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Having already established the importance of multi-lingual sites in my previous post, I would like to continue discussing Drupal’s multi-lingual system. Content Translation is the next important piece.

Node Translation and SEO
Like the Locale module, Content Translation comes with Drupal’s core install and adds the primary front end requirement to the system: the ability to translate nodes. Since nodes possess the majority of the system’s content and provide the basic metadata such as title, tags, and URL control, translating the content doesn’t just change the text, it creates a new site. When it comes to search engine optimization, the ability to translate the node instead of just the text will make the difference on how high the site is on Google’s list.

Content Translation
After enabling the content translation module, the individual content types can then have translation enabled. If the site’s basic page type is intended to be translatable but the blog is not, this isn’t a problem, as the controls are specific to each node type.

Once enabling the translations on the desired types, a convenient translate tab is visible to any user with translate permissions. The translators can just log in, visit the desired page, and click “translate” in the nodes header. The translate interface then displays all other languages available on the system and gives the translator the ability to see which languages have already been translated as well as links to edit or add new translations.

Mixing the Locale and Content Translation modules, a core Drupal site is 90% translatable. We’ll take care of the rest of core and the add-ons in the next post.