You know that proper website translation from a certified professional is important in making your website look professional. It’s how you avoid embarrassing translation mistakes, typos, grammar faux pas and other issues when writing and presenting information in another language.
But quality website translation matters for so much more than quality of writing alone. It plays a role in everything, from search engine optimization (SEO) to mobile readiness.
You may never see for yourself exactly how your website translation looks to your target demographic. If you don’t read Mandarin and you’re never planning to be in China, how do you really know how important your website translation is? It’s pretty easy: Simply look at your analytics for that specific demographic.
It can be tempting to try to save money by going with a too-good-to-be-true, lowball translation bid. Don’t. Here are a few key reasons website translation matters:
- SEO: Like it or not, search engine algorithms are ranking your website (and its translations) based on content quality, link building, layout and speed. If you’re not on top of your SEO game with a translated site, your potential customers aren’t finding you. (And if they are, they might not be very impressed by what they see!)
- LSEO: Local SEO and hyper-local SEO are becoming more and more important, especially for translated sites. There’s a good chance that if you’re translating your site, you think a certain region or demographic is worth the effort. Keep in mind LSEO best practices, like making sure the name, address, and phone number (NAP) are correct and displayed in the most common localized format. Mess this up, and you can hurt your ranking.
- Responsive design: A website that’s responsively designed is crafted to appear quickly and beautifully no matter what browser or device is used. Does that South Korean translation look OK to you? You can’t really tell if the characters are formatted well or if it displays correctly on a South Korean smartphone (that isn’t available in the United States) unless you’re part of that demographic. A translator equipped with responsive design skills can.
- Mobile readiness: Mobile readiness can be a part of responsive design, but it largely refers to creating an app or mobile version of a website — for your particular project, you’re adding another challenge to the agenda: translation. A translated mobile version of a website and/or adding an app in a new language is ripe with possibilities for mistakes. You need a certified translator who’s also able to provide mobile-ready content.
Many business owners don’t speak, read, or write all of the languages their website is translated into. They may not even have someone on staff who’s fluent in other languages. Rely on Verbatim Solutions for all your website translation needs, no matter how small or daunting the task.
