It is not easy to translate a website. When translating a website, you may miss subtle nuances or contexts essential for the language to read and sound authentic.
Automating translation can be a difficult task. You can spend hours laughing about the many ads, menus, and signs that are poorly translated around the globe by typing “translation failure” into the Google search bar.
Although language translation mistakes are funny, they wouldn’t be so funny if your business website had a translation error.
Why you should translate your website by the numbers
It is helpful to translate the language of a website not only for accessing information from a foreign website but also because it will help you expand your ecommerce business. You can overcome the language barrier by translating your website into other languages.
Take a look and see why this can be a profitable move for you. According to W3Techs, English is the primary language used on 54.5 percent of all web pages. Russian is also used by 6.7% of runners.
The European Commission studied language preferences in 23 European Union countries in collaboration with Common Sense Advisory. The study found:
Nine out of 10 internet users said they would always prefer viewing websites in their native languages.
One in five people won’t visit a website that isn’t in their native language.
Forty-two percent of customers will not buy anything from a site that isn’t in their mother tongue.
According to a study by the European Commission, more than 56% of respondents said they would buy a product if it had information in their language.
According to Internet World Stats, in the past 19 years, Chinese users have grown by 2,572.3 percent. Spanish users rose by 1,425.8 cents. Arabic users rose by 8,917.3 cents. And Russian users increased by 3,434.0 cents.
Babel says that only 20 percent speak English, and only 5 percent speak English as their native language. This information means that most internet users spend their time on only a tiny portion of the web, while a significant part of the e-commerce industry is left untapped.
The Right Tools for the Job
It is still worth considering for the future, even if you are not interested in translating your site and tapping into the international market. Learning how to solve websites for you or your store/blog to reach a wider audience is beneficial. You can become a global player if your competitors haven’t solved their websites yet.
Although, you will need some (okay, lots) of help to overcome the language barrier if you are not multilingual. You can find many tools on the Internet to translate websites.
Google Translate
Google Translate offers one of the easiest, most direct ways to translate a website. Google Translate can be used in two different ways:
You can first translate an entire website by typing the web address into the box to the left.
Choose the language you want to translate the page into from the dropdown menu to the right.
In the box to the right, you’ll find a link. You will be taken to the translated site by clicking on the link.
You can see how your website might appear in another language.
Some items have not been translated on the translated website, for example, the text embedded in the images. Google Translate doesn’t translate text embedded in pictures or words with no translation such as “Instagram,” “Snapchat,” and the like.
Copy and paste the text you want to translate into Google’s box. Google will translate the text automatically, as shown in the below image:
Be careful when using machine translation. Google Translate is intelligent and accurate but sometimes may miss subtleties and nuances in a language.
Google discontinued the option of embedding a widget in your website earlier this year, making translation easy and quick for your customers. Shopify users have this option.
Langify for Shopify Users
You’re in luck if you manage your online store with Shopify! The Langify App for Shopify allows you to translate your website easily. This app has been developed specifically for Shopify and will solve your website automatically based on your customer’s location.
You can also allow your customers to choose another language by using a customizable language switcher.
Installing this app is a relatively easy way for Shopify users to expand their reach. The cost is $17.50 per month, which is very reasonable compared to what it can do and is less expensive than any other translation service.
Langify, unlike Google Translate, can translate images. Langify, like Google Translate, is a bot. This means that no human is behind the scenes checking that the translation of the website is 100% correct.
Bablic
Bablic offers several options to translate websites depending on your needs. You can have the site translated by a robot, solve it yourself, or have a human translate it.
After you’ve completed your translation, a visual editor allows you to create your new translated website and publish it in minutes. You can choose to have your website translated into up to 30 different languages, depending on your selected plan.
Bablic automatically detects changes and new content and adjusts accordingly. Not only does the service translate your website, but it also optimizes for international SEO and translation.
You can test the service for free in one language. The monthly cost is only $24. You cannot choose human translation during the free trial, but at least you can see how simple it is to translate your website into another language.
Paraphrase
This service can be considered a translation system. This system does not translate your content in website format, like Bablic. Pairaphrase will translate the content of your website using machine translation. An accurate human translator then reviews and edits the translated content to ensure accuracy and suitability.
They use machines to translate the content first, so you can get solved content in seconds or min so that. Paraphrases can translate images, spreadsheets, PDFs, and presentations. With features such as two-step authentication, SSL certificates, and storage of uploaded content, the uploaded content will be stored and kept secure.
This translation management software is excellent for speed, accuracy, and international SEO. It is more expensive than other software and apps for website translation, starting at $125 per month.
Hire A Human Translator
Hiring a human translator will allow you to bypass the bots and semi-complicated software. A human translator can translate subtleties, slang, and phrases that machines cannot.
An accurate human translator will ensure that your customers will not be confused (or laugh) by your website. Be sure to choose a translator with experience in the content type you want to create. It may be that your translator is unfamiliar with sthe pecific terminology needed to produce the content you aim to develop.
Smartling is an online website translation company that employs real human beings to translate your material. Smartling’s translators and linguists can handle any project with their 150 languages.
Smartling offers flexible pricing based on your needs. Smartling also provides machine translation and integration with third-party translation service providers.