It’s likely you may not have put much thought into localizing the content of your website. Yes, English is considered a universal language and even a de-facto one in many countries. And, sure, many people speak it as a second language. But, that doesn’t mean everyone is good at understanding written English.
It doesn’t matter whether you sell something on your website or you just have a huge fan following. If you want to make a bigger impact online, you should consider having your website professionally translated for you. While free tools like Google Translate can give some help, machine translations aren’t a patch on the ones done manually by human beings! And if you’re still not convinced, the following six reasons might change your mind:
When you try to explain something on your website, you don’t want your instructions or advice to get misunderstood. If you have many people visiting your site from a non-English-speaking location, reaching out to them in their native tongue will save everyone time and frustration!
There’s no denying that it’s easy to sell almost anything online these days. E-commerce websites can take just minutes to set up, and they are something you could do yourself. But, will foreign visitors understand your descriptions? If not, companies like The Translation People can help you fix that problem.
If you want to get “one up” on other sites offering similar content to yours, one thing you can do is offer a multilingual website! It’s a brilliant way of impressing site visitors from other countries and is a proven way to increase website conversion rates.
Should you already target a foreign market, you may not have much choice but to translate your website! The reason above might be compelling enough, but there could be legal ramifications for you if you don’t. Local laws may dictate that promotional literature is made available in other languages.
Tools like Google Analytics can tell you a lot about the types of people that visit your site on a regular basis. If your website statistics show that you’ve got a large following of visitors from a certain region, translating your site can make a lot of sense. Especially if those people could potentially do something like buy a product or sign up for a newsletter on your website.
If you didn’t care about your visitors, they would have to rely on machine translations that can often sound confusing!
Some website owners like having their content translated so that it can help them learn a new language! Sure, website translations offer a lot of commercial benefits to site owners and visitors alike. But, it can also offer personal advantages too, especially if you plan on visiting a foreign country soon.