SARAH DOUGHERTY, Special to the Gazette

Published: Monday, November 19 2007 The Gazette

Iler pointed to a faux pas committed by computer giant Dell a while back: The company's website had images of people making the ok sign - joining their index fingers to their thumbs to make a circle - a gesture familiar to most North Americans. The problem? The gesture is considered obscene in Brazil.

Along with her team of four employees, Iler now audits websites to make sure images and sounds are appropriate in the target market.

She also makes sure design features stand up to international use. For example, sites that send automatic acknowledgements to customers often use a first name only, a practice considered much too informal in some cultures.

Clients in other countries might also be used to a different style of website. North Americans tend to favour clean, simple sites. In China, the trend now is toward "busy" sites with flashing features, according to Iler.

On the technical side, Wintranslation.com helps clients with such issues as language meta tags that tell Internet search engines which language Web pages are written in.

Once concepts, images and technical features have been adapted, Iler turns her attention to written content.

"The words on your website are your salesperson, the person behind the counter," Iler said.

Too many businesses skimp on writing quality instead of hiring professionals, she added.

Many companies also fall into the trap of assuming an English site is enough.

"In North America, because it has been a leading economic superpower for so long, people assume everyone speaks English," Iler said.

Even Internet searches are not usually done in English. On Google, the popular search engine, 60 per cent of searches are done in a language other than English. In China, a Chinese-language product called Baidu is the most frequently used search engine.

Iler says her translators are trained in knowing which key words international users turn to most when searching the Internet.

A laptop computer, for example, can also be called a portable or notebook computer. "If you use the wrong term, you won't show up in search engines."

With the growing importance of Asian markets, Iler is now not alone in the localization field. Montreal-based Orchimédia, for example, specializes in helping Quebec companies, educational institutions and government agencies adapt their websites and deal with Asia generally.

Louis Bertrand, a consultant to small and medium-sized businesses at the Business Development Bank of Canada, says Canadians are probably more alert to cultural differences than their U.S. neighbours because of Canada's place in the global marketplace.

"We're more of a niche-type economy," Bertrand said. "We're used to thinking about what the customer needs."

With government agencies now an important clientele for Wintranslation.com, Iler relocated to Ottawa in 2006, but kept a office in Windsor.

The company works with about 150 freelance translators on a monthly basis and employs specialists in Web marketing and software localization. Iler's company also provides interpreters and foreign-language typesetters.

She declined to reveal Wintranslation.com's revenues, but the company website indicates they have topped $1 million.

In workshops, Iler repeats one essential message: Don't make assumptions. "A dose of humbleness helps. Something might not work in another culture."

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