Why Google Translate Can’t Trump Certified Translation Services!
If you do business internationally, or even if you don’t, you probably need a website that will represent you well in more than one language. English is only the 3rd most commonly spoken language in the world (behind Mandarin and Spanish). So chances are, if you’re reading this blog post, your company’s website needs to be translated to reach more customers! Some companies turn to Google Translate to solve this problem. It looks straightforward, easy, and most importantly: free! Unfortunately, when it comes to website translation, that old adage holds true: there is no such thing as a free lunch. Using Google Translate to make your website speak to clients and potential clients around the world will likely cost you much more than it would to just get a trusted, proven translation services company to handle it for you. Here are 4 reasons to use a real certified translation services to render your website in other languages.
Google Translate will do a clumsy job and may damage the integrity of the text on your website.
If you’ve ever used Google Translate, you know that sometimes it can give some less than accurate results! Often, these results just make us laugh or get compiled in a funny email or listicle that gets forwarded around. Do you want your company website to be full of text that people will literally laugh at? You always want to put your best foot forward in business, especially with your website, which may be a, if not the, main driver for new business! So make sure your website text is just as perfect in any other language as it is in English. Use certified translation services.
Google Translate doesn’t localize your site.
Even if Google Translate gets everything accurately translated on your site (a bet nobody should take), it’s not going to give your website text the ‘flavor’ of the language, if you will. Google Translate has no regard to sentence syntax, idioms, or the culture that its speakers live in. Trusted language translation services will help you translate your site into a new language in more than just a literal way. It will help you translate your website into a tool that feels like a familiar and useful tool. They will help you create a version of your website that speaks to their concerns, needs, and perspectives as your potential clients. That’s too priceless to skimp on!
Google Translate may make your site unnavigable.
If words that help organize your site into sections are translated poorly, a potential client can easy get lost and bounce out quickly to a new site. Working with a translation firm will ensure your site remains as organized and easy to navigate in every language as it is in English– so your customers easily find their way to you!
Using Google Translate may get your site a ding for SEO.
Though it seems counterintuitive that Google’s own tool could get you knocked down in their rankings, it’s true for a few reasons. Firstly, as mentioned above, Google Translate could render your website’s text unreadable or at least ruin it a bit. Google always knocks websites with poorly-written, unreadable content lower in rankings. Secondly, Google doesn’t like ‘machine-created’ content. When your website is translated by Google Translate, you’re bound to get dinged for this, even if you originally created the content. It becomes machine-created, and thus less relevant in Google’s rankings. Lastly, your keywords may not be translated properly by Google Translate. When you work hard to use your industry’s keywords in your content, you don’t want to lose that SEO power! You need a professional translation services online to help you figure out what your keywords are in other languages, then rewrite your text accordingly!
Thank you to Language Connections for providing this guest post!
Language Connections is a language service provider. We specialize in technical, medical and legal translation, simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, website and software localization, and corporate language programs and interpreter training. We provide certified, professional translation in 100+ languages. With over 20 years of experience, we have expertise in all major industries including the life sciences, patent and immigration law, international business, global education, and advanced technology.
