7 reasons you should translate your website to improve user experience

Developing a website can be a painstaking task, and one of the most important factors can be deciding what content to put on it. So, why would you then stop half of the world from being able to read it? Translating your website into other languages can have a huge number of benefits, and here we take a look at just a few of them.

1. Boost your traffic

Any website wants to receive as much traffic as possible, and good website translation can help you to achieve this. It means that you can now attract business from overseas, as it makes it easier for them to download content and fill in contact forms. It is important to remember that English only accounts for just over half of the content online, so there are vast amounts of people who are not being reached – you can make your business different.

2. Better user experience

Imagine being interesting in a product, service or piece of information but not being able to read it. This is what it can be like for those who speak another language when they reach your website. Some will even resort to trying to translate it themselves. By translating your website properly and professionally, you can ensure that your user experience online is as good as it can be for as many people as possible, which can go a long way towards winning new business and making your business into a global brand.

3. Stand out from the competition

It is likely that many of your rivals have not had their website translated, which means you can offer something very different to them. You can reach markets that they cannot, and you have the opportunity to set new standards that they are unable to match. If your competition is already serving customers in another language then you do not want to be left behind and you need to make sure that you keep up.

4. Improve your image

Translating your website into multiple languages can drastically enhance your brands image as it shows your customers that you are a reputable international brand that can cater to more than one part of the world. This boost in reputation and trust can lead to customers coming back time and time again to buy your products or use your services because your brand has made sure your website is accessible for them.

5.  SEO benefits

We all know that SEO is king when it comes to getting your website seen amongst the massive online market place, and website translation can play a huge part in this. Translating your website will drive more traffic to your site and generate more leads. Translated copy which includes SEO keywords in other languages can play a big part in being seen by new international visitors.

6.  Comply with regulations

Depending on what you do and where you sell your services, you will probably have plenty of laws and regulations that you need to adhere to, and in some situations, translation can be part of that. For some industries and market, regulations state that you must have localised content, which is translated content that has been edited to be better understood and accepted culturally, so it is important that you do all you can to stay within the laws of your industry.

7. Read the data

The data in your analytics tools will tell you where your website traffic comes from and how long those visitors spend on your site. If it shows a large amount on international traffic then you need to think carefully about providing specific content for them in order to keep them on your website for longer, reduce your bounce rates and help to drive your sales further.

As you can see, translating your website can be very important, but it is even more vital that you do it the right way. Online translation tools are not reliable, and the meaning of some of what you say can become lost. Hiring a professional translator can not only make sure that your text is grammatically correct, but that it also taps in to the correct cultural references so that it maximises the number of people that it can reach.