Getting the Right Website Translation Service Can Open Your Startup to a Huge New Audience
Translation takes time, effort, and investment to get it right. It is not something you should start without set goals in mind, and there are some questions you should consider asking yourself before you even start thinking about contacting a website translation service.
What You Need to Consider Before You Start Using a Website Translation Service
- What languages and regions do you want to focus on? You should have a good idea of what areas of the world you want to target, but to get a clearer picture, you can look at your site analytics to see where international visitors are coming from already.
- Perform keyword research for the regions you pick. This does not simply mean to translate your keywords. Keywords might be different in the new areas you are targeting, as your audience may search for different terms. Keyword research can help you see the demand and competition for your startup’s product in these areas.
- Perform market research. You might find that in these new markets some of your content, images, products, services, or way of handling data will not be practical for your translated website.
Finding the Right Process for Your Business
There are multiple ways you can approach website translation services, and each startup may find a different one suits their needs best.
Some things you should consider when thinking about what process to use:
- Do you want to have your translated content reviewed, created directly within your CMS platform, or use a separate source file from MS Word or Excel?
- Do you need your content to be published online across multiple platforms in sync?
- Does your CMS have multilanguage capabilities?
CMS Integration
Language and translation technology has evolved so that the days of exporting files from your CMS, sending them to your website translation provider, waiting for your translation, and adding them back into your CMS are long over.
Integrations can now connect many prominent CMSs with your provider’s translation management system, creating a smooth translation process.
CMS integrations have a number of huge benefits for startups interested in website translation services, for example:
- Time-saving: No faffing around emailing back and forth.
- Security, control, and visibility: There is very little chance of data being compromised.
- Ease of use: Monitoring progress and sending posts and pages becomes simple and easy enough for any member of your team to do.
Translation Proxy Technology
Translation proxy technology means you don’t have to keep bugging your IT team to mess around with files on your site. In simple terms, it is a website translation service that sits on the front of your site and provides translation services as needed so your different audiences can see your site in their local language.
This solution has both pros and cons. It is not a fully localized service, so you may end up displaying irrelevant content to audiences from another region. However, if you are just getting started in translating your website and going global, it can be a great way to test the waters in a new market, as it can be done much quicker than localized translation services.
If you already have a CMS set up, however, then proxy technology probably doesn’t make much sense or add value, unless you are creating microsites separate from your CMS.
Manual File Transfer
So you don’t want a proxy, but you don’t have a global CMS that your website translation service can integrate with? Not to worry, we can still do things the good old-fashioned way through manual file transfers.
This is a more traditional approach to website translation and localization and involves downloading files from your CMS and sending them to your translation provider, for them to send you back the translated files, which you then re-upload to your CMS.
This can be a more time-consuming process, but if your CMS doesn’t support multiple languages, it may be the easiest option. It can also be a good option if you are not running on tight time constraints and are not looking to regularly update your site and get fresh translations regularly.
Final Thoughts
With 72.4 percent of consumers being more likely to buy a product with information in their own language, translating your site can help expand your business and allow you to reach new audiences. But, you need to make sure that you get the process right and use a website translation service that works for your startup.
Finding the right translation agency and using a service that integrates with what your startup needs are vital to ensuring you get effective translations, and now you can follow our guide and know exactly what to look for!
