How To Select a Website Translation Provider

A Guide To What Great Translation Partners Should Do For You

These days, traditional website translation isn’t enough. Your global digital presence requires a translation approach that can adapt to design changes, accommodate all the forms of digital content you produce—and won’t break the bank as your site grows and scales.

Your website translation vendor needs to understand the best practices of website translation, and should work with you to understand not just what your multilingual site looks like today, but what you’ll need from it tomorrow.

Read on to learn how to choose a website translation partner that puts your global business first.

Pick a provider that puts digital first.

Most translation providers and agencies understand the business and process of translating words, but they don’t understand the unique nuances of the web, online communication and digital content.

A vendor that uses the best of human insight and advanced technology will know how to tackle the translation itself, but will also be knowledgeable about all of the digital implications of taking your business global—including user experience, SEO, multimedia content and more.

Make sure you look for a translation partner that’s digital-ready, and digital-first.

Don’t be afraid to make a change.

Sometimes it can feel daunting to change translation vendors away from a company you’ve been working with for years. But it doesn’t have to be.

A great translation provider can help you migrate from your legacy translation vendor to a more advanced translation solution, and even work with your existing language services provider to make the transition seamless.

Guarantee quality with true translation experts.

To take your international business into new global markets, you want a multilingual website that’s authentic, personalized and optimized for those audiences with a strong sense of your brand voice.

Choose a partner that can become a trusted extension of your own website translation and teams; if they have specific experience in the verticals, industries and markets that are relevant to your business, your website translation will be far more effective and valuable.

Plus, experienced translation providers can leverage the most advanced technologies to streamline processes, optimize workflows and apply global business expertise to make your multilingual website shine.

Optimize for speed to market.

Legacy translation approaches are often much too slow for the pace of today’s global businesses. The time it takes to find, queue, translate and manually re-integrate translated content into a CMS is much, much too long.

Look for a provider that leverages the best in technology to make the website translation process as fast as possible while maintaining the integrity and quality of your translation work.

Be skeptical of price-per-word pricing.

Agencies whose business models hinge almost exclusively on translating content by the word have a vested interest in ensuring that you translate as many words as possible. The more content you translate, the more money they make.

But there’s a better way. A turn-key translation provider cares about the outcome of your translation project, and will put your business goals first.

By approaching website translation pricing in a more transparent and fair way, you can worry less about how much content you’re translating, and more about how you’re taking your international business into digital markets.

Prioritize working with true professionals.

There are translators, and then there are partners. You want to work with the latter.

Consider digging into the details about your translation vendor, and learn about how it does business. Is the leadership engaged? Are they operating with integrity? Do they care about the long-term success of your business and value your investment and partnership with them?

Find a partner that’s invested enough in their own business that they can concentrate on growing yours.

Website translation isn’t just a task to be done. It’s an investment in your global business presence online.

Take the time to choose the right website translation partner, and you’ll discover ways to serve your multilingual, global audiences online like never before.

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