Your website is your online brand identity, and you should be careful while translating it into different languages. There are multiple approaches and methods used by international companies to translate their web pages. Choosing the right approach towards your website translations is important to avoid any quality issues. Based on your translation budget, scope, and requirements, you can choose your website translation approach accordingly.
Some companies are still in favor of traditional human translations, while others are convinced that translation technology enhances their work efficiency and quality. Here in this article we will talk about different translation methods used by global brands, and evaluate their credibility and significance. So, whether you are using a translation project management platform or going for a professional translation and localization solution for enterprises, you should keep some important facts about all methods in mind to make informed decisions.
Top Approaches to Translate your Web Pages
Translating your website is an important step in your global brand expansion. You have to make sure that everything goes right from quality and accuracy to on-time translation project complement. If you are thinking about translating your web pages, here are some most used methods to do it. However, every method has its pros and cons that you must be aware of to avoid any inconvenience.
Hiring Professional Translators
Traditionally, global companies have been translating their brand content through professional translators. Brands would hire human translators to translate their websites into multiple languages. Although there are many advanced tools available online, some companies still prefer hiring human translators for professional website translations. There is no doubt that human translators can better understand the context of your brand’s translation and provide accurate outcomes. You are less likely to have any quality issues because professional translators can pick your brand tone and generate relevant and consistent translations. However, one major drawback of human translations is their slow speed and cost.
Human translators can take longer to complete just one document of translations which causes delays in content delivery and you may miss deadlines. Moreover, professional translators also cost higher than any other professional localization platform or MT tool.
Machine Translations
Human translation might not be a convenient option for you if you are managing a large-scale website translation project. Especially, if you have a limited budget for translation project management. Machine translation is a good alternative to get faster and more affordable translations.
If you are handling your website translation project through MT tools, make sure you provide a translation glossary for each project separately. Doing this would combat the quality and accuracy issues that you may face if you are blindly trusting a machine translation tool.
There are higher chances that you may face fluency, consistency, and relevancy issues with machine translation. You must carefully get your MT tools from a reliable language service provider. Moreover, you may need to provide excessive information and data to your MT software to get high-quality and accurate translations.
Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE)
The other option allows you to combine human expertise with technology to get the maximum value. In MTPE, you first generate automated machine translation using a translation project management platform. Then, your translated documents are proofread and reviewed by professional translators. It is a two-step translation generation that brings more speed and quality to your translation processes.
Recently, this hybrid translation management process is becoming more popular among language service providers and global companies. It is a cost-effective translation management approach that helps businesses effectively manage their translation needs.
Open-Source MT Engines
There are many open-source machine translation engines available online that you can use to generate automated translation. However, the stakes are high when you use a free MT engine because there would be more accuracy and quality issues. Some brands with small translation budgets would use free translation tools, such as Google and Bing for their website translations. There are high chances of translation blunders and errors. Moreover, translations may seem more robotic and hard to read. If you are using free tools, you should hire at least one professional translator for editing and reviewing your translation documents.
However, if you are going for website translations, it is recommended to use a professional localization platform, or get help from human translations. Open-source tools can cause major quality issues that may damage your brand reputation.
Conclusion
There are multiple approaches to translating your web pages. However, some methods are more reliable than others to generate high-quality translations for your website. You can also get a professional localization solution for enterprises from a reliable language service agency. MarsHub is a reliable translation management platform available online that you may use to manage your professional website translations. It is an affordable translation management platform that you can use to work on multiple translation projects simultaneously.
