Quality Website Translations Don’t Have to Break Your Budget

Your online business is booming. You’re reaching customers across sales channels and it shows: traffic and revenue have never been higher. The next step? International expansion! You are the first to recognize the new revenue potential, but at the same time, you start putting together a list of concerns. Specifically financial concerns. One of the items on your list is website translation. What will it cost to get quality translations for your product descriptions, blog articles, FAQs, and so on? It soon mounts up. Check out our tips to save on translation costs without jeopardizing your international success. That’s one less headache!

Translation professionals typically charge you per word. When budget is not an issue, you could simply have everything translated and worry about what to use where and when later. Of course, in reality, budget is rarely not an issue. So instead, comb through your website content and determine what your Most Viable Product is. Which pages and texts are critical to a successful launch in another language?

From a legal perspective, you’ll want to make sure your Privacy Policy and T&Cs are accessible in your customer’s language. To attract and convert customers, you need translations for all the content in the customer journey, from product descriptions through checkout. If navigation is tricky, shoppers won’t hesitate to leave your store. Including localized customer support, like contact options, FAQs or information about your return policy, can boost the credibility of your online store.

It is important to realize that not all your content is relevant or appropriate for every audience, so start striking out words, phrases or even pages. Perhaps you want to start with a limited product offering at launch. Or you need to exclude restricted items for certain markets, like gum in Singapore. Be sure to exclude those product descriptions from your translation project in the early stages, so you don’t end up paying for unnecessary translations.

Once you have carefully selected the content that requires translation, you can save even more on the translation strategy. There are different approaches, some more expensive than others, from machine translation to creative translations where texts are rewritten to resonate with a new audience. It goes without saying that the latter is pricier. While these creative translations are vital for marketing content, they are by no means a requirement for al text types. 

Your time is valuable. Partner with a translation agency to avoid spending your precious hours dealing with content translations. Translation agencies have an extensive network of translators, experienced linguists they already know and trust. They can find the right translator in no time. Plus, they offer tech solutions to import/export your web content, which means no copying and pasting for you! Translation agencies typically also work with specialized tools to analyze and translate texts. Technically these save translators time, as the tools enable them to work faster, but it also means you get your translations in less time and at lower costs. Discounts are applied for repeated or previously translated content. 

And finally, don’t forget to include the translation stage in the planning of your activities. This may sound obvious, but in our experience, texts are often sent out for “quick translation” right before launch. This is generally a bad idea, in terms of quality and moneywise. Rush jobs often come with rush fees, whether you’re ordering a custom cake or a translation.