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I often receive email from companies offering to translate one or more pages of my site into another language. They say that this will enhance our presence on search engines outside English speaking world, therefore, increase sales.
I have two questions.
1. Is is worthwhile to have one or more pages of your website translated into another language? (We already get queries and some orders from Europe and Japan just using English).
2. Are any of these companies worthwhile?
We have had this offer quite a few times for our websites, but because google can translate pages, this may be seen as duplicate content, especially if you have several pages in different languages.
A complete waste of money in my eyes.
Bek.
Potentially there are great advantages in having your website in several languages and some of our members have been doing that for several years, but you have to carefully consider your way of doing it.
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Here is one good thread: [webmasterworld.com...]
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We have had this offer quite a few times for our websites, but because google can translate pages, this may be seen as duplicate content, especially if you have several pages in different languages.
A complete waste of money in my eyes.
puh-lease.
what, may i ask are you basing your opinion on?
Google [b]does not[b] consider translated pages as "duplicate content".
Machine translations suck.
Having your site translated into additional languages can be a very lucrative choice.
I will however, mention that I would never do business with any business that used UCE (spam) to promote their company.
I would also avoid having a "landing page" in X language.
If you have a large inventory or product range, i would consider translating the top X products and making a "best of" type catalog.
I have a site translated into 3 language, plus English - and it gets 6 times the website traffic of a site in a similar niche.
Just do a little research - obviously translating a Plasma TV site into to Sanskrit may not bring you a return on investment. ;)
I have never been approached by outfits wanting to translate my pages. I would be a bit suspicious.
Its possible they might use your implied permission to 'borrow' your content for their own commercial purposes.
A related question if not too OT!
I have seen free Google mchine translations of my pages, to Spanish and French, even Japanese. I cannot complain about the price, and hopefully an intelligent reader can read thru the inevitable algo-babble.
Question is: Does Google or any major player in China translate into Chinese characters? Now that would be a trick. - LH
I wouldn't reccommend using machine translations - they are no good. Even the best tools can't simulate natural language usage.
...but because google can translate pages, this may be seen as duplicate content...
My actual experience suggests otherwise.
I have had pages translated into various languages with absolutely no penalties or ill-effect at all. All of these translated pages rank exceptionally well all over the world.
What I'm hearing you say is that it is highly beneficial to have pages translated into other languages, provided it's done by a responsible translator. (I agree that translation software is useless. A while ago I trial tested our home page in Spanish because I can read that language, and even allowing for idioms, the translation was terrible.)
New or related question. We use a menu page system with button links to subcategories having anywhere from 4 to 11 content pages of merchandise. The merchandise pages are not static.
Question: Which or how many pages should I have translated into other languages?
> Which or how many pages should I have translated into other languages?
The big step is the first one: to indeed decide to have translations. After that it is only a small step to translate one more page.
You should be consequent: If one page of a specific kind is translated all other pages of that kind should be translated too.
Which pages? Important pages. Pages that are difficult to understand for foreign readers. Long pages.
Oh, and: Welcome to WebmasterWorld. :)
responsible translator.
I totally agree with this one. Early next year I'll be embarking on a site targeting another country and will have it fully translated by a person and not a machine. Also, depending on the country you target, the specifics of any language can change. For example, Spanish in Mexico has many differences from Spanish in Spain.
Perhaps a non-english instruction manual would be useful though. You can easily get credit card and devliery details across to a non-native with limited english, but the harder more technical information would pose a problem.
