There is a new Resource Guide on Get International Clients. I’ll be adding tools and resources to this Resource Guide on an ongoing basis.
The first tool here is the Translation Widget I use here on Get International Clients.
This translation widget is powered by Google Translate. And it is a little different than all of the other translation widgets I’ve seen out there.
But first a little background information…
Google Translate now recognizes the language on your page. If your page is in one of the 24 languages Google Translate has installed, this tool immediately recognizes this. If your page is not in one of the 24 languages Google Translate supports you will get a message saying that Google does not support that language.
If your website is written in any one of the 24 languages supported by Google Translate:
- DOWNLOAD this translation widget and
- USE it on
- YOUR website
You can download the translation widget you see on all Get International Clients articles.
Here are the languages currently supported by Google Translate:
Arabic
Bulgarian
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hindi
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Powered by Translate.Google.Com. – Yours To Download Here
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Anyone who is serious about doing business internationally needs to have their website translated professionally. Otherwise, they are creating a negative image for themselves and showing a great lack of respect to the customers in their new markets.
I had the first paragraph of your post translated into Spanish and then back to English by google. This is the result:
“There is a new resource guide Get international clients. Since the addition of tools and resources to this resource guide on an ongoing basis.”
Do I get the meaning of this? Yes, but is ungrammatical and will do nothing to create a positive image for any company who is penny-wise and pound foolish.
@Janine, If a person is targeting a specific market they should go for a full translation. Spanish, for example, comes in different flavors and hiring a Spanish translator will not give you the same result as a Mexican translator.
Your sample of translating one piece of text back and forth (as I call it) is actually a perfect example. If someone wants to translate into a language they don’t speak, this is a good process to use.
Take one phrase, translate using an online tool and then back to your starting language. If the result you get back is the same as you started with you can use the translated version and feel pretty safe. If it does not match, like the example you referenced Janine, change the original text and try again.
Even having used this process you are not sure to get a perfect translation, but it is a really good start.
The great thing about the translation widget is that it translates into 24 languages – from any of the 24 languages – into any of the 24 languages. This makes it perfect for sites that have some foreign visitors but have reasons for not translating.
Your own site, for example, has Spanish and English. If you had a Chinese speaking American that wanted to translate a document from English to Spanish they could be stuck with the English. Having the option to click on a flag that they recognize means that they would at least have an idea of what you do.
Just as a side note, I have had searches come to my site that weree written in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Greek and others. I reference those language because they each use a different alphabet.
they come to my site because I have my services page in each of those languages. A person that types my keywords in their language DO find my site. The translation may not be perfect, but they still are good enough to get the visitors.
You will come close, but I serisouly doubt it will ever be perfected. I will be interested to hear otherwise though