Website Translation to Boost Adsense Revenue in International Markets

[potentialgeek]

Anyone tried it? Apparently there is site translation software available which will translate your English site into all the major languages without compromising your code. Non-English speaking people are supposedly 70% of the world. Of course Google is international, with ads in all these languages... Has anyone doubled their Adsense revenue by translating their site into French, German, Spanish, etc.?

p/g

[DamonHD]

DO NOT TRY automated translation: your site will look like a joke.

And in any case it does not matter how well you translate the temperature in Washington DC; most German and Chinese speakers will never care.

Please remember that when you say 'international' you are talking about *most of the world*.

Many of the English speakers may prefer non-US English.

Many of the latest Net users speak Spanish and Chinese.

Many of the richest Net users probably speak Japanese.

So whether it will be helpful to do a translation wll depend on your material, your audience and your mindset.

Yes, I have done some limited manual translation into several languages including several European languages and Chinese. It will be a while (years?) before I can tell you if it 'worked'.

Rgds

Damon

[workingNOMAD]

"Many of the English speakers may prefer non-US English."

As much as I am pleased that I speak British English (being a Brit!) I do think American English has already taken over the web and will continue to do so. So I don't think the above point is relevent.

[martinibuster]

I asked a European AdSense spammer why he didn't spam in his own language, and in the other non-English languages. He said there's more money in English and that the European market is a drop compared to what he made in the English speaking market.

Fwiw, I paid to have an entire site translated and the results were very poor.

[DamonHD]

Hi workingNOMAD,

Notice that I said *may*; assuming otherwise *may* be foolish.

Tell me that no English speaker in the UK, Australia, India, NZ, SA or elsewhere would prefer a site that let them choose a "colour" of "trousers" for example?

Just because most people currently (especially with new browsers and OS flavours) seem not to know where to switch from a default en-US to a more palatable local en-XX, doesn't mean that supporting it is not a marketing opportunity and a potential USP.

Rgds

Damon

[Fuzzyfish1000]

I'm thinking of starting a new campaign, titled, "Campaign for Real Spelling", otherwise known as CamReS. Anyone with enough honour, and a colourful imagination is welcome to join ;-)

[stuartmcdonald]

Another issue with translating a site is that all your widgitian-speakers will probably start emailing you queries in widget, which may be very labour (not labor ;-) intensive to address.

[jomaxx]

I've looked at the stats, and the web population is (something like) 7% Spanish-speaking, 5% French, 4% Italian, 4% German, etc. etc. Add in the fact that many of these people are already capable of searching in English, and the result is that you have to translate into a whole whack of languages in order to see a significant bump.

[WhiteWebServices]

I'm thinking of starting a new campaign, titled, "Campaign for Real Spelling", otherwise known as CamReS.

Whatever you do, proof-read the site for that carefully. :)

[DamonHD]

Well, as long as the ad below is for the "Campaign for Real Pedants", you can't lose!

Rgds

Damon

[nomis5]

Don't do it! I have a very succesful UK site which I tried to set up as a USA site. It didn't work. Probably because the culture is so diffreent, word usage is suprisingly different and geographic and temperature differences are very different. The search engines spot you a mile away!

I gave up on the USA site but looked at what markets were improving. The USA is improving almost zilch, it's saturated, but the Chinese, Russsian, Indian and Ukranian markets are rocketing. Internet usage in these countries is expanding hugely. I decided on the Russian / Ukranian market. I found an educated Russian in the Uk and that person translated parts of the site with a basic knowledge of the subject matter from a Russian/Ukranian perspective. I ended up with a very different .ru site, a very satified and happy partner. That's the only way to enter a foreign internet market.

[zCat]

This is how the original post might read if it had been machine translated:

"It does not import who test? Apparent it has a software of the translation of the available place that will translate its English place in all the main languages without compromising its code. The not-English-speech of the peoples has supposed years of 70% of the world. Of course Google is international, with the ANNOUNCEMENTS in all these languages… Does not import who folded its income of Adsense translating its place in Frenchman, German, Spaniard, etc.?"

And that's for a relatively simple couple of sentences. For an entire website you end up with what is basically garbage and of no use to the end user. It also provides a lousy basis for automated contextual analysis.

[abbeyvet]

Tell me that no English speaker in the UK, Australia, India, NZ, SA or elsewhere would prefer a site that let them choose a "colour" of "trousers" for example?

I think you'd be surprised how few care. Most are so accustomed to seeing US English spelling and syntax that they barely register it. It's sort of 'web English' and just accepted.

I would consider US English to be the neutral option online, as those who aren't from the US won't be bothered about it, but US readers will be bothered if faced with non-US English.

Every other week or so I get an email about a particular site aimed at the UK/Ireland market primarily which has, unexpectedly, developed a largish US user base. The mail will be sent by a US user politely and helpfully (usually!) informing me about 'spelling mistakes' on the site.

I have never, ever had a similar mail from anyone in the UK or anywhere else about a site in US English - has anyone?

[DamonHD]

This *may* be because non-US-English speakers understand *why* the spelling differs from their own.

That is why the complaints may be asymmetric. I haven't in fact seen any such complaints at all for my main site even though a large chunk of my audience is US and my default site language is en_GB (ie British English). That may be because I've internationalised the page furniture to use US spellings for US users.

Rgds

Damon

[edited by: DamonHD at 9:25 pm (utc) on Mar. 27, 2007]

[edited by: martinibuster at 1:15 am (utc) on Mar. 28, 2007]
[edit reason] Let's keep stereotypes out of this. Thanks. [/edit]

[chikung]

Well I am interested in knowing more about this. I posted the subject on my forum and I received negative feedback about instant web translators.

But what everyone talking here is about the big text blocks. If I have a tutorial site where the main emphasise is on graphics and it is supported by the software instructions of just few word sentenses, (open this, go to This, select this tool etc.)is it a good idea to use web translators?

I mean to use those flags represent those countries like a button to change the page to different language. If I use human translator, I end up duplicating the entire site that consumes more web space.

By the way another small thing needs to be pointed out here is, I will be ofcourse choosing the languages that are supported by adsense.

[abbeyvet]

With instructions - even supported by graphics - accuracy in translation would be even more important and auto-translation would be even more likely to make a mess of it.

Are there words in the graphics? In English?

[chikung]

Yes. The words are in English. They are plain text.

[zCat]

Small text blocks which need to convey a clear, concise meaning are not going to be any easier to "translate" automatically. E.g. Google's translation service translates the simple "save file" to "außer Akte", which doesn't make any sense (a literal translation back would be "except document"). The correct translation would be "Datei speichern". Other translation software might make a better job of it, but I wouldn't bet on it.

One thing no translation software does even remotely well is convey "voice", i.e. the tone something is written in.

[maxgoldie]

I know there is a very good translation plugin for Wordpress that I have been thinking of trying, mostly because having more translated pages might = more pages spidered, which might = more traffic.