览器，则会看到这样的弹出窗口。 内容最初将以阿拉伯语显示。 但是，用户将一起以德语查看以下消息：“此网站也以德语提供。您要切换到德语版本吗？”。

We can now apply the same logic to the various alternative languages (languages that are displayed if the desired language is not available) by defining particular rules. Below is the result of such a combination.

现在，我们可以通过定义特定的规则，将相同的逻辑应用于各种替代语言(如果所需的语言不可用，则显示的语言)。 以下是这种组合的结果。

IP location	Browser languages	Displayed content
Germany	DE-DE, DE, EN	DE
Germany	EN, FR, DE	DE
France	FR-FR, FR, EN	EN
United Arab Emirates	EN, AR-AMR	AR
United Arab Emirates	EN, DE	AR (with popup pointing to EN content)

IP位置	浏览器语言	显示内容
德国	DE-DE，DE，EN	德
德国	EN，FR，DE	德
法国	FR-FR，FR，EN	EN
阿拉伯联合酋长国	EN，AR-AMR	增强现实
阿拉伯联合酋长国	EN，DE	AR(带有指向EN内容的弹出窗口)

Just to remind you, the website in our scenario is available in German (DE), English (EN), and Arabic (AR).

提醒您，在我们的方案中，该网站提供德语(DE)，英语(EN)和阿拉伯语(AR)。

通过Google访问 (Access via Google)

Another advantage of this differentiated method is that it allows you to better control website access via search engines such as Google, for instance. Search engines take into account the browser language and not necessarily the location of the user. A user who arrives at the site via a search engine is thereby always directed to the version that corresponds to the browser language even if there is a better match from the location (based on IP). The user can still switch to different relevant language content through the popup that has been described above.

这种差异化方法的另一个优点是，它使您可以更好地控制通过搜索引擎(例如Google)的网站访问。 搜索引擎会考虑浏览器语言，而不必考虑用户的位置。 通过搜索引擎到达站点的用户始终会被定向到与浏览器语言相对应的版本，即使该位置(基于IP)的匹配程度更高。 用户仍然可以通过上述弹出窗口切换到不同的相关语言内容。

结论 (Conclusion)

The mix “content-language-user” must be kept in mind not only for the sake of usability or rather user experience, but also for marketing and strategy. Therefore, the above assignment has no claim to the absolute correctness – the decisive factor is the project-specific objective. Nevertheless, when considered both location and language (i.e., the IP address and browser language setting), the results are much better, since edge cases can also be handled correctly.

必须牢记“内容语言用户”的混合体，不仅是出于可用性或用户体验的考虑，还应考虑营销和策略。 因此，上述任务并没有要求绝对正确-决定性因素是特定于项目的目标。 但是，同时考虑位置和语言(即IP地址和浏览器语言设置)时，结果会好得多，因为边缘情况也可以正确处理。

关于翻译 (About the translator)

This article has been translated by Alconost.

本文由Alconost翻译。

Alconost is a global provider of website localization services as well as the localization of applications, games, and videos into 70+ languages. Professional translation services for shorter texts are available with Nitro — an online translation platform.

Alconost是网站本地化服务以及将应用程序 ， 游戏和视频本地化为70多种语言的全球提供商。 在线翻译平台Nitro可提供短文本的专业翻译服务 。

We offer translations by native-speaking linguists, linguistic testing, cloud-based workflow, continuous localization, project management 24/7, and work with any format of string resources.

我们提供由母语为母语的语言学家，语言测试，基于云的工作流，连续本地化，24/7项目管理以及任何格式的字符串资源提供的翻译。

We also make advertising and educational videos and images, teasers, explainers, and trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

我们还为Google Play和App Store制作广告和教育视频和图像，预告片，解释器和预告片。

翻译自: https://habr.com/en/company/alconost/blog/473960/