“My question is about how to make websites work in different languages. As I operate my business with customers throughout Europe I need to present my website in several languages. How does this work? Once I have the text translated, do I have to make separate sub domains for each version or is there some software that magically changes it when visitors click on the appropriate flag?” – Gaynor
Hi Gaynor, there is a software that can magically change your website content into 34 languages when visitors click on the appropriate flag. You can check out the product here.
Two years ago, translating websites into different languages was touted as a way to increase your website traffic from the search engines.
This is because of the lower search engine competition in other languages as compared to English.
This may still be true today. (I have not tried playing with different languages, so I can’t speak from experience.) But thanks to your reminder, I’ve just purchased a copy of the translator. I will apply it to my websites to see if it can really increase my web traffic. I’ll report the result in the blog once I get some results.
There are 3 scenarios I can think of when considering the possible website translation solutions:
1. For more search engine traffic
If your objective is to get more search engine traffic to your website, I think the paid translator is worth considering.
All the translated pages will be indexed in the search engines and you can potentially get search engine traffic from those translated pages.
2. For better visitors’ experience
If your objective is solely to enhance visitors’ experience, there is no need to waste money. You can use the free Google translation tool.
Your translated pages will not be indexed by the search engines. So you won’t get any extra traffic from the translated pages. But existing visitors to your website will be able to view your website in other languages.
To add Google translation tool to your website, you can either use javascript or PHP script.
For javascript solution, you can refer to
http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/11/add-google-translation-flags-to-your.html
For PHP solution, you can refer to
http://www.donutey.com/translation.php
3. For more sales
If your intention is to provide different versions of your salescopy to visitors from different countries, I think it’s better to manually translate the English salescopy into different languages. This is the most tedious alternative, but it’s the best option for sales conversion.
There is no need to arrange the translated pages into different subdomains, unless you are translating the entire website. If you are only manually translating a few important pages, you can simply keep all the pages at the root domain level.
Hi Kenneth
Thank you so much for your very speedy and informative response to my question. You’ve helped me to clarify my thinking on this issue and pointed me in the direction of useful resouces to check out.
Your answer has been very helpful indeed.
Have a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Gaynor
Thanks for the information Kenneth.
I never really gave much thought to global sales, I figured it would be to much of a problem, but this seems pretty simple.
Thanks again
Rich
You know I never thought about translating websites but the information and resources you have just provided will definitely come in handy. Thanks very much again for such a thoughtful blog
Excellent article that is both interesting and thought provoking. The links you have provided are very useful and I have saved them for future reference.
Merry Christmas to All who celebrate!
Greg.
http://hits-a-million.com
Your suggestion is great Ken.
But have you thought about this — say I translated it to Spanish, and that guy signed up and then emailed me his queries in Spanish ……how am I to reply back to him coz I wont be able to read and understand what he writes ?
Any ideas ?
Thanks and merry Xmas to everyone out there !
George Eng
Malaysia
You can always translate it back to English using Google translation tool http://www.google.com/language_tools.
Kenneth
Your article is always inspiring on me,
Thanks Ken, and Merry Christmas to all out there.
http://www.tekowidiantoro.com
I enjoyed your article. In fact, I use my own online language learning business as a gateway to a vast array of international marketing niches. Everybody is interested in learning a second language and especially English learning and translation tools are a great way to attract international clients. Would love to have you visit my site.
First of all: Kenneth’s articles are simple brilliant. To me, a website newbie with a knowledge of the toic that is next to none, you reveal a wealth of knowledge and I am truly thankful for that.
I’d like to make one comment, though, regarding the automatic translation of websites. I’m a native German speaker but my website is builtin English – so I always picked my brain as to how I could make my site available to German readers as effortlessly as possible. That is when I came across this article and of course my interested got peaked. But with all due respect: from a translation and quality perspective, all automatic translation tools are worthless in my opinion, and ultimately, they are nothing else but a diservice to readers/customers. The translations are ridiculous, and it doesn’t matter if you use Google or a software tool. Whichever one you use, the result is useless. Again, that is if you put yourself in someone’s shoes – a real person, not a search engine – , who finds your website and wants to translate it by using any of the available tools.
It’s a different story if you mainly care about just getting your website exposed to the masses. I agree that this might work extremley well, because you can exponetially more URLs out there, hence more potential visitor.
But it’s ultimately a decision between quality and mass exposure.
Love your article, but I have a question. Does Google view same pages in different languages as duplicate content. I can’t seem to find a firm answer to that.
If you’ve actually handled or designed any multi-lingual web site you’ll be aware a large thousand and one items to be aware of.
Thank you By Kenneth for the articles it contains a lot of information and Google is well enough providing best translation services for every language before that it was very difficult to manage website for different language but it simple just use Google Add the plugin to your site or visit this page https://translate.google.com/manager/website it can help you out.
Much thanks to you such a great amount for your exceptionally quick and useful reaction to my question. You’ve helped me to clear up my reasoning on this issue and pointed me toward valuable resouces to look at. You know I never considered deciphering sites yet the data and assets you have quite recently given will prove to be useful.
I always use for translate another language sites. Google translator is very useful for all languages
its great post.i am not known to this by reading your article i am getting known that it is possible to translate a website in different languages which is a best to rate a website.thanku for sharing this information to people who are unknown to this.