The painful truth has already been acknowledged.
Monolingual websites do not allow you to communicate with your foreign buyers in their native language.
They don't allow you to compete for search engine rankings in multiple languages.
You're fed up with the limitations of your monolingual website and want it to be multilingual.
But where to begin? How to identify your main markets and, consequently, the languages you should target.
Where to find a reliable translation agency or freelancer. And finally, how to get at least a rough idea of your website translation budget.
When similar questions arose, you probably first searched for answers on Google.
Yes, many blogs write about the costs of web translation services, but they are mostly agencies simply describing their services.
Our publication will give you a complete understanding not only of the costs, but also of the entire website translation process. In the end, you'll know.
- How to plan your budget,
- Which translation service should I choose?
- What tips can you follow to save money while still keeping all your main pages in front of your target audience?
Website translation process in 9 steps: removing the limitations of a monolingual site
This section is dedicated to overcoming the limitations of monolingual websites and opening up new opportunities for your online business.
Here's where to start:
#1 Check your Google Analytics
The five most used languages on the internet include English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese. But you don't have to translate your site into all of them if the local speakers aren't part of your target audience.
Instead, you should use an analytics tool to determine which markets you'd be attractive to. That tool could be Google Analytics, which is simple, free, and can do half the work for you.
When you access the Audience → Geo → Location report for your account, you can see which countries users visit your site from most often.
GA will show data on your users' behavior and conversion metrics so you can understand whether you're receiving quality visits or not.
Another way is to go to the Audience → Geo → Languages report in your account and see which languages predominate.
That's the first thing you should do. What's next?
#2 Set objectives to reach markets X, Y, and Z
If you don't have visitors from country X today, it doesn't mean you can't have them tomorrow. Perhaps you researched the market in country X and discovered that your products/services are a perfect fit. Why not take steps to reach that market?
You can translate your website into the main language(s) of that country and then start to promote your brand.
To ensure you're targeting a specific market, you need advanced knowledge and reliable statistics on that market's purchasing behavior. A country or market researcher will be your best assistant in providing you with this essential data.
#3 Understand which languages are your top priority
Now it's time to decide which languages you actually plan to target. People living in different countries might be speaking the same language. Conversely, people living in the same country might be speaking completely different languages.
For example, Portuguese is spoken in both Brazil (Latin America) and Portugal (Europe). And the difference in the written form is not significant. Or Russian is an official language in both Russia and Belarus.
But if we take Switzerland as an example, you can't be sure whether your visitor is a native speaker of German, French, Italian, or Romansh. That's why it's crucial to research the demographics and cultural image of that country.
#4 Identify the main keywords that your pages are targeting
The purpose of translated pages is to be indexed by search engines and attract quality traffic. And without keywords in mind, it will be difficult to optimize your pages for Google's bots, which crawl millions of pages every day.
You should identify which keywords have high intent, meaning they have the potential to generate sales. These keywords are called transactional and contain words like "buy," "buy online," "price," "best price," etc.
The goal of keyword research is to understand how users search for similar terms in their own language. Because the essence of keywords is usually the same, but the word order and word structure can vary from language to language.
#5 Subscribe to a web translation plugin/app (for example, GTranslate)
Having a multilingual site requires nothing more than starting to use a multilingual plugin/app.
A similar tool like GTranslate will automatically translate your pages and give you the option to easily edit them. Whether you want to update your meta descriptions, URLs, or meta tags, you'll have no trouble managing our user panel.
Translating SEO elements will help you include strategic keywords in your translated web pages and become even more competitive in search engines.
Our free plan lets you automatically translate all your pages into your target languages. To make changes, you'll need to upgrade to one of our paid plans.
We're proud to say that GTranslate has reached over 100.000 active installations on the WordPress platform alone. And we want you to be our next active and engaged user.
If you run an e-commerce store, you should be able to find us at Shopify's app store.
If your website runs on WordPress, you can download GTranslate here.
And if your website runs on another platform (like Squarespace), you should check out the features here. and available plans from GTranslate.
GTranslate will translate your website pages using Google's neural machine translation system. We'll be honest with you: machine translations aren't 100% perfect. But they've come much closer to understanding context and working like human translators.
However, you might want to ensure a top-quality translation, and machine translations may not be sufficient. Let's discuss this under Point 6.
#6 Familiarize yourself with industry prices
Services typically charge per word. The average price per word ranges from $0,06 to $0,12. As for hourly rates, the starting price is approximately $20 per hour.
The price depends on several factors, including the translation volume, language pairs, and of course, your niche.
Fields requiring professional training and additional qualifications (medical, legal, scientific) will cost more. Industries like education, charity, general healthcare, and similar areas could cost less, because you don't need to be an expert to understand these topics.
Depending on your budget, you can determine how many languages to translate your site into. Perhaps your budget only allows you to have your site in 2-3 languages.
Another approach is to target more languages but translate only your most valuable pages. Learn how to do this in Section 7.
#7 Exclude the parts that do not need to be translated
Your site may have hundreds or even thousands of pages. You probably don't plan to translate them all. For example, you might not want to translate all your blog posts, case studies, etc. (although having some educational or informational pages won't hurt).
Keep only those pages with high intent that can generate revenue for your website. You can choose pages based on their income potential, the relevance of their content, their impact on brand perception, and so on.
You can also find pages with high potential in the GTranslate User Control Panel.
#8 Hire a translation agency or a freelance translator
Discussions about the dilemmas of the modern world never end. Hire a translation agency vs. a translator, hire a marketing agency vs. a marketing professional, shop online vs. in-store, work from the office across from home…
We hope we only talk about the challenge between translation agencies and freelance translators.
This way, you'll understand all the main pros and cons of this dilemma and see which option you're willing to pay for.
Advantages of translation agencies
1) Global teams with specializations
Agencies typically have large teams and native translators specializing in very specific niches. If you work in highly specialized sectors (legal, medical, financial, technical), agency project managers will assign your task to a competent translator.
2) Includes editing/proofreading
The agencies have a team of editors/proofreaders who review the translations. The proofreaders ensure there are no typos or grammatical errors in the text so you can publish it on your website.
3) SEO translation available
Most translation agencies offer SEO translation. So your translation will contain your target keywords in your target language and will be will rank more easily in search engines.
Cons of the translation agency
1) Additional costs
Since several employees are involved in the process (project manager, translator, editors), this automatically increases the total cost of translating the website.
2) You don't know who is translating
As a client, you won't know who will be working on your project or if they are a truly professional translator. You simply trust that the agency will do a quality job for you.
As for the critics, again you know nothing about them. The only person you communicate with is the project manager.
So you should trust the agency 100% to assign your tasks to the most relevant candidates.
3) Multiple translators on the same project
Translation agencies can divide your website content among several candidates, and again, different editors can review those different texts.
The result would be incoherent content, where the same terms are translated differently.
Freelance translator professionals
1) Relatively lower costs
Freelancers will translate your website at a relatively low cost because they don't pay salaries and work for themselves.
2) Direct contact with them
You know who's doing the work for you. You can read their recommendations or opinions on their LinkedIn profile.
You can ask them to show their licenses and certifications if you need a translation for a specific niche. So, you're the one who decides if they're a trustworthy candidate.
3) Request a test translation
Not all, but most translators agree to complete a free trial translation. Unless your profile seems suspicious, they're unlikely to think you're a scammer and will be willing to demonstrate their skills.
Please note that you can request a free translation of up to 200-250 words. More than that is not accepted and may discourage translators.
Freelance translator conventions
1) No correction
Translators can also be editors, but relying solely on their self-assessment skills isn't very professional. A fresh look from a third party is needed to ensure everything is accurate and sounds natural.
2) I may not be an SEO specialist
Freelance translators may not be familiar with best practices and even SEO principles.
3) You are the project manager
You need to dedicate your time and make sure the freelancer completes the task on time.
#9 You can use GTranslate's professional proofreading or translation service
At GTranslate, we have a tried and tested team of native proofreaders and translators. They translate directly on your website using a contextual translation editor. There are no Excel or Word files. Not even HTML files.
Want more benefits of working with us?
1. You have a choice
It's up to you to decide whether to hire a native proofreader or a professional translator. The difference is that proofreading services are much more affordable.
It will check the automatic translation on your website and make improvements when necessary.
Imagine you already have your website's machine translation at least at a medium quality. You pay a native speaker to work on the existing text and only make corrections when necessary.
As for hiring a translator, they will translate your website from scratch. And the price for website translation will naturally be higher.
2. One language, one translator
We don't assign the translation process for your website to multiple translators or proofreaders. We do this to ensure a consistent tone of voice throughout the translation.
3. Design problems? We'll fix them
You know that sometimes the translated text can be larger than the original text. Languages are different, and the translated phrases might not fit your website's design. What to do?
In similar situations, you just need to contact our technical support team and resolve your problems free of charge.
4. Request as many page translations as you need
You can request a quote to translate 20 or 25 of your pages. If you find that the final cost exceeds your budget, you can remove any pages that don't seem essential.
It allows you to save money but at the same time put the best content in front of users. The translation cost calculator on the GTranslate website It will allow you to get an estimate in just a few minutes.
5. Be visible in search engines
GTranslate's In-context editor lets you edit your translated content and add your target keywords. Not only will your pages be indexed, but they'll also contain keywords with search volume and appear in front of the right audience.
It seems we've covered all the ins and outs of the website translation process. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us, or simply start your 15-day free trial with GTranslate today.
Original article by Gtranslate | April, 2020
