6 Reasons Why You Should Translate Your Website & How to Do It Right!

If you have a brand-new website (or even an older one), it may have come to your attention that you should consider translating it. It seems like a big undertaking – there’s just so much content that would need to be written up again from scratch in several languages. How would it help your business? Is all that time, money, and effort worth it?

Here are Six Reasons Why you should Translate Your Website

In case it wasn’t obvious before, yes, translating your website in just a few of the most popular languages in your industry can make an incredible difference for your business. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should work on translating your website.

Reason #1: Easier for Foreign Language Users

Our world is increasingly global, so you may find that a lot of your customers are actually not native speakers. The expatriate population living overseas is on the rise, and it’s in your best interest to cater to them as much as possible.

At the very least, your website should have a version for every major language spoken by minorities in your country. That makes it much easier for foreign users to access and navigate your website. That can help with customer retention, brand loyalty, etc.

The more appreciated and catered to your users feel, the more likely they are to return to your company and use your services.

Reason #2: Broader international appeal

And why not think big and go international? If your products and services are available internationally, then translating your website is an absolute must. That will enable all your overseas customers to access and navigate your website more easily.

Whereas Western consumers had the most buying power in the past, Asian and Middle-Eastern consumers are catching up, and fast. Not catering to consumers that speak Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic, Hebrew, or Afrikaans, for example, is a big mistake. Thankfully, it’s one that can be easily rectified by simply hiring native speakers to translate your website into these high-traffic languages.

Reason #3: Good for branding

Taking active steps and efforts to cater to your international audience can only be excellent for your branding strategy. That way, you position yourself as a global company, instead of a local one.

Especially if you plan on offering local services overseas in the future, it’s critical that you establish an image of a modern, international brand that has been maintaining relationships overseas for many years.

This will not only help with overseas clients but also with local ones. Everyone is more impressed with an international company.

Reason #4: Increase in traffic

The obvious point to make here is, of course, related to the major increase in traffic you are likely to see if you translate your website. Think about the number of people that your page sees on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Now, imagine that you could double or triple that number – do you realize what kind of opportunities that open up?

The most successful companies in the world enjoy consistent, steady, high traffic. That is because their websites are available in multiple languages and they get visitors from all over the world. More traffic means more sales – we’ll expand on that in the next point.

Reason #5: Increase in overseas sales

Obviously, you are likely to see a significant increase in sales you make overseas. Think about all the customers that were previously unable to use your products or services because they couldn’t easily navigate your website. You are offering them the opportunity to enjoy your company and all it has to offer.

This could open up new and exciting doors for you on markets you only dreamt of before. When your website is only available in one language, you are limiting yourself and the potential your brand has.

Reason #6: Separate yourself from the competition

One very important aspect we mustn’t forget about is your direct competition – what are they doing? What can you do to get ahead? Translating your website is the right answer, regardless of what the competition is doing.

If they are already translating their websites, then you have to do it, in order to remain competitive. If they are not offering access to their website in other languages, then it’s equally important for you to offer that option, as a means of getting ahead of the competition.

It’s an objectively positive move you need to make in order to bring your company to the next level. If everyone else in your field is behind, you will stand out in the best way possible.

Here Are Some Quick Tips about Translating your Website

Tip #1: Choose a universal domain name

Believe it or not, your domain can actually turn out to be super important. If you’re going to be trading globally, then your name needs to make sense and be easy to spell for as many people as possible. That means you should consider a very simple name, without any fancy spelling or a word that is very specific to your native language.

The simpler, the better. That will give it universal appeal and any customer, no matter where they are, will be able to find your website easily. That means more traffic, more sales, and a more recognizable brand name.

Tip #2: Don’t rely on Google Translate for any part of your website

It can be super tempting to just let Google Translate do its job and translate your site. However, that would be a mistake, and we’ll tell you why. As you may know, Google Translate doesn’t always translate things entirely accurately.

It’s an incredible service you can use in a pinch for an approximate translation, but the last thing you want is for your website content to be a mishmash of almost coherent sentences. That’s worse than not having your site translated at all.

Make sure to keep your reputation and professional image by avoiding Google Translate and the quick, but imprecise translation services it offers. There are better alternatives.

Tip #3: Hire a professional translation service provider

It should go without saying that what you need to do is hire a professional translating service. You can find freelance translators on various online platforms if you really can’t afford the cost of a professional team, but you’re taking a bit of a gamble on the result.

The best investment you can make for your business is to spend the money on hiring a professional team that will be able to go through all your content and translate it accordingly.

That way, you are guaranteed to end up with a professional, coherent version of your already existing website, just in a different language. Another benefit, when you hire a team, is that they are likely to have in-house translators for various languages and may even offer you a discount when ordering various translations.

Tip #4: Translate every part of your website

One of the most frustrating things is when you try to access a foreign language version of a website and you realize that they don’t actually offer the same pages as the original website.

If you can’t afford to translate your entire website properly, then yes, you can get away with translating the most important pages. However, if you want a real professional site for your business, you’ll want to make sure that every part is available in multiple languages.

Tip #5: What’s the bottom line?

No matter what line of business you’re in and what your native language is, translating your website can only be a good move. If you have big plans and want to expand into other countries or have global customers, then you need to think about how you can make your site accessible for them.

Choosing a universal-sounding domain name is a great start, but you’ll also want to offer your content in the languages that are most frequently used by your customers. That will make your traffic skyrocket and will further establish you as a global brand.