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Do
your customers only speak English?
One
of the best ways to drive new traffic to
your site is to translate some or all of
your site into a different language. This
is one of the places where a solid content
management system (like our PageDirector
system) can really help keep content organized.
 One
of our clients makes themographic ink -
ink that changes color depending on the
temperature. If you've seen any of the recent
Coors Beer commercials that feature the
can that turns blue when the beer is cold,
our client's ink is what they use to make
this work on the four billion cans of beer
they are using the ink on this year. The
company, Chromatic
Technologies Inc, has a global customer
base, and we're currently translating their
site into both Spanish and Mandarin, so
that we can help develop more inbound leads
via search engine optimization in foreign
languages.
 Another
client, Up
With People, didn't choose to translate
their entire site, but does have a section
on the site in French, Spanish, German and
Japanese. The theory for their organization
was that while they didn't want to spend
time translating the entire site into each
language, they wanted a place where parents,
students and supports could learn more about
the organization in their native tongue.
And
yet another client has
a law practice in Denver, Colorado. A large
portion of their clients speak Spanish as
a first language. Translating their site
into Spanish has allowed the firm to reach
out and connect in a way that English alone
cannot do, and also generate goodwill in
the Spanish-speaking community. (This client
didn't want us to publicize their site.)
 For
the Customer Paradigm site, one of the services
we offer is Spanish Language Web Marketing,
including cost per click (CPC) advertising.
It's still a new and emerging field, and
allows us to demonstrate our ability to
market and communicate in other languages.
Does
Translation Make Sense For You?
For
many companies, translating their site into
another language may not make much sense.
But
if your company sells to people from outside
of the United States (Or Canada), or serves
a target market where English is not everyone's
first language, translating your site may
be ideal.
Expert
Tips
for Success:
- Make
sure that whomever is translating your
site is a fluent speaker who understands
the lingo of your business.
- Make
sure it's easy for people to switch back
and forth between languages on the site.
This is usually done with a "Choose
a language" set of links toward the
top of the site.
- We
recommend spelling out the languages,
such as: Français, Español,
or Deutsch, instead of using flags (someone
may be upset you're using the Spanish
flag vs. Mexican flag, or the US flag
vs. UK).
- Make
sure that the character set for the translated
pages matches the language you're working
on. This is one of the most common mistakes
in translating a site.
- Make
sure that product names make sense when
they are translated. The Chevy Nova is
a classic example: In Spanish No Va literally
means "No Go" (not ideal for
something that is supposed to help you
go).
- Make
sure you use a content management system
that allows you to make sure each section
of the site is translated properly, and
can stay organizaed appropriately.
- Make
sure that you publish a sitemap of your
content in each language - this is key
for getting picked up by search engines.
- Consider
leveraging a geo-location database to
detect what country your visitors are
coming from. If a visitor is coming into
the site from Mexico, for example, you
may wish to default to the spanish language
version of the site automatically (but
give them a way to revert to English,
too).
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