Catalog translation

Many stores have English product names only, or Arabic names for some products. SeekGist can translate your catalog automatically (names, categories, specs and descriptions), with human review, so Arabic shoppers find products in their own language. Search can use the translations, and you can write them back into your store.

The rule: a person's text always wins

• Every text SeekGist writes is marked as automatically translated.
• A text that a person wrote or edited is never changed, in SeekGist or in your store. If someone edits a text while a translation job runs, the edit wins.
• Brand names, model numbers, part numbers and specs (16GB, 100 ml, EU 42) are kept exactly as they are.

What each plan translates

Each month you can translate as many products as your plan's product limit (for example 20,000 on Growth). Above it, each extra translated product costs $0.01. A product counts once per month, however many fields are translated. See Plans and billing.

Start

1. In the dashboard, open Translation. Progress shows how many of your products already have Arabic text.
2. Click Estimate missing names and categories. You see how many products and fields will be translated and about what it costs, before anything runs.
3. Click Start translating. This job translates your catalog. Follow it under Progress on the same page.
4. In Translation settings, turn on Translate new and changed products by themselves. New and changed products are then translated every 10 minutes.

With the API you can also pick other languages and fields: POST /v1/translate/backfill (with dry_run: true for the estimate), then follow the job with GET /v1/jobs/{id}.

Review

Translations wait in the Review queue on the Translation page. For each one you see the source, the translation and a word-by-word diff against the previous text. You can approve, reject or edit, one by one or many at once. Each translation also gets an automatic quality check (kept tokens, script, untranslated words, glossary use, length); low scores go to the top of the queue.

With Let search use translations before review on (in Translation settings), search uses translations that passed the automatic checks at once. Off, search waits for your approval.

Glossary

Add your own words in the Glossary on the Translation page (for example your product line names, or the Arabic word your shoppers use). SeekGist starts with a built-in glossary of common store words in Arabic and English. Your terms win over the built-in ones. Tick Do not translate for words that must stay as they are, such as a brand name.

Write translations back to your store

• OpenCart, WooCommerce, Magento: set Write back translations for (for example ar) in the module. The cron job writes approved translations into your store's language rows. See the quick starts.
• Shopify: turn on write-back in the SeekGist app (title and description).
• Any other store: read GET /v1/translate/approved?locale=ar and confirm with POST /v1/translate/ack, or download an export: Export CSV in the dashboard, or CSV, JSON or OpenCart SQL from GET /v1/translate/export.

The write-back reads your store first and never writes over a text a person typed there.

Webhook

translation.batch_ready is sent when a translation run ends and wrote at least one translation, with how many are ready, how many wait for review and how many failed.

What translation keeps

By design, translation keeps brand names, model numbers and specs exactly as they are, and never changes text a person wrote or edited. A person's edit always wins over a new automatic translation.