Why Your Business Needs A Website Translator
When your business exports or you are preparing to enter new foreign markets, you will almost certainly require the services of a website translator. Website translation works with website localization to translate and adapt your website specifically for your target country, region or area, ensuring that written and visual content fits in with the local cultural outlook.
When you consider that the use of English on the internet declined from 51% in 2000 to 29% in 2009, it has become even more important for businesses looking to trade overseas to adapt their websites for their international audiences.
In general, a well localized website will feature IP address recognition, which enables visitors to be taken to their dedicated language area automatically. In case the automatic redirection fails, it should also provide links to the other language versions of the website using the name of the language rather than a flag – as languages are often spoken in more than one country.
Ideally the website being translated should have a unique domain name in the target language; this has become even more important with the recent availability of the first ‘internationalized domain names’, which are now available in non-Latin characters.
To improve the performance of your website in your target overseas market you should also have hosting in your target country and link popularity with sites in this market – i.e. links back to your website from French websites.
When considering the process of website translation and localization, you will need to pay particular attention to the colors and images used, in case they are offensive or have another meaning in your target country. For example, in Islamic countries green is used for holy purposes and in Korea, a name written in red means the person is dead.
You will also need to be aware that in different countries there are variations to the way in which date, time, currency and weights and measures are displayed.
If you want to reuse the existing templates for the UK version of your website, be prepared to alter them as translating from English to some European languages increases the amount of text. Don’t worry about translating passages that are irrelevant to overseas visitors and make sure that the tone and key messages are localised to your target audience.
Once you have chosen a website translator make sure that you are clear about your objectives and remain fully involved throughout the whole process. Check, re-check and proof read final copy and always query things if you are not sure.
Learn more about website translation. Stop by the Regional Language Network site where you can find out all about choosing a website translator and what they can do for you.
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