How to Translate your Website for International Trading - Creative Word

International trading is now the norm, even for small to medium sized businesses, but to truly take your brand global and appeal to customers who speak a different language, you’ll need to translate your website.

Firms often have limited budgets for expansion into foreign markets and can struggle to achieve their full potential without effective translation and localisation in place to attract new customers to their website.

Here at Creative Word, we understand the importance of professional translation for foreign language websites, and know how to help firms achieve international success.

There’s no secret formula.

But we’d like to share our years of translation experience and offer some sound advice on how to translate your website…

 

Translation Quality, Cost and Time

A quality website translation will cost money and take time – as we’ve already said, there’s no secret formula!

Cutting corners on a translation project (this might include rushing the translation process, using cheap or free translation tools) will most likely result in a poor-quality translation.

If you want your translation project to be a definite success then look for a professional translation provider who offers the following:

• Native-speaking linguists

• Language specific experience

• Industry specialists

• Cultural knowledge

• Translation project managers

• Quality control processes – ISO9001

• Full translation packages – including, proofreading, editing,

• Testimonials from previous clients

• Translation Memory (TM) tools

• Localisation expertise

• Client review process

• Language specific SEO and keyword knowledge

A professional translator can translate up to 3000 words per day, but if the translation project involves highly technical content such as, legal terminology, this will take longer, so make sure you allow plenty of time for the translator to do their job.

It is also worth noting that all translations should be thoroughly checked and reviewed at completion – this includes, proofreading, editing and back translation so make allowances for these when calculating deadlines and timescales.

 

Translation or Localisation?

If you’re new to the world of translation, then the chances are that you have an idea of what it involves, but you’re probably unfamiliar with the term ‘localisation’.

Translation and localisation are two different language processes applied to a variety of projects ranging from advertising to websites.

The following points explain the main differences and will help you make the right choice about which service is best suited to your project and requirements.

Translation – this is process of changing text from one language (source) to another (target). The text is translated so that the meaning of the message remains unchanged but it does not account for cultural differences, dialect, or localised expressions and phrases.

Localisation – is a far more involved process that considers all elements of language, culture and localised variances. For example, factors such as, currency, weights and measures, images, colour, colloquial phrases, date and time formats, SEO, keywords, and so on.

There is far more work involved in localisation, it is more comprehensive, (and costly) but it gives better results as it is tailored to a specific location and target audience.

If you are unsure about the regional variances of your market, or are unfamiliar with cultural expectations, it is worth enlisting the help of a professional language services provider who offers this service as you’ll increase your ROI.

 

 

DIY Machine Translation

It is often said that ‘you get what you pay for’ and the translation industry is no exception to this rule.

Cheap or free machine translations such as, Google Translate, offer language translation without emotional, contextual and linguistic intricacies – that’s fine for some, but if you want your website to attract and retain international customers then you’ll need something more accurate, relative, emotive, and professional.

All professional translation companies use translation software to assist with their translations, but these are specialist tools, designed to support human translators through the use of functions such as, translation memory.

They have the ability to retain frequently used phrases, words or terminology used during your translation so that they can be inserted as required, saving time and money.

AI, artificial learning algorithms, and machine translation have made huge advances in recent years, but if you want accuracy and quality, choose a professional human translator.

 

Want to know more about our website translation and localisation service? Simply contact us and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.