CrazyLeaf Editorial Offering products or services as well as marketing them across borders is a highly complex venture that can prove quite costly if a business fails to craft a comprehensive plan on how to achieve it. And even though it may not seem immediately necessary, one of the critical tasks to complete is translating your site into the language of your target market.
In fact, 76% of customers say they are more likely to purchase if the website is translated into their native language. So for that reason alone, neglecting to translate your company’s website into the language of your target audience is something you definitely cannot do, particularly when expanding in a new market.
Despite that, many entrepreneurs who want to cut the costs of the process turn to online, free translation tools like Google Translate or DeepL. However, it’s essential to remember that translating your website is not only about transferring your content from one language to another; it’s equally important to pay attention to cultural references and idioms based on socio-economic and cultural factors, something that these free translation tools simply cannot achieve.
In this article, we’ll discuss three key things to keep in mind before translating your website to get a better idea of what the website translation process can involve.
Be mindful of language intricacies
Every language is unique in its own way, and some can be more complex than others. In that context, translating from, let’s say, English to German involves way more than plugging the text into a free online tool. In fact, complete website translations usually involve translating many phrases that hold emotions and understanding a specific culture and the target audience. For that reason, translating your website with the help of a basic free online tool is practically worthless and a big no for companies that aspire to conquer a new market.
The best way to tackle these projects is by combining the services of human translators who excel at the native language with some of the world’s best CAT tools to both use the capabilities of humans when it comes to comprehending languages and automating the translation project to cut down on costs.
In the end, whatever your original text looks like, you’ll need to adapt your content rather than just translate it word for word. In addition, keep in mind that dates are written differently in different parts of the world, so getting all the details right before your website goes live is imperative.
Search engine optimization works in different languages, too
When you create your web content in your native language, you and your team will most likely pay attention to keywords to improve your site’s SEO. However, don’t forget to do the same when targeting an international audience, as most regular searchers conduct search engine queries in their native language.
Doing proper keyword research in the target language is very important if you want your website to rank highly and increase its visibility among prospective customers. If you fail to optimize your new website for SEO, you risk going all the way on just translating your site and not getting any traffic to it.
Last but not least, remember that Google isn’t the only search engine in the world, as some countries prefer other search engines or have their own to suit their different language. For example, Baidu controls around 80% of the market in China, while Coc Coc is the most used search engine in Vietnam.
Don’t forget about the multimedia content
Last but not least, don’t forget that you also need to translate your multimedia content before going live. Nowadays, most websites use images, infographics, slideshows, and videos, among other things, to provide their pages with a fresh visual impact and make it easier for smartphone users to engage with the content.
Besides translating your multimedia content, always take the right measures to ensure that your content is appropriate for your new target audience. Also, think about other important questions: If you’re publishing a video about your company, should you use voiceover translations or subtitles? The thing with these questions is that different markets come with different expectations.
In addition, think if your website’s pictures are culturally relevant as they should make sense in the region where you aim to establish your brand. For that reason, play it safe by not including cultural references in photos which are hard to replace and stay out of trouble by not using stereotypical props.
Final words
As you can tell by now, website translations are not “bread and butter” and go beyond simply translating the words. As there’s a lot that goes into website language translations, make sure to equip yourself with the right people and translating software to get it right and create a fantastic version of your website for your new target audience.
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