3 Errors To Avoid When Building Multilingual Sites

In this digital world of global connectivity, it is essential to have a multilingual website, if you want to attract foreign customers, that is, and with so many opportunities in foreign markets, it is wise to cater for as many people as possible. While certain browsers offer a free translation service, this is not suitable for commercial content, and despite the advances of translation software, you really cannot cut out the human element. If you are soon to create your new business website, and would like to include several key languages, here are some common errors to watch out for when building a multilingual website.

Avoid Machine Translation – Technology may have come a long way, but you cannot afford to have an app translate your quality content. Despite the many attempts, a lot of the positive traits to quality text is lost in the translation, and the best way to ensure an accurate translation is to hire a Manchester web design company, who would use professional translators, and as they also design and build quality sites, and can also put together a dynamic digital marketing plan, which you will need if you are going to carve out a market share.

Poor Language Button Placement – If you are targeting 4 or 5 main languages, you should have a dropdown menu that is very prominent. The online consumer is very fickle and wasting any more than a few seconds will often result in backtracking to the Google search window and trying again. These are the type of things that a professional web designer would consider, and fast page loading is also a must, which again would be the domain of your web developer. “Couldn’t I just design and build my own website?”, you might be thinking, well, yes, you could, but your competition will have outsourced this to a professional web design company, as the website is very much your digital showroom, and should therefore reflect your organisation in many respects. If you would like some further reading on factors to bear in mind when building a website, there is a very informative article that covers everything about basic design.

Lack of Cultural Awareness – This can be very costly for an online retailer who is planning to penetrate a foreign market, and it is essential to have a native speaker read all the text on every page, specifically looking for cultural breaches. One classic example was the US car manufacturer that named their new model in Brazil with a single word, which meant “unreliable” in the local language, and one cannot overemphasise the importance of cultural awareness when translating web content.

All of the above could result in a loss of business, and with the help of a professional web developer who can also guide your digital marketing, you can be sure to reap the maximum benefits from every campaign. If you would like to make contact with an established web developer, a Google search is the best place to start, and after the developer has heard your brief, he can design a site that ticks all the boxes and reaches out to a global audience.