Now more and more companies are making websites bilingual or multilingual, which allows them to reach a larger audience. English versions are still popular, since English is the international language of communication.
Machine translation of a website: pros and cons
Often, website owners install plugins that automatically translate all texts into another language. The advantages of this method speak for themselves: it is fast and inexpensive.
However, you need to understand that machine translation has serious disadvantages:
- Inaccurate translation. There may be errors in the text that affect the perception of information, as well as trust in your company, organization, business.
- Lack of formatting. The translation may contain more or fewer characters than in the source text, which changes the visual perception of the page. In some cases, the site after translation may look uncomfortable for users.
- The translation does not adapt to hidden meanings, popular expressions, or professional terms. You receive a word-based translation.
- The content on the site does not adapt to the characteristics of users. It makes a difference whether you create an English version for people who are not native English speakers or people who live in English-speaking countries.
Even if you use plugins for machine translation, you need to review the texts for errors, inaccuracies and other nuances, otherwise users will not take your resource seriously, which means they will go to competitors.
Translation of a website into English in a translation agency
This service is called site localization. It is not enough to simply translate the text; it is important to adapt the entire site to new users. This includes a full range of services, which includes site formatting, working with images, videos, and sometimes even changes to the code are necessary.
In this case, a whole team is working on the English version of the site.
Working with a translation agency is of particular importance if website translation is needed for English-speaking countries. In this case, our specialists take into account the local characteristics of users, starting with the characteristics of dialects common in a particular region. A simple example: British and American English. There are serious differences in the translation of the text.
Our experts also take into account the use of different metric systems, currencies, and time zones. The user should feel comfortable on your site.
It is important to remember that each field of activity has its own specifics, including professional vocabulary. Machine translation is not able to accurately convey the meaning of highly specialized terms. Our translation agency employs linguists who specialize in these types of translations to work with such projects. For example, for a pharmaceutical company, text translation will be performed by a specialist with experience of work with medical and pharmaceutical texts.
Advantages of working with a translation agency to translate a website into English
We talked about some of the nuances above. Now let's highlight the main advantages:
- The translation of texts is carried out by a professional linguist, so the text does not look dry or machine-made. Specialists take into account the characteristics of your target audience.
- The style of the company, organization, brand is preserved.
- The text adapts to search optimization, thanks to which your site will rank high in search results, which means more users will visit it.
- No errors, discrepancies, or inaccuracies even for highly specialized sites. And this increases confidence among a new audience.
Pereklad Agency works on website localization into English in a comprehensive manner, involving a whole team of specialists for your project.
