Maros Gasparik: "Most of our content is available in 17 languages"

Head of Content at Casino Guru, Maros Gasparik, holds a crucial role in crafting Casino Guru content, while also leading a team of expert writers, content specialists, translators, contractors, and content publishers. He ensures that everything on the Casino Guru website is well-written, factual, and accurate.

In his previous interview, Maros talked about what it’s like to craft content for Casino Guru, and today he explains in more detail the translation and publishing processes, as Casino Guru is known to operate in 17 languages.

How do the translations come to life, and who decides what to write and want to localize? What is the role of content publishers? Do the SEO principles change the content that Casino Guru provides in its 17 language variations? Read further to learn more.

Q: What exactly does it mean that Casino Guru operates in 17 languages? Am I to understand that every single page of Casino Guru is translated into all languages?

No, we do not translate everything into all languages. However, most content is available in all languages. I’ll try to explain.

There is a lot of user-generated content on Casino Guru, most notably forum posts, user reviews, and complaints. This content is translated automatically by Google Translate or similar automatic translation tools. We believe that automatic translations are now good enough to convey the meaning to users who do not speak the original language.

Now, when it comes to content created by our writers, we have most of it available in all 17 languages, but there are some exceptions. For example, when creating a list of the best UK casinos, it is not necessary to publish it in all languages.

That said, we do our best to have all the content needed for a good user experience in all languages, and to have everything our visitors are searching for in a language available to them.

Q: Could you explain the process of developing translated content for Casino Guru? For example, is all content foremost in English, and then the translation process begins?

Yes, that is how it works most of the time. We write the vast majority of content in English. This allows us to ensure its quality and truthfulness, as we are dealing with a language we fully understand and can work with without any issues.

Once the English piece is written, there is a thorough review process, during which we ensure it is written well, contains truthful information, follows our internal guidelines, and is in line with our values.

After that, we publish the English content. If we also want to publish it in other languages, the finished piece is assigned to translators for localization.

Q: What strategy do you employ when deciding what kind of content to publish in what language?

There are two approaches we use when deciding which content to translate into which languages.

Firstly, with content such as our lists of bonuses or casinos, we look at what people are searching for in any given language. As I mentioned earlier, it does not make sense to translate some content into all languages if no people are searching for it.

As Casino Guru relies heavily on organic traffic from search engines, we do a keyword analysis to find out what people are searching for. If we discover that people are actively looking for the content in question in any of the languages we have, we will localize and publish it in those languages.

Secondly, there is the content we localize into all languages, regardless of whether people search for it on Google or other search engines. Obviously, this approach is used for the core elements of the Casino Guru website, as those are needed for its functionality and good user experience.

Additionally, we translate most of our educational content in the Guide section into all 17 languages since we care deeply about educating all our visitors. We aim to give them all the information they need to make better decisions when gambling online. Regardless of whether it makes sense to invest in translating educational content from the commercial side of things.

Q: How do you verify that Casino Guru's content is correct across all of its languages?

I have to admit that this issue is quite complicated. As most of our internal Content team members focus on English content, we rely on our translators and localization processes when it comes to making sure our content is correct and truthful in all languages.

We work with long-term contractors, many of whom are with us since Casino Guru has been a much smaller project. We see them as crucial members of the team. This way, we know who we work with, and we know what to expect from them.

It all starts with a detailed selection process, in which we look for localization specialists who focus on gambling-related content. We have fine-tuned a test assignment designed to test their skills, attention to detail, and whether they are able to correctly transfer the meaning of the text into their language.

Once we find the right translators, we familiarize them with our translation guidelines, which focus on providing truthful information, localizing the content for a local audience, and maintaining our values, such as ‘informing instead of promoting.’

The translators then work in pairs, reviewing each other’s content. We also work with external experts from time to time to have a third person’s views and expertise embedded into our content. They are not language specialists but rather local iGaming experts who know how things work in the target market, what terminology is used, etc.

By implementing all of this, we believe we are doing everything we can to make sure truthful and accurate content is provided to all Casino Guru visitors, regardless of which language version they visit.

Q: I can imagine that there are many complications when creating content for such a big website in so many languages. Can you provide an example of a problem you currently face?

There are many that come to mind. [laughter] But I will mention only two that have surfaced quite recently.

The first one has to do with AI. At Casino Guru, we believe in human-created content, and it is getting harder and harder to verify whether a piece of content was written by a human. When working with contractors, we now quite often receive content that seems AI-generated.

What makes this issue even worse is the fact that there is often no way to know for sure who and how wrote the text. Even if we have a strong suspicion, it is sometimes impossible to be certain about the origin of the text. And this makes it especially difficult to manage this issue, as we are working with suspicions and presumptions instead of facts.

The second issue is related to looking for new content specialists to join our team. We find that our approach to content creation is different than what writers are used to. We focus on truthful information and providing facts instead of creating content that is actively trying to ‘sell’ something to the user.

Sadly, many iGaming websites and writers are used to creating content that works with superlatives and focuses on positive information with the intention of getting the user to claim a bonus, choose a specific casino, or start gambling altogether.

As this is against our values and not something we want to do, we find ourselves having to retrain new writers to move away from these practices and towards the way we like to do things.

Q: How does publishing this heap of content work on a daily basis?

The process of publishing is quite complex in English or another language in which it is originally published. When it comes to translations of that content, it is quite simple from the technical standpoint.

Our internal system for publishing is custom-made for our needs. As a result, it does everything we need it to do, but it also requires a relatively deep understanding of how it works. When publishing original content, we need to take all of this into account and insert the content into our system accordingly. Therefore, this process is quite lengthy, at least when compared to widespread solutions like WordPress or other similar CMS systems.

Luckily, when it comes to publishing localized content, it is very simple. We have developed a system in which the content is translated directly in the form we need for publishing, so it is just a matter of a few clicks once localized. Of course, we also check the newly published content for issues and make changes if needed.

To all of that, we should also add the work related to coordinating the writers and translators, creating content plans, proofreading and reviewing content, and much more.

Q: How do you manage content updates across all languages simultaneously? How do you manage your extensive team?

As far as process standardization and optimization go, the process of content updates and changes of existing articles is not as fine-tuned as the process of publishing new content.

Firstly, we select pages that should be reworked, either because we think they could be better or because we find a specific issue, such as an outdated fact. This then goes through our internal content team, where a writer and proofreader work together to implement the changes. Sometimes, I work on these updates and changes myself, according to the importance of the content and the workload of individual team members.

Once the updates are done and published, we proceed according to the character of the changes that were implemented. If we find and correct a factual error, for example, we transfer the changes to the localized versions, too. If we only made minor improvements, we would decide whether to transfer them to the localized versions based on the importance of the content and the potential business impact.

Implementing changes in the translated versions is a process that still needs to be improved on our end. For now, we either have the entire piece localized again if we have made significant changes, or just translate selected parts of the document if possible. The CAT tool we use for localizations and its translation memory helps with this process, but I would like to see us optimize it further later on.

Q: What steps do you take to guarantee that all language versions of Casino Guru follow SEO best practices?

When creating content, we adhere to our values and principles, according to which our content must be truthful and correct and should always inform users instead of promoting gambling to them. This has been one of the cornerstones of Casino Guru since its launch, and I believe it also helps in SEO, too, due to the importance of EEAT in today’s SEO principles, as it is part of what makes Casino Guru an authority in the iGaming space.

All writers and translators are aware of these values and principles, and our internal content team ensures that they are followed when reviewing any content before publishing.

Additionally, we have guidelines for the structural aspects of the content we publish, such as the use of headings, styling elements, and so on.

When it comes to the content itself, we use keyword analyses when deciding what to write, how to write it, and whether we should translate it. We research what people are searching for on the internet and create content that gives them what they are looking for.

Of course, we also have a dedicated SEO team that watches over the content we create and suggests improvements. They also analyze the technical aspects of our website and make sure everything is set up and configured correctly.

Q: How dotheGoogle Updates and the algorithm changes influence the Casino Guru's content strategy?

Well, I would say we mostly keep doing what we do—creating good content and bringing value to our visitors. With the Helpful Content principles now part of everything Google does, we believe this is the right thing to do.

We make small tweaks here and there, but the overall strategy has not changed significantly in quite some time.

I would also say it works, too. When we take a look at the last few years of Google updates, we have mostly seen a positive impact and growth. So, I think we are on the right path.

This interview is part of Casino Guru Insiders, a series of interviews during which experts from Casino Guru share their unique workflow, reveal insider information, and offer an exclusive overview of experience-packed know-how.

Image credit: Casino Guru News