Translating websites

In today's globalised world, websites are essential for many companies and brands to make themselves known both nationally and internationally. Today's businesses attract and capture their customers online. Expanding a business into foreign markets therefore makes the task of professionally translating websites of significant importance.

Why is website translation so important?

The search for products and services has moved to the World Wide Web, and it is now the first place that consumers, suppliers and business partners look. Although social networks provide some tools for companies and brands to have a degree of presence on the internet, the fact is websites still represent their main showcase.

Corporate websites form the core of a company's marketing strategy. Since the internet has become the place where brands fight for customers, no company can afford to neglect their digital presence. If they do, they run the risk of being invisible in the eyes of their target audience.

Ensuring its website is optimised and translated into several languages is a brand's first step to support its international operation in overseas markets. This is because a company cannot compete on equal terms with other brands or local companies if it does not translate its website texts into the languages of the countries where it wishes to develop new business.

In addition, most multilingual websites use a CMS (Content Management System). A CMS is an application that enables websites to be created using templates, plugins and development tools. They enable content and its translation to be managed quickly and easily.

The role of the website translator

Machine translation technologies have evolved to such an extent that they have led some to call into question the need to hire the services of a professional translator or translation agency for some projects. Today, you will find free tools within browsers and search engines that enable you to translate pages in little more than a second.

However, these tools lack rigour in terms of syntax and precision in regard to terminology. Although free machine translation enables content to be expressed in other languages, sentences are not always constructed in ways that are natural in the target language. And there is no guarantee that polysemic terms (i.e. that have multiple meanings) have been translated to have the same meaning as in the source text.

International translators who handle website translation projects know that their task is not simply to translate a text from one language to another. Far from it.They need to understand the context and purpose of the website text, be able to localise the content into the target language and optimise the SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimisation) in the new language.

In spite of the significant breakthrough of being able to translate web pages automatically, delegating this task to free tools does not guarantee a professional finish, and a company's brand image can easily be compromised.

We strongly recommend therefore that these projects be handled by a translator who works with an agency such as sanscrit - a professional who is also capable of working with any of the main CMS, such as:

• WordPress
• Drupal
• Joomla!
• Shopify
• PrestaShop
• Magento
• Moodle