Running a successful business takes time, effort and patience at times, that is why whenever you see your business is ready to knock at some new doors, you got to make your research on your target market, target country and in this case, your target language. Why? Well, basically because when you realize your business is getting known in a new country or want it to be known by a wider audience, you may consider a different country and that sometimes means a different language is on the way.
When you finally decide to reach a new market and want to share your creations with a new market, there are several challenges to face before it is completely successful. Today, I will talk about a topic that not only is related to me, personally, but also a must to those willing to take their company to the next level.
Communication is the key
Being able to reach your customers’ attention in their own language is essential to make of that first look, a genuine interest and a long-lasting relationship with a future purchase.
It is well known that “English” is the most globally accepted and used language, but what happens when customers in your target market speak a different language? Some people would naturally prefer the content in their native language and that’s the advantage you could have thanks to your website being translated into that target language.
When we talk about an online store, understanding the description of the product and the selling process may be important to your customers.
In general, we can say your website is your personal card, that key that would open to infinite opportunities when it comes to business. No matter what type of business you have, whenever you decide to translate your website, make an extensive research to avoid misunderstandings.
In this article, I will analyze the website translation process.
Your website will go through a content translation phase.
In this phase, you will have the choice of human translation by hiring a professional website translation service or use machine translation, which is the automated program or plugins like ConveyThis.
When it comes to human translation, professional translators are native speakers, the accuracy, language nuance, context, style, the tone will be the right ones coming from this translator. The same would happen if you decide to use a translation agency, professionals will work on this translation and they’ll make it sound natural to your audience.
Keep in mind it is your responsibility to provide all the content that needs to be translated, in word or excel formats, so don’t give them your URL only.
Once the website is translated you will probably need a multilingual editor or content manager to confirm the quality of the translation. Keeping a good communication with the translator or agency will help you when content updates are needed.
When we talk about automated translation, this could be a good choice when it comes to translate into several languages in a short period of time, combines with human translation in the edition process.
Using Google for your translations wouldn’t be the best option, if your website was built on a WordPress platform, you could add a multilingual plugin service provider like ConveyThis. With this plugin, your website will be automatically translated into your target language.
So this content translation phase would be quick with some help of plugins like the one ConveyThis offers, the why this plugin would give you an advantage in comparison to other methods is that your content will be automatically detected and translated.
Once your content is translated, it’s time to see the results on your website so you can let that target market know about your products and here is where the integrating translation phase starts.
If you hired a professional translator, you will probably have to set up each content separately, registering the right domain depending on the country for each target market and then set up your website to host the translated content.
It is also important that no character from the target language is missing when the content is imported and once it is uploaded, it’s time to optimize your SEO. Target keywords will definitely make a difference on search engines, if you want to be found, make your research on which keywords will work for your website.
Multisites are a great benefit for big brands, but it takes more effort than you probably want if a multisite network sounds like a solution to you, you got to know that this represents running an individual site for each language, which in terms of managing websites could be a lot of work.
Finding Multilingual Solutions
Nowadays, almost every business is looking for digital solutions and ways to keep in touch with their customers, the reasons why creating a website is so important are basically the impact they have on the target market. Increasing your sales, being known globally or even updating your brand’s approach are reasons to do things right, your success is related to good strategies and good management. Maybe you understand what this translation process takes but some entrepreneurs and managers will find this a little confusing, with this in mind, knowing your website in this new language is a must, you would probably consider hiring a website translation service provider.
Now that we know a website translation service provider would be the solution to your website, you may wonder, where you could find such a service. Don’t be surprised is the first option you find online is Google Translator, just remember machine translation sometimes isn’t the solution. GTranslate may be quick but depending on your business needs, a more professional translation may be required.
My suggestion to your website translation would be the ConveyThis WordPress translation plugin, where they combine machine and human translations to assure your translation is properly localized or SEO friendly in the target language. Special directories will be created for each language you need and all of them will be detected by Google so your customers will find you on search engines.
This plugin is easy to install and it will allow you to automatically translate your website to up to 92 languages (Spanish, German, French, Chinese, Arabic, Russian) which mean there’s a benefit on translating into RTL languages too.
If you want to learn how to install this plugin just make sure you visit the ConveyThis website, check their Integrations and specifically the WordPress page, here you will find the step by step guide to install the plugin.
Please keep in mind that to use this service you will need to register a free account on ConveThis website first, it will be required when you need to configure the plugin.
How do I install ConveyThis plugin in my WordPress?
– Go to your WordPress control panel, click “Plugins” and “Add New”.
– Type “ConveyThis” in search, then “Install Now” and “Activate”.
– When you refresh the page, you’ll see it activated but not configured yet, so click on “Configure Page”.
– You will see the ConveyThis configuration, to do this, you’ll need to create an account at www.conveythis.com.
– Once you confirmed your registration, check the dashboard, copy the unique API key, and go back to your configuration page.
– Paste the API key in the appropriate place, select source and target language and click “Save Configuration”
– Once you’re done, you just have to refresh the page and the language switcher should work, to customize it or additional settings click “show more options” and for more on the translation interface, visit the ConveyThis website, go to Integrations > WordPress > after the installation process is explained, by the end of this page, you’ll find “please proceed here” for further information.
In conclusion, in such a globalized world with so many languages and diversity regarding cultural patterns, it is important for our businesses to adapt to our new target market. Talking to your customer in their own language will make them feel comfortable while reading your website, and your goal is to keep them searching for updates and reading your posts for more than a minute. As in every translation, there are advantages and disadvantages when it comes to human or machine translation, that is why I will always suggest the eye of an expert to edit or proofread the translation even if it is made with the best machine translator we have nowadays in the market, the success of a translation, no matter how it is done, relies on the accuracy, how natural it sounds on the target language and how familiar it sounds to native speakers when they visit your website. Remember to keep the same website design independently of the translation, for more information about website translation feel free to visit the ConveyThis blog, where you will several articles about translation, e-commerce and anything your business may need to achieve the global goal.
Translation, far more than just knowing languages, is a complex process.
By following our tips and using ConveyThis , your translated pages will resonate with your audience, feeling native to the target language.
While it demands effort, the result is rewarding. If you’re translating a website, ConveyThis can save you hours with automated machine translation.
Try ConveyThis free for 7 days!