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How and why websites go to the Ukrainian language-version

How and why websites go to the Ukrainian language-version

One of important strategic and often a painful issue for many companies is the transition of sites to the Ukrainian-language version.

The transition may be partial – with the ability to choose language for user, or complete one – with using only Ukrainian. The language topic on the Internet has hurt all – developers, site owners and regular users.

What are the prerequisites for transition websites to Ukrainian?

Changes in our society, consumer demands for a Ukrainian-language product, adoption of the Draft 5670-d – all of this pushes companies and online stores to revise language policy in the IT-sector.

The main factor for the transition to Ukrainian is the aforementioned law, of course, with an article on “State language in electronic information systems”. Which notes:

  • programs, which are sold in Ukraine, should have a full user-interface in Ukrainian and/or EU official language;
  • programs, which are installed on products sold in Ukraine, should have a Ukrainian version;
  • all developers, who cooperate with public authorities or utilities, must add a Ukrainian version to all products they have made.

Is a transition to Ukrainian such a terrible thing in real?

You can beat your head against the wall as much as you like, argue “for” and “against” the use of Ukrainian on the Internet, excite the atmosphere with words: “that traffic will ‘plunge’ after this transition…”. But the positive experience of sites which have already made such transition – is speaking for itself.

A well-known search engine site in Ukraine – Work.ua has completely switched to the Ukrainian version (by default) since last November. Despite the warnings of SEO-specialists, the statistics of the last months are positive for all key-parameters. And most importantly: more than 90% of users continued to use the Ukrainian language (from the moment of transition) and only 10% – switched to the Russian interface.

Agree, that figures are quite eloquent. So how they say: “Not such a terrible devil as they draw it?..”

Many popular websites have updated their resources by adding a choosing of language for users (Ukrainian/Russian). For example – Rozetka.ua, OLX.ua.

The law does not force to move to the Ukrainian language version. It should be given by default, regardless of the language installed in the user’s browser. In essense, it’s just worthwhile to make the site multilingual.

What are the common mistakes in implementing multilingual sites?

  • The same URL for different language-versions of the site.

The site had good rankings for Russian-language key queries, and we’ve decided to enter multilingualism. We did this with javasript within one page without changing the URL. By default, the site publishes the Ukrainian version. As a result, search engines will no see the Russian-language version anymore, and site’s position on key queries will fall. There is a simple rule here: two different URLs must correspond to the same page in different languages.

  • Not all pages of a multilingual site are translated into another language.

In this case, duplicate pages appear. A large number of pages with the same content indicates that site is not high-quality. Therefore, all site pages must be translated into Ukrainian.

  • Errors in redirects.

That means – errors in redirects from one language version – to another. What can play a bad joke with users, the search engines will never get to desired site-version. So you need to check the existing redirects for multilingualism work correct.

How long does it take to go to the Ukrainian-language version?

There is no clear answer here. It depends on 2 factors:

  • quantity of a content (the more you have – the longer it takes to translate and place it on the site);
  • technical complexity of the implementation of multilingualism (what is the site made, which technologies were used etc).

The experience of Web-Systems Solutions

Our company has long been contemplating transition to the Ukrainian-language version.And finally we did it!

Working experience in social networks, the importance of Ukrainian-language content and the increased users attention on this part – played a role in this.

All technical work on translating the site into a new operating mode took about 1.5 months. So now our clients are able to receive all necessary information in Ukrainian and English.

If you are faced with some difficulties in multilingual website – our specialists will always help you to solve the problem. We’ll make your website Ukrainian or multilingual. We’ll advice and choose the best option for you!

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