Website translation, as the name suggests, is a process of translating your website into the preferred language of the targeted users. As more than 70% of internet users prefer browsing in their native tongue, translating a website turns out to be the most effective way to pull traffic. Besides, it helps increase engagement as users tend to stay twice as long if a website is in their language. Not to mention the raise in the customer base as you instantly end up getting an entirely new set of potential buyers.
In other words, website translation reduces bounce rate, increases sales, improves brand value, and helps you expand your business. It can also be exploited as a means to make your brand international.
Though the trend of getting a website translated is now fast catching up among small and medium scale businesses, many still wonder how to go about it and whether it will make a big hole in their pocket. This blog answers all these questions
How To Translate a Website?
Typically, you can translate your website in two ways, either by hiring professional human translators or by using a machine/software.
Getting text translated through human translators enables you to have the most high-quality translation. However, when it comes to speed, obviously a translator has the capacity to translate a maximum of 1500 – 2000 words a day. So, if your website is huge with the word count hovering around 50,000, it would take you almost a month to get your site translated if you choose to work with a single resource.
Machine translation, on the other hand, offers a quick solution and you end up getting the translated text almost instantaneously. However, when it comes to quality, it is no match compared to the output delivered by humans. Since software fails to catch the tone, tenor, and context of any text, you may find some glaring and embarrassing mistakes in the final copy.
How Much Does It Cost?
Obviously, the cost of hiring a professional human translator far exceeds renting a software. In fact, depending on the experience and proficiency of a translator, the cost may go up significantly. However, even if one hires an average translator, the translation would cost somewhere around 10 – 20 cents per word.
In contrast, using a software would be cheaper and it yields faster results too. One can find a lot of free translation software but the quality of their output is definitely questionable.
However, if you are using a paid solution, you can expect the output to be of reasonably quality by spending less than $50 monthly. In fact, with Bablic, you can get your website translated as well as localized for just $24 a month.
Which One to Choose – Human or Machine Translation?
The only emphatic answer to this question is “BOTH.“ Why? Because human and machine translation have their respective advantages and disadvantages and by strategically using both, you can make them complement each other.
For example, if you only use human translation for your website, the cost will be high and the speed will be slow. You will not be able to make real-time changes in your site.
Whereas if you use software, it will be cheaper and faster, but the final copy might not be error-free.
Use human translation for the major pages (which carry the potential to make or break a deal) of your website like Home Page, Services etc. and take the help of software for less important ones like Testimonials, FAQs etc.
Another alternative is to use machine translation as a base and later hire a human proofreader to review the content and fix the parts that need improvement. This is a very good compromise in terms of execution time and outcome quality, in addition to being a mid-way solution in terms of costs.
To sum it up, both have their pros and cons; however, when it comes to websites, machine translation has a lot more advantages than it is commonly believed. Only a correct mix of both will help you get the desired output that is quick, cheap, and professionally effective.