One of the factors that keep visitors coming back to a website is content that they understand. Translating is an effective way of taking a site a step closer to addressing a specific audience. But to maximize the benefits of translation, companies may need website translation services.
Translating a website to Spanish is very beneficial. In the US alone, the Hispanic population tops 54 million. Thus, maintaining a Spanish website allows you to target new, vast markets. However, the merits of hiring a Spanish translation service provider exceeds engaging a greater audience.
Reasons to Translate Your Website to Spanish
The Hispanic population holds a purchasing power of approximately $1.5 trillion. You would want to target it to:
- Improve customer experience
More than 70% of consumers stay longer on websites whose content is in their native language. Translating a site to Spanish should deliver similar benefits to you.
- Build trust
Visitors are more likely to trust your business if they quickly understand the content published on your site.
- Increase traffic
Over 75% of Latinos use the internet. Having a Spanish website may most definitely result in a traffic surge.
- Increase revenues
Approximately 40% of consumers may not buy from a website without their native language’s version. Websites may find it necessary to hire a Spanish translation website to prevent sales loss.
Ways to Translate A Website to Spanish
Having examined the rewards of translating a website to Spanish, we should also discuss how to put in place such translations. There are three methods to affect English to Spanish translations online.
Statistical Machine Translation (SMT)
Machine translations are among the cheapest methods of translating a website to Spanish. The technique is quick, but it involves some downsides. In a nutshell, a computer learns from large amounts of translated words. It then applies a statistical model based on what it learned to translate other text data.
The use of machine translation is suitable for websites whose Spanish audience is small. Additionally, it may be unwise to use this method when translating content for a professional audience.
Various ready-to-use tools are available to implement Statistical machine translation. The most popular is Google Translate, which allows website translation effortlessly and quickly. However, the demerits associated with SMT may eclipse its benefits.
The biggest drawback of SMT is the occurrence of contextual issues. SMT may have a difficult time converting slang versions of a website to Spanish. Additionally, translating an unpopular language to Spanish may prove to be costly with SMT. The translator may have to develop a model from scratch, which requires at least a hundred million words.
User Translation
As the word suggests, user translation involves a website asking its visitors to translate their content for them. This method is technically free, as website administrators don’t have to pay the users to re-write in Spanish.
However, companies need a significant financial budget to develop the necessary translation tool. It also takes time to create the user translation software. Moreover, incentivizing users to translate websites for free demands substantial effort.
Companies such as Wikipedia have published a Spanish version of their website using this method. However, user translation may not be the best option for you when your objective is to “translate documents from English to Spanish.” As you may realize from the example given, companies using this method have a massive online presence.
There exist claims that user translations may result in very accurate translations. However, such an assertion is dependent upon a well-developed translation, which may be costly. Additionally, translating a language without many speakers may be quite a challenge. Thus, looking for professional website translation services remains to be the most viable option.
Website Translation Services
Hiring a professional for English to Spanish translation online remains the most effective way of translating an English website to Spanish. With this method, you can get a customized solution covering all your translation needs. Services offered by a Spanish translation service fall in two broad categories:
Straight Translation
Straight translation is almost like machine translation. However, it is different in that the human element features in the translated text.
The primary benefit of straight translation is the correction of contextual errors present in machine-translated texts. For example, there are approximately seven words in Spanish that refer to a road. SMT may make errors when translating and refer to the road as a highway. However, straight translation may not feature faults like this, as an expert would know what word to use in what context.
Another benefit of straight translation is the use of words that would appeal to a broad Hispanic audience. Some words may lack meaning depending on the audience reading them. With Straight translation, you can be sure the text appeals to the most general audience.
Transcreation
Transcreation differs significantly from straight translation. Ideally, it is a blend of translation and creation. A typical transcreation task involves reading text in one language and writing it in a completely different manner. But the translator takes care to preserve the style, tone, and purpose of the text.
The single most significant advantage of transcreation is adapting the text to the audience’s needs. Transcreation re-writes words in another language and anticipates the message an audience would like to hear. Its effectiveness is so great that a company can consider itself localized after implementing transcreation.
Transcreation may appear to be expensive. But it ranks among the most effective ways for English to Spanish translation online.
Plan to Translate Your Website to Spanish
The competition for an online audience is ever increasing. With a Spanish version of a website in place, companies can tap into the vast Hispanic population and increase traffic and revenues.
Indubitably, the most effective way is to hire a Spanish translation service. Doing so is an almost sure way to get website translation services tailored to your unique needs. Furthermore, it allows you to avoid the drawbacks presented by machine and user translation.