Translation services are growing bigger and bigger as a business, and now that the industry is more vital than ever, there are infinite specializations within the field. However, paying for professional translations is an expense that some people are not keen to take on. Many people will ask why they need professional translation services for their field. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of using professional website translation services for your business or project.
What is website translation?
The simple answer is that website translation services are exactly what they sound like – services where you can get web pages translated. Since the internet is as hugely widespread as it is, there are many people offering a wide range of website translation options. This means that you can almost certainly find the right type of translation services that you need for your website – whether your website is large or small, whether you need translation to a common language or a rare one, someone out there can help.
So why use a professional website translation service?
Let’s be honest, when most people ask why they should use a professional translation service, the main factor is cost. So let’s look at what people get in exchange for hiring a professional to handle their translation needs.
Accuracy
The first and most obvious answer is that hiring a professional translator almost always guarantees a higher accuracy than if you try to use another method to translate your website. Computer translation programs like Google Translate can be inaccurate, and even if they are accurate they sound stilted and wrong and can put off customers. Some people might get a document translated by a friend or family member, but unless they are very fluent in both languages, there will almost certainly be some inaccuracies.
Tone
This brings us to the next point. Even if you get an accurate translation from a fluent speaker in your target language, it may not be suitable for its purpose. A translation can be technically accurate while still sounding wrong. It’s like if someone talks about ‘fork and knife’ – 90% of native English speakers would say ‘knife and fork’, and saying it the other way around isn’t wrong, but it sure sounds wrong. Having this stilted tone can be offputting to native speakers. And this is before even considering the voice or tone. When translating from one language to another, lots of people get tripped up by how formal or informal a piece should be. Getting the tone wrong can be offputting, or worse it can offend your target audience!
Speed
Speed is another huge factor when it comes to translations. If you get a friend to translate your website it could take a while. Translation can take a long time if you aren’t comfortable with it. Added on to this, it’s just a fact of the world that if you aren’t paying to be someone’s priority, you won’t be their priority. Hiring a professional means that your website translation will be complete to a high standard in a timely manner, which is essential if you need to get your website pages launched by a certain deadline.
Confidentiality
You might not worry about confidentiality depending on what your website is, but you should still consider it. In this day and age, any bit of information can be used by your rivals to help them get ahead. On top of this, any client data or personal information needs to be kept strictly secret. When you pay for a professional, you will also be paying for a fully confidential service – which is especially vital in fields such as law and medicine.
Conclusion
The cost of hiring a professional website translation service can put some people off, but it really shouldn’t. Just as you would hire a professional mechanic for your car, there are very good reasons why you should hire a professional translation service to translate your website. There are of course other reasons than this as well, but hopefully, these points are enough to show the huge benefit that can come from having a professional service helping to localize your website pages.