Did you know that it only takes people around 50 milliseconds to form an impression about a website?
That isn’t a lot of time to convince someone to stay.
If your website translation isn’t spot on, chances are people will leave your site immediately and look for the necessary information elsewhere.
Translating your website for foreign customers is essential, but it requires some skill. Read on to learn six common website translation mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.
1. Using Automated Translation Online
There are countless websites where you can paste text and convert it from one language to another in seconds.
If something like this seems too good to be true, it’s because it is!
These sites do literal word-for-word translations that are often severely inaccurate and potentially portray offensive or incorrect information.
It’s best to avoid using these sites at all costs, especially for something as important as your website.
2. Not Translating Your Entire Site
Translating takes time, and although it might seem like it makes sense only to translate certain pages, that’s not the case.
You can begin by translating only vital areas to get things up and running (contact and about pages, etc.).
But eventually, every page, including blog posts, should be translated so that no matter what language people speak, they’re all getting a consistent experience overall.
3. Using Inadequate Translators
Hiring a translator or a team of translators to translate your website is the best option. But, if you hire one that isn’t adequate, isn’t fluent in the language, or doesn’t have much experience, things likely won’t end up well.
Work on finding a good fit for your website translation project to get the best results.
4. Not Considering All Areas
While translating different languages for your site is a benefit, you might be doing more harm than good if you don’t consider all areas.
For example, if your site has a chat service, will that be translated as well?
Will time zone differences cause issues?
Keep things like this in mind as you move forward.
5. Not Considering SEO
If your site is available in several languages, you need a multilingual SEO strategy.
If your content is only optimized in one language, chances are the people you’re targeting from other areas that speak different languages won’t come across your site. So, you will have done a lot of work for no reason.
6. Translating Into Too Many Languages
Understandably, you want to reach as many people as possible.
However, certain areas might not need the product that you offer. Instead of taking the time to translate into languages for areas that aren’t your target audience, work on a few main languages first.
You can always expand in the future.
Avoid These Common Website Translation Mistakes
Translating a website is a big undertaking. While doing so, it’s essential to avoid making the common website translation mistakes that are mentioned here.
If you avoid these six mistakes and focus instead on translating accurately, taking into account SEO, and translating your site entirely, you should be in a good place!
If you enjoyed this article, please take a look at the other business-oriented articles available on our site.
