Online businesses have never had it as good as they do today, plying a plethora of on line goods and services, with e-commerce at its booming best. Whether your business is small or large, there's always some big opportunity out there waiting for you to make a grab for it, maybe from some location that's half-way across the globe. It's no surprise that website design and content services have a thriving market. Also riding this wave is the translation services market, for most businesses would like to host a multi-lingual site that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.

Optimizing your web content

There are plenty of strategies for on line selling, like optimizing content so that search engines bring up your website on the first page of the results when a key-word search is performed. When it comes to translation of web content, however, you must remember that your content in a 'foreign' language must sound as appealing to the target audience as does your native language website. To have an appeal in foreign markets your site must 'speak' to customers in their language. Otherwise your efforts would be wasted, as potential clients who may actually stumble upon your website are going to feel bewildered if they can't fully understand the terms of your offer. The thought that hidden costs or some catch in the offer that may be lurking between the lines may actually drive them to their tried and tested local site even though you may offer a better deal.

Some website usage statistics

The following statistics illustrate the importance of the 'comfort' factor in communication:
Web users are four times more likely to purchase from a site that has content in their native language or one they are comfortable with (IDC idc.com).
Over 100 million people access web pages in a language other than English.
Over 50% of Web Users speak a native language other than English (Global Reach glreach.com).
Visitors stay for twice as long (Site stickiness is doubled), if a website is in their own language (Forrester Research).

Translation and localization

Translators who can render an accurate translation job and also take care of the localization aspect would be the best choice for working on the translation of a multi-lingual website. They know, for instance, that the 'Shopping Cart' of the U.S. website will be a 'Shopping Basket' in the UK version, and 'Panier d'Achat' in French. Feeling comfortable with the website menus, navigation and easy to follow instructions and information is the secret of success.

Different file types

Websites use a variety of documents formatted in different file types. The commonly used files are: HTML, XHTML, XML, Java, Flash, CSS and ASP. Website translation service providers also offer the additional service of providing translated-localized content in the required file format so the end user just has to upload the document to their website.

The Internet is an area of intense activity and e-commerce sites transact huge volumes of sales, at all hours of the day and night. Website translation is a specialized area of work that requires certain skill sets like basic knowledge of file formats used in web applications and some understanding of the usage of terms and expressions in the target language, so that the audience feels comfortable reading the content and generally browsing through the web site. A good web content translator must make sure that the rendering is accurate and that he also addresses cultural differences existing in different language-speaking regions.


About the Author:

Armando Riquier is a freelance expert translator and writer collaborating with Tectrad, a company providing high quality professional web site translation services and localizations into French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, etc.