Geo Pulse #46 — Deciding translate vs. transcreate, page by page

Geo Pulse #46 — Deciding translate vs. transcreate, page by page
Theme of the week: not every string deserves a copywriter.

A triage flow so you spend localization budget where it moves the needle:

→ Bucket 1 — Legal/compliance/footers: machine-translate then human-proof. Accuracy over flair.
→ Bucket 2 — Product specs and FAQs: post-edited MT (DeepL/Google) is fine; consistency matters more than tone.
→ Bucket 3 — Headlines, CTAs, hero copy: transcreate with a native marketer. This is where conversions live.
→ Bucket 4 — Idioms, humor, slogans: rewrite from intent, never translate literally ('Got Milk?' has no direct equivalent).
→ Rule of thumb: if a string is on the path to conversion, it gets a human; if it's reference, it gets a machine.
→ Lock a glossary and a do-not-translate list (brand terms) before anyone starts.

Reference: the classic transcreation framework popularized by Nimdzi Insights and Smartling's localization playbooks.