Lost In the Translation

You have gone to the expense of translating you website into a second and third language.  Are you are getting enquiries from the destination counties to make it worth the investment?  Is your website being found for the products and services you provide in those counter search engine?

Probably not!

Translating your website content to get listed on foreign search engines is the first step to increasing your international exposure.  You are considering the customers in those destination countries who use English as a second language but are you sending the right message to them?  Is the translation at a level of language that is suitable for the foreign visitor to your website?

It is not often the case and all depends on the Translation Agency you used or the translation technology you found on the internet that translated for free.  The literal translation of content can change the nuances of meaning and context of your copy when changed from one language to another.  There are many cases of this happening to dire consequences and often lost orders.  Literally ‘Lost in Translation!’

Lazy workers
An engineering company that wanted to open up the Chinese market had a long report translated into Mandarin by a native speaker – cheaper than getting a translation agency to do the work – the report was translated literally and it was published on their website.  In the first 9 months they did not get a single enquiry even though they could see from the website logs that there were many visitors to the translated page.  It was at this time that a Good Samaritan contacted the Engineering Company to ask why they were telling everyone that the engineering company had lazy workers and did not care about the customers.

Lost orders
Another case was reported of a company that had provided an enquiry form in German for their customers in Germany.  After a period of intensive marketing they were receiving over twenty enquiries a day.  The sales team were dutifully deleting these enquiries because they thought the emails were spam.  They had not been informed by the marketing department there was a German version of the email enquiry from the site and to pass it to another office.

Inflatable toys!
A seller of rubber dinghies had translated their website into French using his rusty schoolboy learnt skills.  The effect was good and they got a large number of visitors to the French pages in their website.  Unfortunately they did not get the corresponding orders from the site that should have expected.  On closer examination they had translated the content and used the term inflatable which thought was a French word. 

What he did not know was the word inflatable is a keyword for a blow up doll.  What he should have used was the term 'bateau pneumatique'.  I can imagine the look on the faces of the users when they were presented with a Zodic (another term the French use for inflatable boats) not the subject of an episode of ‘Only fools and Horses’

When it comes to business, trying to shave the budget to get the job done cheaper can result in a waste if money and brand damage.  Use a Translation agency and get localised translation of your website. 

Search engine optimisation
Keyword research should also be carried out in the destination languages with experienced linguists who understand the importance of the keywords and phrases used by their countrymen.  Many of the sites that we see that have been translated have not catered for this and do not appear in the search engines of the destination country.

Be and expert use an expert.
In summing up you are experts at your business.  Make sure you use an expert in the translation industry and search engine marketing industry to get the best for your business.  It could save you some embarrassment and a lot of money

Have a good week!