How to translate your website into other languages
How to translate your website into other languages
Content on the internet is dominated by the English language with as much as 25.2% of content being in English. However, there are still plenty of other languages that are widely used online.
Chinese is the second most common language, with 19.3% of content being in Chinese. The following 8 top languages make up 31.5% of web copy, with all other languages completing the online world with 23.7%.
That is why your website must have multilingual content. In order to have a multilingual website, you need to know how to translate your website into other languages. Keep reading to find out more about multilingual websites and how they are created.
What is a multilingual website?
A multilingual website is simply a site that has content in more than one language.
Research shows that people (72.4% of the consumers surveyed) are more likely to purchase products or services when information is offered in their native languages, and over 50% of consumers indicated that being able to obtain information in their native language is important to their decision-making process.
Usually, multilingual websites automatically redirect users to their preferred language based on their browser settings which by default is the same as the system language i.e. the content will automatically alter to German if the preferred browser language is set to German. This way, the website owner is able to better target the customers by each of their individual preferences.
On top of that, most multilingual websites also include a language switch, so that the viewers can manually switch between languages when needed.
Having a multilingual website allows you to reach wider audiences who do not just communicate in English, allowing you to expand your market globally.
Take a look at our step-by-step guide to learn how to translate your website into other languages.
How to translate your website into other languages
- Ensure you have the website copy in its original language
- Check that your website domain allows for multilingual content
- Source professional website translation services to translate the content
- Localize the website copy
- Translate captions on any videos or images
- Correct your SEO to work multilingually
Keep reading to learn more about each step of the process.
1. Make sure you have your website copy in its original language
Before you can begin translating, the first thing you need is the original copy. Make sure it is fully signed off before you start translating, because amending multilingual content is a tedious and time-consuming job. Not only it heightens the risk of errors in the translated content, but it will also set back your localization progress significantly.
2. Check that your website domain allows for multilingual content
When translating your website into other languages, check that your website has this functionality. For example, if you have a WordPress website, you either need a specific WordPress plugin such as TranslatePress, WPML, or Polylang to allow for multiple languages, or set up multisite on your server to create subdomains for each language.
Sounds like too much? We are here to help! Check out our website translation services. Our expert will walk you through the whole process.
Once you have finished setting up the proper multilingual support based on your website framework, you can look to getting your content translated.
3. Source professional website localization services to translate the content
When you are translating your copy, using professional website localization services should be top of your list. There are other free automatic translation options such as Google Translate, however, their accuracy is far from guaranteed, and it is intended to give the gist of a text rather than be used for external translation.
Professional website translation services, such as those offered by Wolfestone, use native speakers to translate content. Not only does this mean the translation is always more accurate than machine translation, but a human translator can replicate emotive, persuasive copy with a strong brand voice.
4. Localize the content
Standard translations tend to only consider content word-by-word. Localization, however, are translations that take into account the importance of cultural nuances in the translation, including dates, currencies, grammatical variances, and your chosen call to action text – particularly if you have used any puns or other colorful language that may not translate well.
When you use professional translation services, qualified, experienced native speakers can localize content and consider these cultural variations for you.
5. Translate captions on any videos or images
Visual content is great for enhancing webpages and engaging audiences, but when you are translating your webpage, you also need to translate any captions you may have on these videos or images.
Having captions on video content is crucial for SEO and marketing purposes. But if you have website copy in French, for example, the last thing your French audience wants to see is an English-captioned video.
There are always options for fixing this. Using a closed captioning service that offers translated content will enable you to easily translate the captions in your videos.
6. Integrate multilingual SEO in your translation
You should also decide whether you wish to include multilingual SEO as part of your website translation service. This is something we would highly recommend. We can assign a translator with SEO knowledge to deliver optimized content for each one of your new pages. This is an important step because it allows your multilingual content to be found online in the native languages of the users.
Each international market has its own internet searching habits and SEO needs. We start by conducting keyword research in each language that your content is now in, and updating your site’s content in line with our research.
Contact Wolfestone for professional website translation services
Now you know how to translate your website into other languages you can begin the process of reaching new foreign markets and increasing your audience pool.
Contact Wolfestone today to receive a quote from one of our experienced teams who can provide high-quality website translation services for your multilingual website.
