Website Translation: Don’t Just Copy and Paste!

Website Translation – Focus on the Details

Website translation isn’t a simple case of translating word for word, phrase for phrase. It takes knowledge, experience and native speakers – people who know the target language and the local culture too.

Localisation can become extremely local, targeting a culture within a culture – or a mixture of languages. Languages themselves have a multitude of variations and potential audiences; British English, American English and Australian English all bear subtle differences, even if they’re (for the most part) the same language. In other languages, differences can be more extreme between variants, e.g. Chinese – and effective website translation will take that into account.

These details need to be covered and planned for, before we put a single word down.

Interested in website localisation? We offer a detailed website localisation service, which focuses on refining your website for usability, colloquialisms and more – so you can provide the richest experience for your users in every language, regional dialect and cultural niche.

How Our Website Translation Service Works

When it comes to website translation, Kwintessential plans first – and our attention to detail results in effective, accurate translations that you can trust.

We work with you to get the right information before we start work. We’ll get to know your business, your target audience, your tone of voice and your brand, to see what we can work with in a new language.

We’ll ask the important questions that could have a technical impact – can your website display the characters used in other languages correctly? Will you need to make changes to the layout of your website to accommodate for reading from right to left?

We’ll also ask you to consider designs and imagery; colours, shapes and images can have very different meanings in other cultures. Sensitivity to your new audience will show that you understand their needs – and we’ll make sure we meet yours with effective, considered translations.

Our website translation service also covers ongoing work – like translating company news and the transcreation of blog posts.

Website Translation Optimised for Search

Will your new, translated website show up in Google for your target search terms in a new region? Does your new audience even use Google? How else could users find you?

A search-friendly page is just as important as a well-translated one. It makes your search engine advertising more effective and potentially cheaper and can make a big difference to how high your search engine results rank.

We’ll take a list of your researched search engine targets and metadata to work with, so you’ll get effective translations that have a head start in search.

How Much Does it Cost to Translate a Website?

The cost of a website translation depends on a few factors:

Number of translations – if your website translation is part of a large international expansion, then it’s likely that you’ll require each page in several languages.

Length of content – some clients choose only to translate their top landing pages – others may need to translate their whole website.

Complexity of content – if the content requires a certified level of accuracy, for example official and legal translations.

To get a cost for your website translation, get in touch with us.

Prepare to Translate Your Website

Every website translation project is different – so establish your goals first, before preparing for translation.

1. Decide which areas of your website needs to be prioritised

It’s a common misconception that every page on your website needs to be translated. Start by thinking about which pages are the most important to your business. Take a look at which pages perform well in search engines – they could have the potential to perform well in other countries too. If you have low traffic pages that don’t perform well, these can be left out of your website translation project. In what format would you want the translated content to be returned back to you?

2. Establish who will be responsible and involved in the project

Let’s say that you want to develop your website for the Italian market, and you already have an Italian-speaking sales team. Can they help? There may be certain regulations that are specific to that country. If so, additional content will need to be written and added to the Italian translation of a webpage.

There is a moderate amount of development work that is needed with website translation. You should consult with your development team before any work is agreed.

3.  Have a plan for how your translations will be accessed

There are several ways to host translated versions of your websites. You might want to keep the main domain for your website and give users the option to select different languages.

Alternatively, you could host your translated website on a separate localised domain – which would mean a new website and target-country hosting.

After you’ve considered these factors and chosen a path, you’ll be able to get a realistic website translation cost and budget effectively for it.