ARTICLE | The 5 Things You Need to Know for Better Website Translations

The 5 Things You Need to Know for Better Website Translations

For a website to be effective, it needs to reach people in their native language. There are 70% of Internet users out there who don’t speak English as their dominant tongue. Additionally, a majority of the would be more likely and would prefer to make an important purchase in their own language. In order to reach most users online and convert them into loyal customers, here are some of the best practices for professional website translation for foreign audiences.

Professional Translators

A good translation is more than just a word-for-word conversion of the text. A translator needs to understand nuanced differences between the source language and the target language. A failure to account for these differences can have a significant impact on the final result. The translated text might not read well or it could lose meaning in the translation process.

To ensure clarity, it is important to hire a professional translation service when converting your website to a foreign language. A qualified professional will understand the subtle differences between the two languages, unlike a machine translator. 

With the knowledge and understanding of a professional translator, you’ll end up with a version of the website that maintains the original intent of the text, while also reading well in another language for the intended audience.

Research the Target Audience

When you are localizing a website for a foreign audience, there is more to it than the language. Along with speaking a different language, the target audience is going to have a distinct culture. By understanding the cultural preferences of the audience, you can make the necessary adjustments to the text and the overall design of the website. 

People in different cultures engage in different consumer behaviors, and they use different services to connect with friends. One way to make your website more culturally specific is to connect the foreign language version of the site to the social media apps that are most popular in the region. 

While Facebook might be the dominant force through most of the world, you’ll find that in some countries, they use social media services that most Americans haven’t even heard of. For example, WeChat is the most popular social networking application in Asia (over 889 million users at the end of 2016), and yet is largely unheard of within the U.S. 

Layout Changes

Website translations may also require some significant changes to the layout of the site. There is a good chance that the translated text will take up more space than the original – up to 30% more space than English text – and you also have to consider things like the coding of the website and the images. 

Changes to the amount of space needed for text can affect the overall layout of pages. You may need to resize different elements to make more space for the text, or you may need to realign certain parts of the page to maintain a layout that looks clean and attractive.

If you have images on your pages, you are going to need to review them to make sure they come across well to the target audience. An image that works well for your English-speaking audience might be misunderstood in a foreign market. During your research process, you’ll need to remove all of these images that don’t come across well in the target region and find suitable replacements.

With some translations, you may also need to make some changes to the coding of the website. Depending on the target language, you might need use special characters. To guarantee that these characters appear correctly on the page, you will need to make appropriate changes to the back end of the website’s code.

SEO Strategy 

If you want the translated version of your website to be successful, people need to be able to find it. To ensure that your website is easy to find, you should make adjustments to your SEO strategy. Since the same strategy for appearing in search engines might not have the same impact in the foreign market, you’ll need to do some research to learn about the online behaviors of the target audience. 

You’ll need to consider the fact that your target audience may not use the same search engine sites. Research the relevant keywords that are most popular in the foreign market that you are targeting. You may also want to consider developing landing pages and blogs that are specifically designed for the audience in the targeted market.

Legal Issues

Depending on the purpose of your website, it may have things like a privacy policy or terms of service page. This content might be perfectly appropriate for use in your native country, but you will likely need to make some adjustments for that target country. 

Your legal obligations might vary from one market to the next, and you also have to consider the fact that the appropriate legal language can change depending on the country. A certified Language Service Provider will be able to guarantee that the correct legal language is used, and they will also have knowledge of the different laws and restrictions that may apply.