Did you know there are multilingual translation services that help businesses overcome language barriers? Global translation and transcription services can help your business communicate with clients all over the world. By translating your marketing materials and other business communications into multiple languages, you can ensure your potential clients will be able to understand what you are saying, which is a huge advantage in today’s global economy. If you are looking for an edge over your competitor, consider using multilingual translation to reach more customers.

If you are a business owner who wants to expand your company globally, you need to think about multilingual translation services. In today’s global economy, it is more important than ever to be able to communicate with your target audience in their native language. Translation services can help you break down the language barriers that often prevent businesses from expanding into new markets. In this blog post, we will discuss the importance of multilingual translation services and how they can help your business grow!

What are Key Features of Multilingual Transcription Services?

There are many multilingual transcription services out there, but how do you choose the right one for your business?

• A team of experienced and certified translators: Choose a company that has a team of experienced and certified translators to be sure your materials are translated accurately and effectively.
• A multilingual website: A multilingual website is a great way to reach more potential customers. You can use it to promote your products and services in multiple languages, which will make it easier for people from all over the world to find and purchase your products.
• A strong focus on customer service: Customer service is crucial when you are working with multilingual transcription services. Be sure the company you choose will respond to your needs and provide the support you need to successfully complete your projects, satisfy your clients, and connect with multilingual customers in meaningful ways.

Why are Multilingual Translation Services Important for Businesses?

Multilingual translation services are important for businesses because they remove language barriers for your clients, improving the clarity of your communications, driving trust, and reaching more prospective customers. These services can help you expand into new markets by enabling potential customers to understand and connect with your brand, product, or service. Additionally, multilingual translation services can also help you build trust with your target market and establish your brand in the global marketplace. Finally, multilingual translation services can help you discover new prospects that you haven’t had access to in the past. All in all, multilingual translation services are a great way to expand your business and reach new markets, which will increase brand awareness in the marketplace and increase your growth potential and revenue.

Why You Need Multilingual Transcriptions

There are many different types of multilingual transcription services, but which one is right for your business? Here are some of the most popular types of multilingual transcriptions:

• Marketing materials: If you want to reach a global audience, make sure your marketing materials are translated into the languages your target audiences use every day. Multilingual translation services can help you translate your website, brochures, and other marketing materials into multiple languages.
• Business communications: It is important to communicate with your customers in their preferred language. Multilingual translation services can help you translate your emails, presentations, and other business communications into multiple languages. This is not only important for general understanding, but also to transform corporate lingo based on cultural context.
• Technical documentation: If you have technical documentation that needs to be translated into multiple languages, select a multilingual transcription service that specializes in technical translation. This will ensure your documentation is translated accurately and your customers can understand it.

Ways Multilingual Transcription Services Benefit You at Work

There are many benefits of multilingual global translation services, but here are some of the most important ones:

• Improve communication with your clients: When you use multilingual translation services, you can communicate with your audience in their preferred language, making it easier for them to understand your products and services, and demonstrating your dedication to their satisfaction and understanding.
• Reach more potential customers: Multilingual translation services can help you reach more potential customers by making it easier for them to find and purchase your products. Language translation provides the world with more ways to access your business.
• Save time and money: When you use multilingual translation services, you can save time and money. You’ll avoid the need to hire multiple translators or retroactively correct errors made due to lack of language considerations.
• Get accurate translations: When you use a full-service translation company, you can be sure your translations are accurate. Language translation services use professional translators who are experts in their field. You can feel confident in the quality of the translation work, as most interpreters are highly trained and native speakers.

Translating Audio and Video Using Multilingual Translation Services

Multilingual and global translation services can also be used to translate audio and video, allowing your business to reach a wider audience. When you use multilingual audio transcription services for a transcription project, you can be sure your audio and video will be translated accurately. When it comes to audio and video, multilingual translation services can also be used for closed captioning or adding subtitles.

How INGCO International Can Help

INGCO International is a leading provider of multilingual translation and interpreting services. We have a team of experienced translators who are experts in their field who provide professional transcription services. We can help you translate your marketing materials, business communications, technical documentation, and more into 200+ languages. We also offer specialty services tailored to the needs of your industry, target language, or nature of your content. Contact us today to get started.

Did you know that 1.8 billion people purchased goods online in 2018 alone? That same year, global e-retail sales reached $2.8 trillion. If there was ever a time to launch in a new market, it’s now. Yet it takes more than translation to adapt your website for new audiences—it requires localization.

Localization is the processing of adapting a website to the local language, culture, and customs of the target market. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Research, Research, Research

As with any project, you need to start by doing research. Before you decide to launch in a market, here are a few questions to ask:

• How much demand is there?
• Will it be profitable?
• Which language(s) will you need?
• Are there any legal restrictions?   

By understanding the market and its challenges, you’ll be better prepared to start the localization process.

Step 2: Localize Your Website

After you’ve done your research, it’s time to begin localizing. Depending on the market, that may include changing the website’s:

• Url structure
• Format for dates, numbers, and currencies
• Payment platform
• Data collection and privacy policy
• Design elements such as images, graphics, and colors

While this may sound like a daunting task, a localization company can help you out. In addition to adapting the technical aspects of your website, they’ll translate the content, optimize it for SEO, and launch any digital marketing campaigns.

Step 3: Translate the Content and Optimize for SEO

Next, your localization company will assemble a team to translate your website. The linguists working on your project will:

•  Adapt your messaging to ensure it’s culturally appropriate.
• Conduct keyword research to optimize the content for International SEO.
• Translate content pages, meta data (title tags, meta descriptions, and keywords), pop up notifications, customer portals, and other aspects of the website.

Once the initial translation is complete, another linguist will perform a quality assurance check before the content is uploaded to the website.

Step 4: Perform LQA and Localization Testing

Finally, your localization company will perform language quality assurance (LQA) and localization testing. Linguists will review the content for errors and determine whether the translation is appropriate for the context of the website. Team members will also check for technical issues, test functionality and links, and evaluate the content layout.

Step 5: Launch the Website and Digital Marketing Campaigns

Your new website is ready to launch. It’s time to celebrate, right? Not quite. While localized content and SEO will drive traffic, you still need to develop localized marketing campaigns to get the most from your website. That may include:

• Translating Pay-per-Click (PPC) ads
• Developing a unique content marketing strategy
• Link building

Case Study: Justin’s Nut Butter Website

Now that you know a little more about the localization process, let’s take a look at a real project.

Justin’s, an American brand of nut butters, wanted to expand into foreign markets. Yet products such as peanut butter aren’t as well known outside of the U.S. To tackle this challenge, we needed to not only translate the website content but also determine how to increase demand for Justin’s product.

For the French Canadian website, we:

• Translated certain sections of the website via an API connector.
• Ensured the variety of butters (peanut, almond, etc.) were accurately translated.
• Worked with Justin’s marketing team to create new examples of how to consume the product, e.g., developing recipes to make peanut-based sauces.

The result? A culturally-relevant website that boosted Justin’s popularity in Canada!

Localization with INGCO International

At INGCO International, we can take your localization project from concept to completion. We specialize in corporate translation, international SEO, and digital marketing to help you bring your vision to life.

Ready to launch in a new market? Contact us today!

The positive effects of being multilingual are widely known. Studies have shown that knowing multiple languages can aid in things like a person’s memory and their ability to problem solve. What about in the business world? Can a multilingual business experience similar benefits to a multilingual person? The short answer is yes.

Language is becoming an essential tool in business growth and development. In today’s digital age, marketing your company globally can be easily done (thanks internet). However, bringing your company across continents requires some behind the scenes work.

Over 50% of websites today use English only. There are billions of people online everyday and of those people about 73% are non English speakers. This means half of the internet is inaccessible for those of us that don’t speak English. This also means that a good chunk of the population cannot easily interact with English only sites. For example, Chinese content on the web. There is an extreme lack in Chinese accessible sites even though China operates one of the largest markets across the globe. Chinese is gradually becoming one of the most targeted languages on the web today, however demands are still not met.

The lack of language accessibility on the internet creates a huge disparity between web content and  the web content needed. This is a great opportunity for business owners. Creating an accessible platform across continents can be as easy as globalizing your website. Companies can start with simple document translation, multi-language mini sites, language toggles, or marketing localization.

In a large companies that already are multilingual, 50% or more of their customers are coming from languages other than english. Advertising to 5, or 15 other languages will help you gain an understanding of your target market and global success of your product.  In the United States alone ⅕ of the population is non-native English speakers. Most likely this community is searching, tweeting, scrolling and posting in their native languages creating a huge loss for English only sites even within the United States.

We live in an online world and search is a huge part of the online community. We have become researchers using the devices at the tip of our fingertips- our phones. Whether we want to know where to get Thai food for dinner or the best refrigerator on market, we turn to the internet for the answer. Search engines will automatically pull the top results making it extremely easy for the user. By adjusting your business’s snippets, keyword’s, mobile compatibility and geo-targeting, you’re creating a more accessible global business and have a higher chance of landing in the top results.

Customer Support is another major factor when expanding your business. Now that your company has been found, multilingual communication is key. The majority of online customer service desks offer one primary language or a number to call for over the phone interpretation. Today, everything is digital, consumers want to find answers fast and efficiently through digital forms like chats, emails and forums. When these on demand services aren’t multilingual it drives customers away.

There’s no question that the digital age has created extreme growth and extreme challenges in the business world.  But for those willing to expand across continents, devices, and languages the web is an unprecedented territory. Translation and localizations services are a great way to take your business into the digital multilingual and INGCO is here to help. Contact us today.

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INGCO works with numerous global brands to globalize marketing strategies and web and e-commerce content, developing culturally appropriate digital journeys for international audiences. To help organizations succeed on their global journey, we have developed a checklist for any organization involved in publishing digital multilingual web and e-commerce content.

✓  LEVERAGE EXISTING ANALYTICS

Deciding what languages and markets to target can be one of the first important decisions to make. According to Appia and Common Sense Advisory, 86% of customers spend most of their time on websites in their own language. Given this statistic, ensure that you speak to your customers in their language. Analyzing existing site reports and analytics is a great way to see where web traffic is currently being generated. If interest is being generated from France or Germany, then localizing the site for those markets should be a priority. When local sites go live, keep monitoring and checking site traffic to gauge success.

✓  OWN + LOCALIZE WEB DOMAIN NAMES

Global brands are represented by their main domain name. Securing all domain variants, for example, .COM, .CO.UK, .FR, .DE and .CN, will protect your brand from other organizations diluting or misrepresenting the brand. It makes certain target markets feel more comfortable if the website has a recognizable domain name. Purchasing all relevant and international domain names will prevent “cybersquatting.”

Internet markets that have more stringent web security, China for example, may block certain sites that don’t have the correct IP address. Securing the exact top-level domains will help sites be accessed and indexed by local search engines.

In addition, creating individual properties for each language website helps establish separate web “properties” and digital assets which will also benefit search engine optimization (SEO).

✓  TRADEMARK IDENTITY IN ALL MARKETS

Protecting intellectual property in all markets is important including the trademark of your brand, logo and taglines for all target markets. Trademarking laws vary across countries so an international IP strategy will protect your business in all existing and future markets.

✓  PROTECT EACH SITE FROM VIOLATIONS + HACKERS

Online security for any web or e-commerce operation is a top priority to protect information from being compromised, and security testing and monitoring must be applied to all language variants. This will prevent hackers from altering content and site violations that may have serious legal ramifications. Listening and keeping an eye on all any content published from users will also help protect identify and brand equity.

✓  USE CONSISTENT LOGOS + BRAND NAMES

To establish a global brand, you should be consistent in all markets. Copyrighting and establishing your brand and logo onto all website content and documentation will ensure customers see consistency of the global brand in all communications. Strategic placement of logos is a great way of building band equity in multiple languages.

Actual words may not be a direct translation of the source content and some content will be culturally adapted, but it is important that the overall brand concept is accurately reflected in all digital channels. This is achieved through localization – localization is adapting translated content including all the cultural nuances for a specific target market.

✓  MAKE STYLE GUIDELINES LOCALLY AVAILABLE

Any global digital marketing activity will involve multiple teams, often central and local country marketing teams, all potentially running separate campaigns. Developing brand identity style guides and making them available to everyone will help support in-country divisions who are running separate web-driven marketing campaigns.

✓  IMPLEMENT MULTILINGUAL SEO + LANGUAGE-SPECIFIC META DATA

For any web or e-commerce activity, being found by popular search engines is fundamental. Developing a global SEO strategy is an important way to ensure top ranking, not just for Google search, but also for top search engines in all target markets. Part of the overall SEO process is to translate and localize meta data and meta tags. Multilingual SEO is not just identifying local key words and search terms, but ensuring information about the website is also adapted to get the highest ranking possible.

✓  UTILIZE MULTILINGUAL XML SITEMAPS

Most website projects generate XML sitemaps that list the URLs for a site. Sitemaps are an effective way to let search engines know about your site’s content which increases SEO performance. Customizing XML sitemaps for language variants will help search engines retrieve results and rankings in the target language.

✓  IDENTIFY LOCAL KEYWORDS

Don’t just translate the keywords you have for your source language website. Get into the mindset of a local customer. Would Chinese, English, French and German women use the same words and phrases for searching for running shoes? It is not simply a case of translating the phrase “running shoes” but looking at the local culture and identifying phrases like “athletic shoes,” “leisure footwear,” “trainers” or “runners.

✓  UNDERSTAND LOCAL COUNTRY LEGAL, COMPLIANCE + WEB REGULATIONS

Most website and e-commerce content must comply with local laws and regulations. For example, any site collecting customer information must have a privacy policy and this policy must be understood by all potential customers. Sites that facilitate payment transactions and delivery must communicate with customers at a local level, in their preferred language.

Compliance and legal content must be translated by subject matter experts (SMEs) who fully understand local laws and how the site will operate in each market. Having every part of the web experience understandable and compliant makes good business sense. No one will buy a product or service online if they are redirected to a payment site which does not outline terms and conditions in their local language.

✓     USE HREFLANG TAGS

When dealing with global websites that operate multiple language markets, use of Hreflang tags is a common tool used in global SEO. Hreflang tags help search engines index your site by specifying which language you are targeting with each page. Hreflang tags are a simple piece of HTML code which, while invisible to users, inform Google how different pieces of locally targeted content relate to one another. If you don’t use Hreflang tags, you may end up with non-local content appearing in search results.

✓     CONSIDER VISUALS + NAVIGATION

Certain images, graphics, diagrams, photographs and cartoons may be acceptable in certain cultures but not in others. What is funny in one country could be offensive in another. INGCO’s linguist teams will guide you through these essential decisions.

Impact of navigation and site structure will also vary from region to region. The design of the user interface can greatly affect the ability to keep customers engaged and minimize user bounce rates.

✓     AWARENESS OF NON-LATIN CHARACTERS

Some web and digital activities may not support writing systems in Asia and Arabic countries. Use of non-Latin characters and right-to-left writing systems will impact localization and web development activities.

INGCO International provides document translation, on-site interpreting and global marketing services in 200+ languages across the globe.

How can we support your next multilingual project?

Translating and localizing your website is a great step in reaching a global market. But how do you know your translated website works? Multilingual website testing is an important step to make sure that your localized website is in complete working order. Multilingual website testing is a step-by-step review of every detail of your translated website to ensure that it works properly. It is important to test in the right environment to make sure that the multilingual website functions properly.

Websites and computers are smart, smarter than we think. Websites can figure out your preferred language based on your computers and browser settings. Most likely your computer knows your preferred language and your computer “talks” to your browser (Google, Bing, etc.) and tells it what language you like to speak. This is why when searching for a new recipe or looking up movie times, you get the recipe in the language you speak, and movie times in your area. In order to properly test a multilingual website, you need to make sure that the computer you are using to complete the testing is set up with the proper operating system.

For example, when we performed testing on Conwed Plastic’s Spanish site, we performed the testing from a computer with a Spanish operating system. Conwed has a robust Spanish website that is modeled after their original English website. The translation was carefully performed by professional translators and uploaded into their CMS to create the multilingual website. The multilingual website testing was performed after all of the content and images were uploaded to make sure that all of the features and details functioned properly.

Tip! Don’t forget to pay close attention to buttons. English can be a much shorter language than other languages. In fact, Spanish is on average 30% longer than English. You may have a snappy button “Buy Now!” button that may be quite a bit longer once translated. You should spend extra time making sure that the content isn’t truncated or cut off.

 

Interested in learning more about our translation, interpreting or global marketing services in 200+ languages? Get in touch with us now.

A website conversion is the single most important success factor of your online marketing strategy and goals. Website conversions mean that your visitors – your potential customers – do what you want them to do, be it buy your product, call to register for your course, download a whitepaper, or fill out a form.

Developing a multilingual website requires the same website conversions. High quality translation and localization are essential, but getting your customers to buy your products or services is why you are in business.

Did you know? Search Engine Watch describes multilingual keywords as “the vital link between what people are searching for and what is on your website” and advises those looking to boost their global site’s visibility to employ a translation agency or local professional with cultural insight and language skills to help identify keywords that will resonate with local audiences.

 

1. Invest in target-market Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Successful multilingual website conversions rely on quality keyword research specific to your target market. Keyword searchability is essential so that your ideal customer finds what they are looking for in their native language when searching for your product or service. Have you ever searched for something and the web results show something completely different? Your computer will show you results based on the keywords entered by the person that placed the content onto the internet. The keywords I use to look for a new car are most likely very different than what a car buyer will use in Germany, for example. Target-market SEO researches the keyword your preferred buyer uses to search for your products and services. Keyword-specific searches for your target market are essential for understanding the mindset of your customer and essential for multilingual website conversion success.

2. Follow in-country best practices

Your website is your brand; releasing your brand to the internet opens your company or organization up to the world. You owe it to yourself – and your future clients – to make sure your website, your brand, shines. This is equally as crucial for multilingual websites. You must ensure that your multilingual website follows the same standards and best practices so that your brand shines for your potential customer. Multilingual best practices include:

• Check links
• Check images
• Check downloads
• Check contact forms
• Check browser compatibility

These checks must be done before going live with your multilingual website and also should be completed on an on-going basis. Upholding best-practices ensures that your future clients and customers have a high-quality experience on your website which will lead to increased website conversions.

3. Invest in high-quality translation

First and foremost, you must invest in high-quality translation completed by professional translators. The quality of the content that your future customer reads on your website determines whether or not they will continue reading about you, or move on to the next company. Have you ever opened a webpage that is ridden with spelling errors? I have, and I exit out as quickly as I can. Poor translation is even worse. Not only are there spelling errors, it just doesn’t make sense. The global marketplace is huge and your company faces more competitors than you likely realize; make it easy for your customer to buy but making it easy for they to understand what it is your are selling. Have you ever tried putting shelves together with directions that were clearly not written by a native-English speaker? If you are like me, it’s much easier to toss the directions and figure it out on your own. That’s precisely how a poorly translated website appears to your future clients. It’s easier for them to just leave and find someone else than muddle through the mess. And no, Google Translate will not work. Read more about that here. Investing in high-quality translation is key to multilingual website conversion.

Did you know? Google actually penalizes machine-based translations when it comes to SEO.

 

INGCO International is the leading translation, interpretation and global marketing service provider for 200+ languages worldwide. They are based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota and employ leading industry experts for all of their global communication services and work with organizations such as 3M, Cargill, and Buffalo Wild Wings. Reach out for more information.

Website translation services include:

• Localization of all user interface details and content
• Image recommendations
• Translation of multimedia and downloadable components
• Quality control process

Often we are asked about website translation pricing. While every project is different, here are some of the variables we look at:

• Number of words and pages
• Source (original) and target (language translated into) languages
• Subject matter
• Quantity and make up of images, videos, etc.
• Design, development and publishing platform
• Database
• Content management system (CMS)
• Quality control and testing

The majority of newly developed websites are developed with a content management system (CMS). This allows the website to be designed and updated from a central system and allows different authors to work on the website simultaneously. INGCO International provides website translation services in a variety of CMS systems.

The upload process of the translated content may include any combination of the following:

• INGCO International directly uploads the translated content to the CMS
• The client receives content from INGCO International in an Excel table (XML) format or other format and uploads the translated content
• Use of a 3^rd party or proprietary “connector” between the CMS and a global content management system

Web Site Translation services are required in order for the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. Whereas interpreting undoubtedly antedates writing, translation began only after the appearance of written literature; there exist partial translations of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 BCE) into Southwest Asian languages of the second millennium BCE.

It all started more than 15 years ago, when Ingrid Christensen had a dream to facilitate communication between people and countries with an entrepreneurial twist – a dream to speak to the world. A creative and business-minded person, and a language lover herself, she established a translation agency based in Saint Paul, Minnesota offering interpreting, translating and global marketing services.

Contact us today.