If so, let us dive right in.

Creating a successful market expansion strategy for your company is harder than most business leaders first assume.

First-time growth managers often think it’s as simple as replicating their local growth strategy. That is until they fall flat on their faces.

If this is all new to you…

Expanding into new markets involves more than copy-pasting what’s working in your home market. International expansion strategies need close attention since there are many variables that even the best executives miss.

And do you know what the funny part is?

Executing successful market expansion strategies is not a challenge for small businesses only. Large corporations with big marketing departments and huge budgets aren’t spared either.

In the past, many big-name brands have failed spectacularly when implementing international expansion strategies.

Famous examples include Home Depot in China, Starbucks in Israel, and Walmart in several countries. We will talk about how these companies failed later in the article. You will chuckle when you hear the Walmart fail story in Korea, so stick around for that 😀

Let’s move on.

With growth being a top priority for over 51% of CEOs according to a recent Gartner report, you can’t afford to be left behind.

I mean…

Taking your products to more countries is a fantastic way to fuel growth and remain competitive in an increasingly globalized economy.

Lag with your internationalization efforts and you’ll leave lots of money on the table and become irrelevant.

Now you don’t want that, do you?

In today’s post, we share easy ways to expand your business in new markets without the hustle.

What is an International Market Expansion Strategy?

Before we get into the nitty gritty, what animal are we calling an international marketing expansion strategy?

In its basic form, an international marketing expansion strategy is a plan that outlines how your company will expand, make money, and thrive in foreign countries.

The market expansion strategy includes all the approaches and methods you will carry out to penetrate foreign markets far from home.

In other words, it is a blueprint showing your team how the company plans to execute global expansion while increasing profits and reducing risks involved with these never-before-explored frontiers.

That’s much better, right?

You can think of it as the world domination master plan for your company.

On the surface, it seems pretty straightforward – you know, like something you could draw on a napkin while having coffee. How hard could it be for your US-based company to sell products in South Africa for instance?

Everybody does it. Apple does it. Google does it. Facebook did it.

But the bad news is it’s not easy to craft a market expansion strategy that delivers the desired results. You must put a lot of thought into your international market expansion strategy and involve all stakeholders.

Expanding into new markets can take many forms, so there are plenty of options from which to choose. Having a good grasp of the international expansion strategies at your disposal can help determine what’s a good fit for your company.

Here are some common strategies for product market expansion to explore.

Top 7 Popular Market Expansion Strategies

There are several strategies (or ways) to take your company international. You can stick to one strategy or combine several depending on your needs, budget, and business type, among other things.

No matter the strategies you decide to implement, it’s important always to choose what works for your business goals. If one strategy fails, you can always refine or review your approach or choose something entirely different.

Let us get to it.

1. Exporting Your Products as a Market Expansion Strategy

Do you manufacture physical products? If so, exporting the products to another country is a viable market expansion strategy to employ. This approach has worked tremendously well for many manufacturers all over the world.

There is no shortage of examples that demonstrate this market expansion strategy in action.

Car manufacturers such as Toyota and Hyundai execute this market expansion strategy effectively to reach customers across the world.

Need another example?

Consider the strategy that Chinese manufacturers use to reach a global audience.

For instance, most of our electronics, clothing, and other items in our homes are made in China, making a few entrepreneurs billionaires in the process.

Suffice it to say that you can find products made in China in the far reaches of the globe. That there, my friend, is market expansion at its best.

As a manufacturer in the US, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just adapt the strategy to enter and expand in new markets the world over.

That said, you can sell directly to foreign customers or partner with third-party merchants such as export agents, distributors, and trading companies.

Plus, alongside your official website and other digital channels, you can sell on multiple online marketplaces that cater to a global audience.

With strategic marketing and positioning, you can quickly expand your market reach both offline and online.

2. Franchising and Licensing

Since their inception, companies such as KFC, McDonald’s, and Calvin Klein have since crossed international borders.

And do you know how they achieved this exponential market expansion for their products?

You guessed it.

They all put franchising and licensing into action. And it works!

That being said, what’s the difference between franchising and licensing?

You probably know this already, but if you are just starting or need a reminder:

• Franchising – With this model, you let businesses in other countries use your company’s business model and brand. This way, you penetrate more markets and earn revenue from initial franchisee fees and ongoing royalties. KFC, Hilton, and Starbucks are prime examples;
• Licensing – This strategy involves granting foreign companies the right to use your company’s intellectual property. This includes trademarks, patents, and copyrights. You broaden your market and earn revenue via royalties. This is what Calvin Klein, Nike, and The Walt Disney Company do.

To learn more about this product expansion strategy, feel free to check out this Franchising vs. Licensing: What’s the Difference? article by NerdWallet.

3. Joint Ventures as a Market Expansion Strategy

Another popular market expansion strategy is joint ventures. With this model, your company partners with businesses in other countries to start a new company or work on new projects together.

How does the whole thing work?

For instance, let’s say I inherited a company ABC that owns high-quality cocoa farms but lacks the resources to build factories to process my produce.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, you own a company XYZ with the resources to process the produce but lack a dependable source of cocoa.

We can join hands and form a formidable company that makes cocoa-based products such as chocolate and whatnot. We can name our new joint venture whatever we want. Say, company COCO-AYZ.

On one hand, I provide plenty of high-grade cocoa to keep our new company running (and incessant creditors away).

On the other hand, you provide the resources we need to kickstart and grow our new company.

Through our joint venture, we can collaborate effectively to get the final products to a wider market and enjoy the rewards.

I hope that’s a decent example.

If not, here are popular examples of companies that formed successful joint ventures:

• Molson Coors and SABMiller;
• Microsoft and General Electric;
• Walmart and Eko;
• Boeing and Lockheed Martin;
• The Walt Disney Company, News Corporation, Comcast’s NBC Universal, and Providence Equity Partners;
• BMW and Brilliance Auto Group.

You must be familiar with the above companies.

Or not.

What you’re probably familiar with are the joint ventures that emerged when the above companies joined hands. For instance, Molson Coors and SABMiller gave birth to MillerCoors.

You’re also probably familiar with Hulu, which is the joint venture formed to run programs from the above-mentioned media giants.

Can you guess which companies brought us Sony Ericsson?

4. Acquisitions and Mergers as Market Expansion Strategies

Another effective market expansion strategy is acquisitions and mergers.

Acquisition, as the name aptly suggests, involves buying and controlling businesses in foreign countries.

Instead of starting from scratch, you have an established launching pad.

The acquisition offers your company several benefits, such as:

• Reduced competition;
• Improved customer experience;
• Access to an established customer base;
• Established distribution channels;
• Market share;
• Access to technology and systems that already work in the foreign market;
• And more.

It also makes market entry a lot easier.

On the other hand, a merger involves combining two companies into one. So, instead of launching your supermarket chain in a different country, you could merge with an existing company for the same benefits that acquisition offers.

In most cases, acquisition and mergers go hand in hand. There are many examples of companies that executed this product expansion strategy successfully.

If you ask any newcomer, they will probably tell you Android is Google’s brainchild. But many people don’t know that Google acquired Android for $50 million in 2005. This allowed Google to enter the cellular phone market for the first time.

Here are more examples of acquisitions and mergers.

5. E-commerce and Digital Expansion

E-commerce and digital expansion as a strategy to expand into new markets is almost self-explanatory.

Well, unless you live under a rock (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this article).

The internet has made reaching far and wide audiences incredibly easy. It has eliminated geographical and traditional physical barriers that made expansion in the former days a tad difficult.

Today, you can whip up and launch successful digital marketing campaigns right from your desk with a couple of clicks. E-commerce and international digital marketing are cost-effective and efficient tools for any company that seeks to expand beyond the home market.

There are tons of resources to learn more about international e-commerce and digital marketing we can’t probably list everything here.

However, I found a quick PDF report that summarises global e-commerce and digital marketing strategies.

Here are some points I gathered from the report if you lack the time:

• It is easy to implement but comes with its challenges, just like any other market expansion strategy;
• E-commerce allows you to reach customers anywhere in the world, to sell both retail and wholesale;
• There are countless digital marketing strategies that you can use to build a global presence;
• Be prepared to navigate complex terrain that includes cultural adaptation, international shipping logistics, content localization, and managing various regulations and standards;
• You can gather a lot of useful data for your marketing campaigns easily;
• Multilingual SEO, content marketing, social media, and paid online adverts are crucial;
• Choose the right platforms, including your translation tool.

Many companies have implemented this strategy quite successfully over the years. My favorite example is Dollar Shave Club, which used a simple but humorous video to kickstart what is now a global multi-dollar billion company.

This video:

There are so many other successful e-commerce companies we can’t list them here.

But obvious examples include the likes of Amazon, eBay, AppSumo, Shopify, Warby Parker, Gymshark, and the list goes on and on.

Related Reading: What is Cross Border eCommerce (+ Tips on How to Implement it).

6. Strategic Alliances and Partnerships as Market Expansion Strategies

Still can’t figure out how you will expand into foreign markets?

Well, say a big hello to strategic alliances and partnerships.

Before we go further, I would like to mention that joint ventures are also a type of strategic alliance.

In this paragraph, we will discuss strategic alliances and partnerships that don’t involve creating a separate legal entity, as is the case with joint ventures.

Firstly, what are strategic alliances or partnerships? Spoiler alert: they are exactly what you think they are.

Simply put…

Strategic alliances and partnerships are collaborations between your company and foreign entities or government agencies.

Secondly, these kinds of international expansion strategies come with lots of benefits.

You can:

• Pursue common objectives like product development, research, market entry strategies, and marketing initiatives in foreign territories;
• Share costs and potential risks;
• Share expertise and technology;
• Gain access to much-needed distribution channels;
• Comply with local laws and regulations without hiccups;
• And more.

The main aim and benefit for your company, of course, is market expansion.

For instance, if you’re an infrastructure company looking to expand into other parts of the world, it pays to establish strategic alliances with local authorities in your countries of interest. Otherwise, your international expansion strategies with face tremendous resistance from the locals.

You know, like these folks: Indonesian Locals Push Back Against Chinese Infrastructure Investments.

7. Greenfield Investments and Subsidiaries

Last but not least, we have what is known as greenfield investments and subsidiaries.

A greenfield investment is a market expansion strategy that involves establishing new operations, entities, subsidiaries, or facilities in foreign countries

The term greenfield comes from the fact that, in most cases, the company, often a multinational organization, is starting a new venture from the ground up. Building offices, distribution hubs, production facilities, and living quarters. This often involves plowing and preparing a green field.

Greenfield investments and subsidiaries allow your company to:

• Build custom facilities;
• Have more control over operations;
• Have greater autonomy and flexibility;
• Establish a strong local presence.

Note, however, that this market expansion strategy involves significant up-front investment and higher risks.

Now that you know what an international market expansion strategy is, and some of the strategies you can use, let us move to the benefits.

Top 7 Benefits of International Market Expansion

According to a Wells Fargo report, 87% of US companies agree that international market expansion is necessary for long-term growth.

In addition, 69% of the respondents agree that emerging markets provide the greatest growth opportunities.

Still, many US firms are yet to take their business global.

If you’re still on the fence, the following benefits of international expansion might just give you the push you need.

1. Expanded Consumer Base

The most obvious benefit of international expansion is an expanded customer base.

Taking your business to other countries lets you access untapped markets that may be saturated or unavailable in your home country.

By tapping into new and diverse markets and customer segments, you can significantly expand your consumer base and increase your revenue potential.

2. Increased Brand Visibility

Executing an international expansion strategy successfully helps you to boost brand recognition and reputation across the globe.

A positive brand image enhances consumer trust, which attracts more customers and brand loyalty.

More customers and better brand loyalty culminate in brand advocacy and word-of-mouth marketing.

Keep in mind that 70% of customers buy more from brands they trust, and people spend 25% more money on trusted brands.

3. Diversification of Revenue Streams

Depending on a single revenue stream in your home market can expose your company to economic fluctuations and unforeseen events.

Taking your company global, on the other hand, allows you to diversify your revenue streams and spread risks.

If your company is not doing so well in one market, you can offset the losses by performing successfully in another market.

In addition, an international market offers you the chance to introduce new products, which can positively impact your revenue.

Coca-Cola is a good example of this. The company continues to perform well in multiple regions while introducing new brands regularly.

4. Competitive Advantage

Expanding into new markets offers your company a competitive advantage over your domestic-only competitors.

Firstly, customers believe you’re a forward-thinking company that has their best interests at heart.

Secondly, internationalization allows you to establish systems and a market presence in more markets compared to your competitors.

“Access to innovative technologies, cheaper resources, and the ability to adapt to different cultural norms allows them to offer unique products and services that appeal to a broader audience.” – Dr. Ariel King, LinkedIn.

5. Access to a Diverse Talent Pool

Another benefit of international market expansion is access to a diverse and wider pool of talent.

Why is this important?

Hiring international expertise and skills brings creativity, diversity, different languages, and innovation to your company.

This fosters inclusive and dynamic work cultures that boost productivity.

6. Foreign Investment Opportunities

Operating solely in the domestic market can keep you from enjoying various foreign investment opportunities available to global companies.

For instance, taking your company global can offer you access to cheaper resources and new technologies, helping your business to scale quickly.

Additionally, many foreign governments offer lucrative incentives such as tax cuts, commissions, and loans to companies that seek to invest in their countries.

7. Economies of Scale

One of the most overlooked benefits of expanding into new markets is economies of scale.

Serving international markets means dealing with a larger customer base with diverse demands.

This means you must increase production, which lowers your cost per unit.

Global companies that benefit from economies of scale can lower production costs and boost profitability.

With the benefits out of the way, let us now cover how to develop an effective market expansion strategy for your business.

How to Create a Market Expansion Strategy

While it might seem daunting initially, developing an effective market expansion strategy is easy if you have the right mindset and know what you’re doing.

That said, it’s important to create a strategy that covers everything from preparation, execution, and measuring results.

Let us get down to business.

1. Define Your Goals

The first step in creating a market expansion strategy is to define your goals. You can’t just shoot out of the blues and expect something to stick.

How else will you know if your market expansion strategy is working without well-defined and measurable goals?

With that in mind, what are you looking to achieve with your international expansion strategy?

Are you looking to:

• Increase sales and revenue?
• Boost brand awareness?
• Launch new products?
• Establish new markets?
• Improve profitability?
• Research and develop products?
• Reduce costs?
• Acquire new resources?

These are some of the goals to consider when defining the purpose of the expansion.

Set clear objectives that will guide your team to execute a successful strategy.

Otherwise, your strategy will be faulty from the onset. You will be like a headless chicken, running about until you finally stagger out of the new market, and give up on your expansion plans.

With a clear purpose, let us proceed to the next step.

2. Conduct Astute Market Research

We can’t emphasize this much, but running out to expand into new markets without proper research will only blow up in your face.

Is there even demand for your products or services in the new region you’re targeting?

Robust research should be the foundation of your market expansion strategy.

Why?

Solid research allows you to:

• Identify potential markets;
• Understand competition;
• Access local consumer behaviors and preferences;
• Analyze market demographics;
• Determine demand and opportunities.

For instance, if you sell skiing equipment, you wouldn’t want to waste resources marketing to tropical markets.

Here’s another funny example.

Because Walmart didn’t do adequate groundwork when expanding to Korea, they installed taller racks than local rivals.

As a result, Korean shoppers were forced to stretch or use ladders to reach items on high shelves 😀

In addition, they miserably failed to identify Korean shopping habits.

Koreans typically prefer daily outings to various local stores to shopping once a week at Walmart.

“They have stacks of goods in boxes,” said Lee Jin Sook, 46, a housewife sitting on a subway in Seoul. “That may be good for some American housewives who drive out in their own cars.” But Koreans, she said, prefer smaller packages: “Why would you buy a box of shampoo bottles?”

They made similarly catastrophic mistakes in Brazil, as you can read in this article: The Walmart Journey in Brazil: A Tale of Rise, Decline, and Acquisition.

Need more examples of companies that missed the mark because of poor research? Home Depot, Mattel, and eBay failed disastrously in China.

And here’s why Starbucks failed in Israel and couldn’t brew success in Australia.

3. Define Your Target Audience

One of the primary reasons why these giants failed in foreign markets is they didn’t understand the customer on the ground.

Most of the companies tried to impose the style and target audience profiles that worked in American stores.

They figured: if it works in the US, why wouldn’t it work in South Korea or China?

Boy were they wrong.

Sure, you are selling the same products but don’t make the mistake of assuming new markets have the same needs and interests.

That’s why your American target audience profile won’t work in a foreign market.

Define target audiences for different markets from scratch based on market research.

Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. You can learn more from Neil Patel in How to Find Your Target Audience.

4. Leverage Digital Marketing

Earlier, we mentioned that the internet has made it ridiculously easy to reach customers anywhere in the world.

To accelerate your market entry and expansion, employ all digital marketing tools and technologies at your disposal.

You have plenty of options in this area.

Firstly, You can employ search engine optimization (SEO) to appear in local search results in foreign markets.

Otherwise, potential customers might never find your business even when they are looking for the products you offer.

Secondly, take to social media marketing targeting customers in your intended markets. Note that some social media platforms are more prominent in some markets than others.

As such, you need to be strategic when designing your campaigns.

Thirdly, don’t forget email marketing.

When implemented well, email marketing has a high ROI of 4,000%!

In addition, deploy content marketing campaigns targeted at these new regions.

If you need a little help, check out this nifty PDF guide by HubSpot: Global Marketing Playbook.

Finally, don’t fail to implement e-commerce solutions and utilize online marketplaces to reach more customers.

5. Compliance with Laws and Regulations

This is pretty straightforward I guess and the responsibility of your legal department.

Before expanding internationally, ensure your strategy, business model and product offering aren’t breaking any laws.

Different countries have different legal requirements for foreign investors.

So, check in with your lawyer to avoid unpleasant surprises in the form of court battles and huge fines.

6. Localization and Translation

According to CSA Research, 76% of consumers in 29 countries said they prefer to purchase products with information in their native language.

In addition, 40% of the consumers said they would never buy from a website in other languages. You can see what that means for your international expansion strategies.

When expanding into new markets, ensure you are providing products and services in their native languages. That means you need to create a website with effective localization and translations.

Localization means offering a user experience that resonates with the locals. That means changing your product packing, among other things.

Translation involves converting your website content into other languages.

Don’t forget that localization and translation need you to have a good grasp of cultural nuances and preferences.

Luckily for you, localizing and translating your website needn’t be a challenge with a tool such as TranslatePress.

TranslatePress is a user-friendly solution for website translation and localization, making multilingual expansion accessible for big and small businesses.

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Conclusion

We hope this long read gave you the blueprint you need to craft a sustainable market expansion strategy.

We’ve outlined the benefits, strategies, and a few things to consider when formulating your international expansion strategy.

While expanding into new markets, it pays to start with astute research to avoid common blunders.

After that, always keep the needs of your customers first and respect their culture and laws.

What’s your main takeaway?

Please share your tips, thoughts, and suggestions in the comment section below.

The post Market Expansion Strategy: Dominate New International Markets Like a Boss appeared first on TranslatePress.

You’ll often catch many beginners asking questions such as:

• Should I translate my website?
• What are the benefits of translation?
• Is website translation a worthy investment?
• What are the benefits of machine translations?
• And such like questions.

If you’re in such a situation, don’t worry one bit.

In today’s article, we will go over several advantages of translation.

Why?

We aim to help you decide if translating your website is worth your time and money.

Or if you should forget about translating your website and stick to one language.

But first, let us provide some context to build momentum 🙂

Benefits of Translation: The Stats

English is arguably one of the most spoken languages in the world, with over 1.4 billion speakers, according to Statista.

This number comprises about 380 million native speakers and 1.077 billion people who speak English as a second language.

At the same time, Mandarin Chinese is the most popular language by the number of native speakers.

That’s right, more than 939 million people speak Mandarin as their first language.

Hindi, Spanish, and French take the third, fourth, and fifth positions, as seen in the above table from Wikipedia.

Now, here is the thing.

If you have an English website, you have a probable audience of about 1.456 billion people.

If you translate the website into Chinese, that audience grows by an extra 1.138 billion people.

Translate your English website into the top five most spoken languages, and your prospective audience will jump to over 4.072 billion people.

While you won’t reach all these people, you can see where I am going with this.

One of the main benefits of translation is reaching a broader target audience in their native languages.

And as Nelson Mandela once quipped:

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.

Again, I believe you see where I’m heading with this.

I mean. You want to capture the cultural nuances and subtleties of the target language, more so if you aim to localize your content.

These are just two of the benefits of translation. We will cover more later in the article.

After that, we will share a few handy tips and one of the best translation tools in the market.

With that preamble, let us dive right in.

What is Translation?

For many beginners, translation seems straightforward at first. Take some text and translate it into another language. It is as simple as A, B, C. Right?

How hard could it be? And what could go wrong?

It turns out that translation is a tad more challenging than you imagined, and a whole lot can go wrong if you miss the mark.

At its basic level, translation encompasses converting your text into other languages.

In real-world applications, translation involves converting everything on your website into other languages.

When I say everything, I mean your:

• Textual content – This includes text on your website, eBooks, PDFs, reports, infographics, marketing material, subtitles, transcriptions, links, and more;
• Image translation – You can translate brand images such as logos, product photos, merch, and other marketing collateral;
• SEO elements – For best results, it’s best to translate your meta descriptions, URL slugs, alternative text, and other elements;
• Multimedia translation – Endeavor to translate your audio or video content into other languages. This involves translating podcasts, video courses, interactive quizzes, audiobooks, and more;
• Navigation menus – You should translate your menus for better user experience in the target language;
• eCommerce – You should consider translating your WooCommerce store to reach a broader audience, engage with the customers, and boost your conversion rates;
• Slang – You want to translate colloquial and informal expressions in your content accurately;
• Your admin dashboard – Allow authors, moderators, and other users from different linguistic backgrounds to choose the languages they want in the admin dashboard;
• And more.

Main Elements of Effective Translations

As you can see, translating your website goes far beyond text content.

That said, website translation is a doable process involving the following elements.

• Expertise in linguistics – For best results, you need a deep understanding of the languages involved in the translation. This is especially true if you’re translating your website on your own as opposed to hiring a translation company;
• Translation accuracy – The content you translate should retain the context and meaning of the source message;
• Cultural sensitivity – As a professional translator, you should consider the cultural nuances and native speakers of the languages involved. Otherwise, you might offend the target audience;
• Comprehension and vocabulary – Accurate translations require having a good grasp of the terms, phrases, and expressions used in the content;
• The proper translation tools – Translating a website is an arduous process that can drive the best of us up the wall. For this reason, you need the best translation tools you can lay your hands on. This includes translation management systems (TMS) and automation tools.

These five elements will come in handy whether you’re translating content manually, using software, or relying on a third-party translator.

Related resource: Translator Accounts allow third-party translators to translate the website directly from the front end.

That out of the way, let us quickly go over the benefits of translation.

What Are the Benefits of Translation?

While effectively translating a website may be challenging, it offers several benefits that make it worth it.

Here are some of the benefits of translation to keep in mind.

1. Enhanced Reach and Accessibility

One of the main benefits of translation is expansion of your target audience.

Translating your website content into multiple languages is an incredible way of overcoming language barriers. This allows you to reach a broader target audience of people who don’t speak English natively or as a second language.

In addition, translating your website into multiple languages allows you to reach users who speak minority languages. When you do this, you grow your prospective audience further while encouraging inclusivity and a loyal customer base.

At the same time, website translation lets you target new and emerging markets with diverse linguistic backgrounds. When you offer languages relevant to these new markets, you can quickly establish yourself in regions where your business is unknown.

With multilingual content, your business can attract global attention through social sharing, word-of-mouth, and search engine visibility. This leads to increased brand awareness and recognition worldwide.

In other words, website translation allows you to make your content accessible to diverse audiences from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. It’s a strategic approach that broadens your brand’s reach and shows your commitment to inclusivity and cultural sensitivity in a global economy.

For instance, CodeLobster reached more people internationally after translating their website and PHP IDE into multiple languages. They also use a language switcher menu in the native languages, making it easy for users to choose their languages.

2. Enhanced Brand Reputation

Pivoting from the previous point, enhancing your brand reputation is another main benefit of translation.

When you translate your website into multiple languages, you can effectively cater to multilingual and multicultural audiences.

This is what I mean.

Translating your content offers you the pristine opportunity to appreciate the cultural diversity of your website visitors. This is a fabulous way to demonstrate your dedication to inclusivity, which reflects well on your brand image.

Secondly, website translation allows you to adapt your content to local interests and preferences.

How does this help enhance your brand reputation?

It’s simple. When you exhibit that you understand local customs, slang, and cultural nuances, your content will resonate with the target audience.

This leads to better user engagement, acceptance by natives, and improved brand reputation.

Thirdly, speaking to your audience in their native language fosters a sense of familiarity and trust.

This bolsters credibility and facilitates stronger and healthier connections between global users and your brand.

There is more…

Translating your website professionally lets you avoid cultural misunderstandings and offensive content. This helps you to safeguard your brand’s reputation and integrity in a global market.

Still on brand reputation, offering seamless user experiences in different languages fortifies brand loyalty. Doing so encourages repeat visits to your site and long-term relationships with your business.

If you play your cards right, satisfied customers become brand advocates who promote your business freely.

I mean. Satisfied multilingual customers recommend your products or services to friends and family. This amplifies word-of-mouth and contributes to brand advocacy, which leads to an enhanced reputation for your business.

Lastly, website translation helps you to stand out from competitors who haven’t adopted multilingual communication.

If you’re wondering, this is an effective way to differentiate yourself and attract people who align with your overall message.

How does this improve your brand reputation?

First, it establishes you as a forward-thinking and customer-centric organization. Second, offering multilingual content is a standard practice in today’s global marketplace.

Customers expect your brand to offer an inclusive user experience that positively influences how people view your business.

3. Improved User Experience

Another great benefit of translation is improving the user experience on your website.

Why is that important?

Improving user experience is crucial for captivating and retaining your target audience.

First, translating your content removes language barriers. This lets people from different backgrounds understand and use your website no matter where they are from.

By catering to speakers of different languages, you demonstrate your commitment to accessibility and usability, which makes your website welcoming to more people.

On top of that, translating your website allows you to offer personalized experiences to your users. You can tailor your content to groups and subcultures, addressing their distinctive interests and cultural backgrounds.

Secondly, translation allows you to localize your website. As such, you can adapt elements such as images, currencies, and date formats to local conventions and customs. This improves user engagement and creates a sense of belonging among users.

Further, you can deliver marketing messages in the user’s native language, which leads to increased user satisfaction and more conversions.

Thirdly, translating your content is an effective way of increasing dwell time. That is because users from different linguistic backgrounds spend more time interacting with content in a language they understand.

This, in turn, leads to increased user engagement and immersion in your website.

In addition, providing a seamless multilingual experience leads to lower bounce rates.

Why?

Users are more likely to spend more time on your website and explore more pages when they can easily understand your content.

4. Boosting SEO and Visibility

If you’re still wet behind the ears regarding digital marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) involves tuning your website and content to rank higher in result pages.

But how does translating your website into multiple languages improve SEO and visibility?

For starters, we have multilingual keyword optimization.

When translating your website, start by conducting keyword research in different languages. This lets you pinpoint relevant keywords and phrases local website visitors use to find your content.

Then, optimize your multilingual content with these keywords to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs).

Secondly, translating your content into multiple languages helps you expand your geographic reach.

This helps you enhance your presence in international markets. As a result, more people can discover and engage with your website using localized search queries.

Besides that, you can use geo-targeted content optimization to tailor your content to specific cultural contexts and geographical regions.

This helps search engines understand the relevance of your content to local users, which results in higher rankings for location-specific searches.

Thirdly, creating helpful multilingual content shows search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. This leads to a higher domain authority and higher rankings across language-specific search results.

Additionally, earning backlinks from local websites will increase your authority and relevance in local searches, which leads to more organic traffic and enhanced SEO performance.

At the same time, optimizing meta descriptions, titles, and alt tags in each language is a surefire way to ensure your content is accurately represented in local search results.

This translates into higher click-through rates and visibility in SERPs.

But that’s not all…

Providing your content in multiple languages lowers your bounce rates.

The bounce rate is an important Google ranking factor. It represents the percentage of people who exit your website immediately and without interacting with other pages.

To search engines, a super-high bounce rate indicates people don’t find your content helpful or something on your website is broken.

As a result, search engines award you with lower rankings, and the converse is true.

Offering your content in multiple languages encourages website visitors to stay longer and explore more pages since they understand the information you present.

This lowers your bounce rate, which is definitely what you want.

Another thing.

Translating your website with consideration for contextual relevance lets you capture a wide range of user intents.

This lets you optimize your multilingual content for long-tail keywords and niche-specific search queries.

You should also monitor cultural trends in different regions. This allows you to align your content with local searches so that your website remains relevant and competitive in SEO.

Last but not least, monitoring the performance of your multilingual SEO efforts provides valuable data about keyword rankings, user engagement, and conversion rates.

You can use this data for strategic planning and to improve your future multilingual SEO campaigns.

As a quick example, renowned internet marketer Neil Patel increased his traffic by 47% and the number of new users by 60% after translating his website into 82 languages!

5. Increased Conversions and Revenue

Another exciting benefit of translation is increased conversion rates and revenue.

I say exciting because who doesn’t like to make more money? After all, revenue is the main aim and lifeblood of any business.

So, how does translating your website into more languages increase conversions and revenue?

Let’s start with conversions.

A conversion occurs whenever a user completes a desired action on your website.

This could be:

• Picking up the phone to call you;
• Filling out a contact form;
• Downloading a file;
• Joining your email newsletter;
• Clicking affiliate links;
• And purchasing a product, among other things.

Registering high conversion rates on your website means you’re doing things right.

A low conversion rate is the exact opposite.

How does website translation increase conversions?

Speaking to your diverse audience in a language they understand fosters trust and confidence in your brand. This eliminates hesitation that would otherwise keep website visitors from converting.

In addition, multilingual content eliminates language barriers, allowing users to interact with your website in meaningful ways.

On top of that, offering translations shows international customers that your business values their language and culture.

This drives users to perceive your brand as more reliable and professional than competitors. As a result, customers are more likely to convert.

Furthermore, happy international customers share positive reviews with others, influencing purchase decisions and boosting conversions.

And how does website translation boost revenue?

More conversions usually lead to more revenue in one way or another.

Here’s a detailed explanation.

First, translating your content into multiple languages makes the purchase process simpler.

In other words, a seamless multilingual shopping experience reduces obstacles, leading to more conversions and sales.

Secondly, website translation includes incorporating local currencies and payment options.

Doing so facilitates seamless transactions since buyers are more confident using familiar payment gateways.

Thirdly, translating your website includes crucial content such as shipping, ToS, and return policies.

As such, global customers clearly understand the terms involved with their orders.

This eliminates hesitation and uncertainty and boosts transparency. At the end of it all, you have more conversions and sales and fewer returns.

Some fitting examples would be Apple.com (126 languages) and Google Search (149 languages).

6. Cost-Effectiveness and Efficiency

Another notable benefit of translation is that the process is cost-effective and efficient.

For starters, you don’t need to create new content, which, as we all know, is a costly affair. All you have to do is translate the same content into different languages and enjoy the cost savings.

Cost savings, you say?

That’s right. Website translation is often a cheaper and more scalable way to reach a global audience than traditional methods, including PPC ads, email marketing, TV, and print adverts.

In the same light, engaging and retaining existing users with translations is often more cost-effective than traditional methods.

That plus multilingual content has higher returns in the long term.

Additionally, investing in website translation is a sustainable growth strategy for creating a presence in new markets.

It is also a fabulous way to diversify your revenue streams (in the new markets) and reduce overreliance on costly one-time promotional techniques. The other benefit of translation is efficiency, thanks to advances in technology.

This I say because, without the right tools, translating content can be a tough row to hoe.

For instance, translation management systems help you to automate and centralize your translation workflow. This minimizes manual effort and errors. Also, it streamlines collaboration among editors, project managers, and translators.

Additionally, don’t forget the benefits of machine translation and artificial intelligence (AI).

While machine translations and AI might miss cultural context and other subtleties of different languages, these technologies are valuable.

For instance…

TranslatePress is an exceptional tool that accelerates the translation process, allowing you to translate vast amounts of content quickly and efficiently without compromising quality and precision.

Its advanced features make it a cost-effective solution for businesses and individuals who require accurate translations. This tool lets you enjoy all the benefits of translation without trying hard on your part.

On top of that, tools such as TranslatePress save all of your translations in a terminology database, eliminating time-consuming repeat translations.

Saving your translations also ensures coherence and consistency across your translations. All these factors contribute to translation efficiency.

Other than improved efficiency, another benefit of translation is the measurement of return on investment (ROI).

Tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as customer lifetime value, conversion rates, traffic, and revenue helps you measure the ROI of website translation.

This can help you decide if translating your website into multiple languages is worth your time and money.

In other words, it is simple to measure the impact of website translation on revenue.

This can help you make well-informed decisions to allocate your resources accordingly.

7. Abiding by Legal Requirements

Unbeknownst to many people, there are several laws governing translation.

That’s right, translation goes beyond converting content to other languages. In some countries, regions, and industries, the law requires website owners to provide accurate translations to users.

Translating your website into other languages is another benefit of translation because it helps your business avoid repercussions such as penalties and fines.

For example. in the US, you must comply with stipulations outlined in the following language access laws:

• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964;
• Executive Order 13166;
• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA);
• Voting Rights Act of 1965;
• Affordable Care Act.

In the European Union (EU), you must abide by the following laws:

• EU Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC;
• GDPR.

In Canada, we have Bill 96.

These are just a few examples. Check with your lawyer to ensure you aren’t breaking the law by neglecting users who don’t speak English.

With the benefits of translation aside, how do you translate your website like a pro?

Benefits of Translation: A Case for TranslatePress

While translation has many benefits, it’s a tough nut to crack, especially if it’s your first time.

This is precisely why you need a solid translation plugin such as TranslatePress.

The tool ships with an impressive suite of features that make translating your website a breeze.

If you’re pressed for time, you will be happy to learn that TranslatePress supports automatic translations via Google Translate and DeepL.

You work inside a visual translation editor that makes fine-tuning your translations (no matter how complex) incredibly easy.

The plugin also boasts several nifty options, as highlighted on this TranslatePress features page.

What’s even better? You have a completely free version that lets you translate your website like a boss.

For more power, don’t hesitate to spring for the paid version.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Benefits of Translation: Final Words

In this article, we covered seven benefits of translation in great detail.

I hope you can now decide whether translating your website is worth your time or money.

In a nutshell, the benefits of translation include enhanced reach, better brand image, improved SEO, and increased revenue, among others.

Are you privy to other advantages of translation? What was your main takeaway today? Did we miss something?

Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below.

Happy translating, amigo!

The post Benefits of Translation: Top 7 Reasons to Translate Your Website appeared first on TranslatePress.

I think you will agree when I say translating slang poses several challenges for many translators.

We can also agree that adding slang to your content can spice up the conversation and make your text more relatable.

Inadvertently, we all use slang in everyday conversations with our peers. It has become so ingrained in our daily lives it’s sometimes hard to tell what is and isn’t slang.

But.

Still, many beginner and professional translators struggle with slang due to its informal and unpredictable nature.

What could be brilliant and well-meaning slang in one language could come off as confusing or offensive in another linguistic setting.

For instance, the slang phrases “let’s rock and roll” and “hit the road” will quickly make sense to most English speakers.

If you translated the phrases word-for-word, they wouldn’t make much sense to, say, Chinese or German speakers.

Another thing.

Some slang words and phrases in the source language don’t have equivalents in the target language, which makes matters worse.

Then you have cultural and social sensitivities to keep in mind when translating slang.

As you will learn later, these are some factors that make slang translation one of the hardest tasks for even the best translators.

So, how do you translate slang to another language while preserving the context and meaning of the original text?

In today’s post, you will learn:

• What is slang + popular examples;
• The challenges of translating slang;
• Why translate slang;
• Effective strategies to translate slang like a pro.

Without further ado, let us rock and roll (see what I did there?).

What is Slang?

So, good ladies and gents, what is slang?

Due to its ambiguous and polysemous nature, slang can take many different forms. This can make defining slang a tad confusing, folks.

In its most basic form, slang is casual, often colloquial language full of unusual expressions, phrases, words, wordplay, and humor.

It is mostly used within specific social groups or subcultures to convey veiled messages or validate a sense of belonging.

But don’t get me wrong.

Slang also includes loan words, swear words, made-up words, and professional jargon.

However,

Due to a lack of the standard characteristics of formal languages, slang presents almost unsurmountable problems for translators across the board.

Here are a few popular examples to illustrate what I mean.

Popular Examples of Slang

This is the fun part of this article, I promise 🙂 As a disclaimer, it’s full of slang that may not hold well. Just saying.

Let’s dive right in.

 “You’re the GOAT” is a popular slang phrase, particularly with the younger generation. It means you’re the greatest of all time.

For example, “Lionel Messi is the GOAT in soccer.” Or perhaps Cristiano Ronaldo is more of your cup of tea. Whoever floats your boat (see what I did there again?).

If someone says you’re the GOAT, it means you’re awesome at what you do. But if you were to translate the phrase into Swahili, for instance, you’d get “wewe ni mbuzi,” which doesn’t convey the same meaning.

“Wewe ni mbuzi” means you’re a goat, the animal. It’s not the same meaning you wanted to pass from the source to the target language. It would definitely offend the intended readership.

Another popular example is the slang term “shit.” It has no literal meaning in formal English. When used as slang, however, it could mean a whole lot of things depending on the context.

For example, “you’re the shit” means you’re the absolute best; the real deal. “You’re shitting me” means you’re kidding me, and “That movie was shit” means the film was the absolute worst.

Again, if you translated “you’re the shit” into Swahili, you’d get “wewe ni shit,” which is derogatory slang meaning “you’re feces.” Not exactly what you intended for your target audience, right?

Note that even English-speaking countries or regions have different slang. For instance, “bum” in the US means a vagabond.

In the UK, the same slang word means someone’s nether regions. A “fag” in the UK means a cigarette, but the same word is a hateful slur against homosexuals in the US.

In the Oxford Learner Dictionary, “booty” means valuable goods that are stolen, especially by soldiers during a time of war.

But that’s definitely not what Samuel L. Jackson meant in the movie Shaft. Translating the slang word to another language literally will lose the intended meaning.

Even More Examples

In many movies and casual content, you will hardly encounter direct references to “marijuana.”

You will often see slang words such as “doobie,” “herb,” “chronic,” and other terms that wouldn’t make sense in another language.

Especially without proper and contextual translation.

Here’s another one.

American soldiers are familiar with many slang words that only make sense to them.

Terms like “grease monkey,” “squid,” “blue falcon” and “green bean” wouldn’t make the slightest of sense if translated to another language word-for-word.

And slang doesn’t stop there.

It extends to other professions such as medicine and law. Who would have guessed?

In clinical practice, for instance, you’ll often hear slang words such as “black holes,” “butterflies,” “rabbit” and “turkeys.”

Suffice it to say, none of these slang words mean what you think.

Translating such slang from the source language to the target language is a nightmare, especially since, I’m guessing, you’ve never seen medical slang before.

The above are just a few examples of slang, but I bet you see where I am going with this.

Slang is a nice communication tool when used within a specific group or culture. However, it presents challenges when translating in another language.

Now that you know what we are working with, here are some challenges of slang translation.

Challenges of Slang Translation

Translating slang is important for content localization.

Conveying the context and meaning of the original text in the target language will make your slang translations approachable and genuine.

That said, translating slang text poses several unavoidable challenges, including:

Rapid Evolution

Unlike formal languages such as English, slang evolves rapidly. Since it is predominantly emotive, there is always a need to coin new terms.

This presents a challenge for translators since you have to stay current with the latest words and their meanings.

Further, pop culture, social media, and messaging apps give birth to new terms, meaning slang is constantly changing.

Cultural Nuances

One of the biggest challenges of translating slang is cultural nuances. What is accepted as slang in one culture might be offensive (as a monkey in a negligee) to another group.

This means the translator requires cultural understanding to convey these nuances, which might be challenging if you’re from a different background.

On top of that, some slang words may be socially inappropriate across cultures. This means the translator must learn how to navigate cultural sensitivities carefully.

Without a good grasp of these cultural nuances, you will likely confuse or offend the target audience.

Ambiguity and Regional Variations

Most often, slang expressions have multiple meanings (polysemy) depending on context. This leads to ambiguity in translation and potential misunderstanding.

In addition, as we saw earlier, slang varies across regions. As such, translating regional slang precisely needs knowledge of local linguistic subtleties.

Moreover, slang often uses expressions that don’t have direct equivalents in the target language. This makes generating accurate translations difficult.

Another thing is that slang is highly contextual. For correct translations, you need a proper understanding of the situational or social context.

Generation Gap and Pop Culture Influence

Different age groups use and understand slang terms differently. This makes it difficult to bridge the generation gap and transfer the intended meaning successfully.

Additionally, slang is heavily influenced by pop culture, including music, movies, and social media. This means you must stay on top of these influences and trends for accurate translation.

For instance. A few years ago, OMG and LMAO slang terms weren’t prevalent. “I’m dead” didn’t exist either.

Lack of Formal Documentation

Unlike formal terms and expressions, slang is not extensively documented in official dictionaries.

For this reason, translators often have a difficult time finding reputable sources for reference.

To translate slang effectively, you need linguistic agility and a deep understanding of the cultural differences between various language pairs.

Now that you know the challenges many translators face, why should you bother translating slang?

Why Slang Translation?

Translating slang is a critical part of effective communication and understanding language.

Here are some solid reasons you should endeavor to translate slang effectively.

Improved Communication

Most times, slang reflects the cultural nuances of a specific group. Translating it bridges cultural gaps, which fosters improved cross-cultural communication.

If your target audience can understand and relate to the translated slang, you can accurately convey the intended meaning.

On the other hand, poorly translated slang leads to confusion and loss of meaning.

And the loss of your marketing dollars.

Avoiding Misinterpretations

First, slang is largely context-dependent. Translating with this in mind leads to translations that are appropriate for the intended situations.

In other words, you must use languages that are appropriate for different settings to avoid misunderstandings.

Secondly, you must understand different social groups have their own slang. Accurate translation allows people to engage effectively within these groups.

Thirdly, keep in mind that slang expressions are often polysemous (carrying multiple meanings). When you translate slang precisely, you avoid ambiguity and misinterpretations.

To mean, precise translation lets you choose suitable expressions to avoid offense. This is useful, especially if the source text contains culturally sensitive or inappropriate slang.

At the same time, properly translating slang is a fantastic way to show respect for the cultural diversity of the target audience.

This is critical when building trust and goodwill in a new demographic.

Maintaining Relevance

As a translator, you must do your best to remain relevant to compete favorably in the market. However, slang is highly dynamic and evolves rapidly.

Translating slang lets you stay current and maintain the relevance of your translations. Think of it like practice.

To stay ahead, keep an eye on pop culture, technology, and social media since they have a lot of influence on language evolution.

When all is said, translating slang allows you to understand and keep up with modern communication trends.

Effective Branding and Marketing

Laser-sharp targeting is an important part of any branding or marketing campaign. Miss the mark, and you will flush your money down the drain.

Understanding and properly translating slang allows you to target specific demographics with relatable campaigns.

You have probably seen big companies like Coca-Cola do this effectively.

Additionally, translating slang ensures that your advertising campaigns are culturally appropriate, preventing unintentional blunders.

Educational Purposes

When learning a new language, you will most likely want to learn the slang terms as well.

Translating slang helps learners understand colloquial expressions, which facilitates a more comprehensive grasp of the language.

Additionally, learning the slang of a specific region is a critical part of cultural education, which fosters a deeper appreciation for diversity.

Professional Settings

Did you know that “mouthpiece” is the slang term for a criminal defense lawyer? Now you know.

Slang that appears in legal documents and proceedings requires the services of a professional translator. This helps in accurate interpretation.

And that’s just the legal profession.

In other words, accurate slang translation is quintessential for clear and professional communication.

In summary, translating slang is crucial for effective communication, which contributes to fruitful interactions in personal and professional settings.

Effective Tips and Strategies for Slang Translation

Can’t wait to learn how to translate slang? If so, you will love the following section.

First, we delve into various tips for effective slang translation. After that, we will share three translation methods and conclude with one of the best translation plugins for WordPress.

Let us get down to business.

Top 5 Slang Translation Tips

To effectively translate slang, consider the following proven tips.

Immerse Yourself in the Culture

Quick question. How do you expect to translate English to French slang without understanding either culture?

We can agree it’s an uphill task. Right?

To effectively translate slang, take time to immerse yourself in the culture of the source language and the target audience.

This way, you will understand the origin, usage, and situational appropriateness of the slang.

Don’t hesitate to collaborate with native speakers and language experts.

Working closely with these individuals can help you learn more about the cultural and contextual nuances of the slang.

On top of that, language experts and native speakers can offer you valuable feedback about the accuracy and appropriateness of your slang translations.

Stay Updated and Engage in Continuous Learning

As we’ve hinted severally throughout the article, slang is a fast-paced environment. New terms, styles, and phrases surface every other day.

If you are to remain relevant and create effective translations, you must regularly update your knowledge of slang.

Staying in the loop lets you keep pace with evolving language trends and new slang expressions that you would have missed.

On top of that, keep in mind that slang translation is not a rigid process. Unlike normal languages, the slang landscape changes almost overnight.

As such, you should view slang translation as a continuous learning experience. Nothing is set in stone, so stay curious and receptive to new expressions and linguistic styles.

At the same time, stay flexible in your approach because slang is dynamic and may require creative adaptation to convey the intended meaning effectively.

Create Contextually Relevant Slang Translations

Literal word-for-word translations usually don’t work with slang since it’s often context-dependent.

Instead of translating just words, focus on the cultural, contextual, and situational meaning behind the slang.

This allows you to create slang translations that are relevant to the target audience.

Don’t shy away from analyzing the context in which the slang is used to determine its intended meaning and appropriateness in different scenarios.

Understand Pop Culture

To stay on top of your game, remember to familiarize yourself with popular culture references that influence slang. These include music, movies, TV shows, and social media trends.

Actively monitor social media grapevine where slang often originates and evolves. This will arm you with valuable insights into unconventional language use.

While at it, remember that different age groups and demographics use slang differently. This can help you fine-tune your translations accordingly.

Use Online Resources

While formal slang documentation may be hard to find, there are still tons of other resources you can use to polish your translations.

Consider using specialized slang dictionaries such as Urban Dictionary and Green’s Dictionary of Slang. You can find more language-specific slang dictionaries with a simple Google search.

For example, entering “slang dictionary” in the search engine will bring up several useful results.

Other than dictionaries, visit online forums and language communities to stay informed about the latest slang expressions. Reddit and Quora are great places to start.

For instance, I learned a lot about which languages have the most slang. I also discovered a brilliant Irish poet who uses a lot of slang in his works. You can’t blame me, I spent a lot of time on that thread 🙂

With the above tips, you can navigate the nuances of slang translation, ensuring clear and contextually appropriate translations.

With that out of the way, which methods do translators normally use for text slang translation? Continue reading to learn more.

Three Proven Methods of Slang Translation

We have already established that translating slang is important in effective cross-cultural communication. On top of that, we’ve shared a couple of useful tips to help you.

Seeing as you don’t want to omit the slang in your content for its flair, translators use one of the following three methods to translate slang.

The method you choose depends on your source and target languages, the type of content you’re translating, and the specific slang expressions you’re translating.

For best results, we recommend using a mix of the three.

Literal Slang Translation

As you can probably tell, literal translation involves translating slang terms and expressions word-for-word from the source text into the target language.

This is the easiest method of slang translation and might work with machine translation to some degree but for certain language pairs.

However, the literal translation method is not viable for languages that don’t have slang equivalents. In such cases, the translations will have a different meaning from the source text.

Take the popular “I’m dead” slang, for instance. In English, it means you find something extremely funny.

Doing a literal translation of this expression into other languages means you’ve passed away, which doesn’t make sense.

For example, “I’m dead” translates to “Estoy muerta” in Spanish, which wasn’t the intended meaning.

Stylistic Compensation

Secondly, we have stylistic compensation. This method of slang translation involves paraphrasing the original slang terms with contextually appropriate expressions from the target language.

This is the most common and effective method of slang translation since it takes into account the context of the original slang.

While it may lead to longer translations, it accurately conveys the meaning and context of the slang in the target language.

As a quick example, stylistic compensation could work for a slang expression, such as “I have plenty of dough.”

In US English slang, the word “dough” means money.

If you translated the slang expression into Spanish, you’d get “me sobra masa,” which means “I have leftover dough.”

Not money, but the dough you use in baking.

As you can see, the original meaning has been lost in the translation. This is where stylistic compensation comes in.

Using stylistic compensation, you can paraphrase the expression with equivalent slang from the target language.

The translation then becomes “tendo mucho plata.” Here, the word “plata” is Spanish slang for money.

Softening

And last but not least, we have softening. This method of translating slang involves toning down slang expressions and terms that are culturally offensive or inappropriate in the target language.

Say, for instance, you’d like to translate the slang expression “I won’t live in this crappy house anymore” into Spanish. “Crappy” here is vulgar slang that doesn’t translate well into Spanish.

A literal translation becomes “Ya no vivire mas en esta casa de mierda.” As you can see, the slang word “crappy” is replaced with “mierda,” which means “shit.”

As we saw earlier, “shit” means feces.

To soften this translation, you can soften the translation to “Ya no vivire mas en esta casa destartalada.”

If you translate this expression back to English, you get “I won’t live in this dilapidated house.”

I hope that makes sense.

Translating slang is hard as it is. This is why you need a formidable WordPress translation plugin such as TranslatePress.

A Case for TranslatePress Plugin for Slang Translation

The TranslatePress plugin is a versatile solution for website translations, including slang translation. It comes with a range of powerful features that help you translate all content on your website.

As far as translating slang goes, the plugin provides visual context to translations because of its intuitive translation editor, which looks like this:

With the above visual translation editor, you can fine-tune your slang translations manually. I say this because machine translations don’t catch the nuances of slang.

To help with this, TranslatePress comes with another nifty feature known as Translator Accounts. This add-on allows you to create or allow an existing user (or a professional) to translate slang with ease directly on the site without needing any coding skills.

The TranslatePress plugin comes with a whole lot more features that make translating slang a breeze. Notable features include:

• Image translation, meaning you can translate slang text in your images;
• Full support for Google Translate and Deepl;
• Customizable language switcher, so users can choose their preferred language easily;
• WooCommerce support;
• SEO pack, so you can drive more traffic from your translated slang content;
• And more.

If you want to translate slang on your WordPress site without breaking a sweat, I can’t think of a better translation plugin.

Besides, you have nothing to lose. There’s a free version of TranslatePress on WordPress.org that lets you test the waters.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Conclusion

Translating slang presents a lot of challenges to many translators. To overcome the challenges that come with slang translation, follow the tips we’ve shared above, and use your creativity to adapt translations for the intended audience.

Have you ever translated slang before? Did you face any challenges? How do you translate slang on your website? Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section below.

The post Slang Translation 101: How to Translate Slang Professionally appeared first on TranslatePress.

Building a multilingual website is hard, especially if you’re a beginner and doing it alone. It gets more challenging if web design is not your strongest suit.

I mean. Many considerations go into creating a successful multi-language website. Which translation service should you use? Which platform is the best for a multilingual website? Is human translation better than machine translation? And so on.

Another critical consideration is the type of fonts you choose for your multilingual website.

Why is this important? It’s simple.

Some fonts look great and are clear and readable in one language. However, the same font might fail to impress when translated into a different language.

In other words. the resulting translations are all over the place, unreadable, and full of vertical rectangular symbols commonly known as tofu.

I’m sure you have seen some of those when you visited a website with poor translations. And we can all agree it doesn’t look good, especially when you’re looking to reach a multilingual audience.

What Are Multilingual Fonts?

Each written language uses varying alphabets, character sets, conventions, diacritics, glyphs, and scripts. For this reason, it is unwise to assume all your content will look great and be legible when translated into different languages.

I say this because some fonts are meant for one language. That is, the font doesn’t have the character set you’d need for working translations in other languages.

This is where multilingual fonts come in to save the day.

Unlike a conventional font that works with one language, multilingual fonts are designed to support multiple languages.

Take time and research the fonts you will use because it matters for user experience and the effectiveness of your content.

Today, we explore why businesses use multilingual fonts, what you should consider when choosing a font, and then share several favorites.

Why You Should Use Multilingual Fonts

Unless you’re a seasoned web developer or type designer, you might wonder why use multilingual fonts.

Well, using reliable multilingual fonts on your multi-language website offers several benefits. Other than being one of the best practices of multilingual website design, here are more reasons why you should use multi-language fonts.

Readability and Legibility

This is the most obvious benefit of choosing the best fonts for multiple languages.

As we hinted earlier, each language has its unique character set, conventions, glyphs, and scripts, among other things.

As an illustration, languages such as Arabic and Chinese have different characters than English. If the font you choose only supports the latter, your translations will look horrible in the other two languages.

On the other hand, using multilingual fonts ensures that translated characters are displayed correctly and are not replaced by generic symbols such as the tofu.

No matter how you want to see it, your overarching goal with a multilingual website is to provide readable and legible content to your audience(s) regardless of their preferred languages.

Prevent Unnerving Display Issues

When translating a website, you probably have noted how things move around when you switch languages.

If you stick with a typical font, some characters from one language will not be available in the translations, which causes display issues.

A multilingual font, on the other hand, comes with a wide range of characters, which ensures your content looks attractive despite the translation language.

We recommend using a multilingual font when displaying translations to avoid a design that looks disconnected due to using different fonts for each language.

This consistency lets you create a polished and professional brand image across all languages.

Enhanced User Experience

It is no secret that offering a superb user experience goes hand in hand with better user retention, engagement, and conversions.

In other words, visitors who access your multi-language website through different languages should all have a pleasant experience and feel comfortable with your website design.

Multilingual fonts help you establish a pleasant user experience, which allows visitors to understand, enjoy, and engage with your website content.

Improving user experience using a multilingual font shows your commitment to serving a global audience, which will increase your brand’s appeal.

Another thing. Different browsers and platforms interpret fonts differently. Using a multilingual font ensures that all users have a uniform experience regardless of the browsers or devices they use when visiting your website.

Better SEO

For the perfect beginner, SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. It’s the multifaceted process of optimizing your website content to rank higher in search results.

If you had no idea, offering a brilliant user experience is a big boost for your SEO efforts. That said, a website with correct font rendering for multiple languages has a better chance of ranking high in search engines.

Couple multilingual fonts and other SEO techniques to increase your website visibility and position in search results. After all, people want to stay longer on your website because your calculated choice of fonts makes content consumption effortless.

Accessibility

Last but not least, you have accessibility guidelines to comply with.

At the top of the web content accessibility guidelines, we have four principles. Your website content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

In other words, the Web Accessibility Consortium recommends creating websites accessible to people with diverse needs, including those who want content in different languages.

Choosing multilingual fonts aligns with accessibility guidelines, which makes your website more inclusive and user-friendly.

Using multilingual fonts has many other benefits. I just chose to highlight a few main ones.

When all is said, there is no refuting that using multilingual fonts is great for user experience, readability, SEO, consistent brand images, and accessibility.

With that out of the way, what are some of the things you should consider when choosing multilingual fonts?

Factors to Consider When Choosing Multilingual Fonts

I am doing my best to ensure this article doesn’t throw you a curveball. Because, well, fonts are a tad bit sneaky for most regular folks. Unless, of course, you own a type foundry.

In other words, I would hate to make choosing the right multi-language fonts for your website harder than it already is.

So, what things should you look out for when selecting the perfect fonts for your multilingual website? The short answer is there is a lot, but I will keep this section lean since I’m just pointing you in the right direction.

Consider the following:

• Language support – When researching, choosing, and testing your multilingual fonts, aim for ones that support all the languages your website offers. Some fonts are limited to the Latin writing system, but others extend to Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Korean, and more.
• Readability – What’s the use of investing in a multilingual font that makes readability and legibility a nightmare? Choose fonts that are readable in different writing systems to ensure your content is accessible to people of various cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
• Versatility in design and style – Unknown to many, fonts have many characteristics, such as font size, style, line height, weight, and more. Go for multilingual fonts with versatile designs and styles for different scenarios. For instance, some fonts are fantastic for titles but flop when it comes to body content.
• Licensing and usage rights – You don’t want to get on the wrong side of the law. Now, do you? Some fonts are free to use as you will, but others require a license for commercial use. Check the usage rights before using any font on your site.
• Web font performance – Fast page loading speed is critical for a better user experience. Choose multilingual fonts that load quickly, and consider using a CDN to speed things up. Additionally, ensure the font is well-supported on multiple browsers and devices.
• Global acceptance and accessibility – To give you a headstart, consider using fonts that are already widely accepted globally. Also, check if your choice font has accessibility features. These might include enough spacing, distinct character shapes, and more. Type foundries offer this info 🙂
• Cultural appropriateness – For best results, choose fonts that align with the cultural sensitivities of your various audiences. Different font styles may lead to misunderstandings in some cultural settings.

See? I told you this section will be short. Instinctfully, you want to test your multilingual fonts extensively before implementing them on your website. Cover your bases to avoid unpleasant surprises later.

Now that you know why you should use multilingual fonts and some factors to consider while choosing, here are some brilliant choices to help you hit the ground running.

The Best Multilingual Fonts for 2024 & Beyond

There are tons of multilingual fonts on the web, which means it is impossible to cover all of them in a single article. You have free and paid typefaces, so you have plenty of choices regardless of your budget.

With that said, let us see the fonts that the type design world offers.

Google Noto

Created by Google, Noto is a collection of high-quality fonts in more than 1,000 languages and 150 writing systems (scripts).

These multilingual fonts come with multiple widths and weights in sans, serif, mono, and other styles to accommodate a wide range of applications, not just websites.

The Noto font family is designed to achieve visual harmony across multiple languages and scripts.

In Latin, “Noto” translates to “I write, I mark, I note.” Also, the font name is short for “no tofu” since the project aims to eliminate the dreadful vertical rectangles we mentioned earlier.

Noto covers many popular scripts such as Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Myanmar, et cetera. You also get a nice collection of color emojis.

You can use Noto fonts for personal or commercial purposes without cost, but you can’t sell them as yours.

TT Norms Pro

TT Norms Pro is one of the most popular commercial fonts, perfect for digital and print publications. The font was released in 2021 by the TypeType foundry.

The collection was recently updated and supports over 280 languages in 100+ font styles. The font is a functional sans serif for aesthetic design choices.

TT Norms Pro is a versatile and stylish font ideal for websites in any industry. It’s the signature font of big-name brands such as Intercom, Inc., CBSN, and Sartorius AG, among others.

The complete font family (with 104 fonts) will set you back $199.60, but the offer is valid until 26th Jan 2024.

To boot, customization of the TT Norms Pro font is available upon request.

Helvetica World

Helvetica, also known as Neue Haas Grotesk, is a popular sans-serif font that Max Miedinger developed in 1957. Today, the Linotype Design Studio maintains and updates the font.

Helvetica World is an updated version of the Helvetica font, which supports 89 languages, including Romanian, Turkish, Serbian, and Russian.

This font boasts a sleek design with crisp edges, making it the perfect choice for any website that needs to support multiple languages. Its versatility and clarity are unmatched.

It supports various writing systems, including Latin, Arabic, Greek, Hebrew, and more, as well as a range of characters and symbols.

Helvetica World comes in four styles: regular, bold, italic, bold italic. The license starts at €165.99 (roughly $182) at this writing. You can also spring for a bundled package starting from €439.99.

Other Notable Mentions

The above fonts are my favorite and cater to a wide range of languages and writing systems. Besides, we would be here all day if we covered every multilingual font under the sun.

To keep the section short and sweet, here are some honorable mentions based on user reviews across the interwebs.

• Suisse
• Grotte
• SST
• Google Open Sans
• Gill Sans Nova

With the above tips and fonts, you’re ready to rock the world. You can create a fully multilingual website that’s attractive and, more importantly, usable.

No matter the fonts you choose, you need a solid website translation solution. For WordPress users, I can’t think of a better translation plugin than TranslatePress.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Conclusion

Still can’t decide on the multilingual font you need for your multi-language website? Tell you what, it’s simple. Start with something safe, such as Google Noto or Open Sans, and work your way from there.

As you’d expect, you will need lots of research beforehand to find the perfect font for your multilingual website.

All in all, I hope you found today’s article helpful. Please share and leave a comment. All the best!

The post Best Multilingual Fonts for Multi-Language Websites appeared first on TranslatePress.

Choosing an exemplary translation service for your needs is an uphill task, especially if you’re new to this translation business.

First, there are countless translation services online, both free and paid. For this reason alone, choosing the right translator for your business can be confusing.

Second, do you spring for machine-driven translations or human translation services, considering both have benefits and downsides?

Thirdly, different translation services offer varying feature sets, making choosing the perfect one for your needs somewhat challenging.

Fourth, translation services aren’t built the same. Some tools offer better translations right off the bat. In the same light, some services are challenging to integrate with your applications.

Despite the above challenges, offering your website in multiple languages is extremely important in a globalized world.

A multilingual website lets you reach new audiences, offer better customer experiences, and increase revenue.

And for effective translations, you need a reliable translation service.

In this SYSTRAN Translate review, you will discover if the translation service is ideal for your business needs.

We will highlight multiple factors, including features, pricing options, customer support, et cetera.

By the end, you will have all the info to decide if you should drop SYSTRAN Translator in favor of an alternative translation service such as DeepL or Google Translate.

Without further ado, let’s start!

What is SYSTRAN Translate? A Brief Overview

Before anything else, what is this animal we’re calling SYSTRAN?

Well – if the title doesn’t say it all – SYSTRAN Translate is a translation service much like DeepL or Google Translate.

Unbeknownst to many, SYSTRAN is one of the oldest commercially available machine translation services in the world.

The company was founded by Dr. Peter Toma back in 1968. That’s right, like chatbots, machine translation has been around for decades.

The company was established in La Jolla, California, to help the United States Air Force translate Russian text into English during the Cold War.

Besides the United States Department of Defense, SYSTRAN Translate did extensive work for the European Commission.

Apart from government bodies, SYSTRAN has previously provided technology for Google language tools, Yahoo Babel Fish, and the Dashboard Translation widget in macOS.

When they started, the company used ruled-based machine translation, which – while it worked back then – was less than perfect.

Over the years, SYSTRAN Translate has grown tremendously thanks to advances in machine translation technology. Now, the company uses its proprietary SYSTRAN Pure Neural Machine Translation tech to handle translations,

Presently, SYSTRAN is an award-winning cloud-based professional translation tool used by freelancers, startups, small businesses, and large enterprises.

Thanks to a unique set of translation tools, SYSTRAN Translate is a fabulous tool to boost productivity while keeping your translation costs low.

Company Reputation of SYSTRAN Translate

From the many rave reviews I found online, it seems these guys know what they are doing. Here are examples from softwareadvice.com:

I have used this software to translate websites for clients, [saving me] a lot of time. In addition to that, I love the fact that SYSTRAN Translate Pro recognizes dialects of Arabic and translates them, too. I strongly recommend it. – Nawal

or

I thought we were far from experiencing perfect translation from computer-assisted translation tools. If there is software that approximates that is [the] Systran Translate Pro [system]. In my short experience, I have not found any more precise software than this. – Allen

As of this writing, Systran Translator has over 100k users and an impeccable rating of 4.7/5.0 from over 1.6k reviews, meaning it’s alright to say you’re in safe hands.

Moreover, the SYSTRAN translation service is trusted by some of the biggest name brands, including Deloitte, Banque de France, Allianz, Lufthansa, and Continental.

If you ever want to visit them, SYSTRAN has headquarters in Paris, Tokyo, Daejeon, and San Diego.

Now that SYSTRAN doesn’t sound like an AI robot from the Interstellar movie, which features and benefits does the translation service offer?

SYSTRAN Translate: Key Features & Benefits

I always like to quip that a tool is only as good as the features it offers. If it has the options I need without feature bloat or clutter, it’s a definite winner in my book.

So, how does SYSTRAN Translate fair in the features department?

Easy to Use

First, the translation service is intuitive and easy to use. You can be up and running in three simple steps. Buy SYSTRAN Translate PRO, log in with your account details, and translate away.

You can use the easy-to-use web interface to translate 55 languages in more than 150 pairs. Even without an account, you can translate up to 5,000 text characters and three files a month.

Just paste or type your text in the source box, and SYSTRAN will kick in, translating your content in real-time.

The service supports all the major language combinations and even some local dialects.

Here is the list of the languages SYSTRAN supports.

Other SYSTRAN Translation Options

In addition, you have SYSTRAN Translator Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browser extensions at your disposal.

To use the browser extensions, highlight the text you want to translate, right-click, and select Translate selection with SYSTRAN.

The extension will redirect you to the web interface where you can complete the translation.

Alternatively, click the browser extension icon to translate the entire page manually or automatically without redirecting to the SYSTRAN web interface.

For advanced users and developers, you can leverage the SYSTRAN Translate API to integrate the translation service into your internal and external applications.

These include customer service platforms, business intelligence, collaboration tools, knowledge bases, online chats, and more.

On top of that, you can take the quality of your translations to the next level with SYSTRAN translation models.

The SYSTRAN Model Studio allows you to create customized translation models trained with your company’s data.

This helps you to improve the quality and robustness of your translations significantly.

The best part is you don’t need AI skills to create a custom translation model. SYSTRAN offers an extensive catalog of pre-made models that you can customize to fit the bill.

Unfortunately, the company has long discontinued desktop apps for Windows and macOS. Their support team recommends SYSTRAN Translate PRO as a solution.

Industry-Specific Translations

Each industry is different. The jargon that works for advertising probably won’t cut it for the education sector.

The language that works for the technology sector won’t apply in healthcare. I know you get the drift.

For instance, translating healthcare copy from English to Chinese might not have the desired effect. You might confuse the readers or, worse, insult them.

One more thing. Some distinct words, contexts, or styles in a specific industry don’t exist in the translation language.

SYSTRAN Translate understands these types of problems, especially for industry-specific translations.

As such, SYSTRAN Translate PRO lets you translate text and files in multiple domains, such as:

• Business;
• Finance;
• Technology;
• Patent;
• Agriculture;
• Legal;
• Health;
• Energy;
• Education;
• News;
• General;
• And more.

Domain-specific automatic translations allow you to get even more accurate results because, as you’d imagine, language can vary significantly depending on industry and context.

To see success stories and real-world examples of SYSTRAN in different industries, check out their case studies page.

You’ll learn how the company helped companies such as Nestle, Adobe, MGI Group, and ADmantX, among others.

Translate Images and other File Formats

Suffice it to say that SYSTRAN Translate PRO supports unlimited text translations and more file numbers and formats (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX…).

You can even translate images and content in emails, compressed folders, JSON, HTML files, and more.

When you translate any of the document formats (be it docx, images, PDF, etc.), SYSTRAN keeps your file layouts. Or so the claim.

Not to worry, you can still edit the text documents after translation.

I tried it, and I think it’s a work in progress. Some of my final layouts were a bit all over the place 🙁 But it’s expected of machine translation.

I say this because the image translation feature leaves a lot to be desired. Here’s how the above PNG screengrab looks after I translated it from English to Spanish:

That isn’t so helpful. Now, is it? With current machine translation technology, you’re better off translating your images manually using a plugin such as TranslatePress.

Pro Tip: For the best image translation, check out How to Translate Images in WordPress [Complete Guide].

SYSTRAN Translation Accuracy: Is It Dependable?

The quick answer is yes, SYSTRAN Translate is dependable 🙂

Translating content into different languages isn’t as straightforward as we would all wish.

Whether you do it manually or use software, you’ll face some common problems with translation.

With the current level of technology, it’s unfair to expect 100% accurate machine translations, even from a company that has been around for over 50 years.

Still, nothing is stopping SYSTRAN in its tracks. They launched the Pure Neural Server to offer you “…human-quality machine translation at lightning speed.”

Their Pure Neural Machine Translation (PNMT) engine uses self-learning artificial intelligence to deliver high-quality translations.

In addition, you can add user dictionaries and train translation models to fine-tune translations in record time.

SYSTRAN PNMT technology is impressive and lets you generate translations that have a natural ring to them.

Multiple studies show that SYSTRAN Translate produces accurate (or usable) translations. Still, machine translation is far from perfect.

Even if the translations look good, it’s advisable to hire a professional to go over the translations and iron out kinks.

SYSTRAN Translate Integrations

Translation doesn’t have to start and end with web pages, files, or simple text. And the folks at SYSTRAN Translate know this.

They understand that you use multiple apps to run your business. This is precisely why they keep adding support for internal and third-party applications.

First, the company offers add-ins for Microsoft Office to translate MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint while working on the documents. In addition, you can translate emails without leaving Outlook. You can even use keyboard shortcuts!

Second, SYSTRAN offers integrations for computer-assisted translation (CAT) and translation management (TMS) tools. This allows you to streamline your translation workflows.

At this sitting, SYSTRAN supports the following CAT/TMS tools:

• Across;
• Déjà vu;
• MemoQ;
• MemSource;
• Ontram;
• SDL Trados Studio;
• SmartLing;
• Terminotix;
• Wordfast;
• Phrase;
• XTM;
• Intento;
• Smartcat.

Thirdly, this translation software also offers integrations for customer service platforms, workflow automation, and localization management.

Currently, SYSTRAN Translate supports:

• Zendesk – Add AI-based SYSTRAN neural machine translations to your Zendesk Chat and enhance customer service;
• ServiceNow – Translate instant tickets, online chats, knowledge base, and support emails;
• UiPath – Translate your workflow automation. Allows your robots to detect language and translate text and files faster;
• Crowdin – Translate your content and own localization like a boss.

Integrating the above apps with SYSTRAN Translate is as easy as A, B, and C. You (or your IT guy) can use the SYSTRAN Translate REST API to connect to more third-party applications.

Data Security and Privacy

In a digitally connected world, data security and privacy are huge concerns. Data breaches perpetrated by a few bad apples can bring down even the largest corporations, as you’ve probably seen on the news.

Businesses of all sizes generate copious amounts of sensitive data that still needs translation. This can be anything from internal memos, customer data, employee info, and more.

With over 80% of employees admitting they use non-approved SaaS applications to complete job tasks, you risk exposing sensitive translations and violating data compliance laws.

This is why it’s in your best interests to choose a translation service that’s committed to data security and privacy. One such service is SYSTRAN Translate.

For a company that provided Russian-to-English translations for the US Air Force 50 years ago, you can expect military-grade data security.

SYSTRAN has years of experience in enterprise translation software for large corporate clients and governments that have the highest expectations when it comes to data security.

SYSTRAN

SYSTRAN Translate does not store or use your information for any other purpose than generating translations. Your confidential data remains in your company.

To ensure top-notch security, you can deploy the service on-premises or on SYSTRAN’s dedicated cloud server.

On top of that, SYSTRAN Translate is GDPR compliant. Also, it has NMT servers in Europe and the Americas to ensure your translations comply with local data protection laws.

SYSTRAN Translate Customer Support

SYSTRAN Translate offers several customer support options, as shown below.

You can reach them via phone, email, social media, or online chat. If you have an issue, you can also open a support ticket.

I was particularly impressed by how fast they responded via online chat. However, the support reps weren’t much help when I asked how to integrate SYSTRAN Translate with WordPress.

I asked thrice, each time talking to a different support rep. Unfortunately, nobody could tell me how to integrate SYSTRAN with WordPress.

All three reps kept referring the chat session to a “SYSTRAN expert,” who, sadly, never responded. As a last resort, the online chat rep said the person responsible would contact me via email within 24 hours. It’s been three days.

I searched everywhere, but apparently, they don’t have a WordPress plugin that would make integrating with your website effortless.

While the online chat was fast and responsive, it was frustrating to ask the same question several times in vain.

In addition, they kept coaxing me for my personal information while ignoring my questions. Also, they kept trying to upsell me their paid plans. Come on, it is a simple question, guys!

If you’d like to learn more about SYSTRAN Translate, they offer a blog, documentation, FAQ, knowledge base, and videos.

All in all, the support is above average, although you would expect support reps to have answers to simple questions at their fingertips.

SYSTRAN Translate Pricing Options

SYSTRAN Translate offers flexible pay-per-user pricing plans for individuals, developers, and enterprises.

Individual plans for freelancers come in three flavors, namely:

• Translate Pro Lite – Costs €4.99 per month/user when billed annually. The plan supports only one user and comes with 250,000 credits/user/month and ~150 pages of text/month/user;
• Translate Pro Plus – Starts at €13.99/user/month billed annually. The plan supports 20 users and comes with 1,000,000 credits/user/month, ~ 600 pages of text/month/user, and PDF translations;
• Translate Pro Premium – The plan will set you back €31.99/month/user with an annual commitment. You have 50 users, 3,000,000 credits/user/month, ~ 2,000 pages of text/month/user, SYSTRAN Model Studio, translation memories, and CAT tools/TMS connections.

For advanced users and developers, you have:

• Translate Pro API – A trial plan that lets you test the SYSTRAN Translate PRO API free for 14 days. You get 500k translation credits;
• Translate Pro API – Costs €8.99 per month for 1,000,000 characters and access to the API key;
• Translate Pro Infinite – €64.99 per month billed annually. You get Translate Pro Premium, API key, ~4,500 pages of text/user/month, and 7,000,000 characters. Well, and everything else SYSTRAN Translate Pro offers.

For large corporate clients with heavy translation needs and the highest security standards, contact SYSTRAN for a custom quote.

Individual and developer plans come with a 14-day no-credit-card-required trial to test the waters. As usual, always go for a plan that suits your business.

SYSTRAN Translate Pros and Cons

SYSTRAN Translate is a formidable translation engine, without a doubt. It has brilliant features, solid security, and high-quality translations, all at affordable prices. But is it right for you?

Pros

• Easy-to-use interface;
• Browser extensions;
• Multiple integrations;
• High-quality translations thanks to SYSTRAN’s Pure Neural Manual Translation (PNMT) technology;
• Wide language support;
• Customizable machine translations thanks to post-editing, translation models, and memories;
• Free trial.

Cons

• No free plan;
• Support could use some work;
• Difficult to integrate with MS Office (good thing you have Microsoft Translator);
• No desktop apps;
• No mobile apps;
• Messy document layouts after translation (especially images);
• While easy to use, there is a slight learning curve;
• It could support more languages.

How SYSTRAN Translate Stands Out in the Translation Industry

Like many other translation services, SYSTRAN Translate has its benefits and shortcomings. That said, how does it compare with popular services such as DeepL and Google Translate?

SYSTRAN Translate vs DeepL

DeepL is a relatively newer translation engine compared to SYSTRAN. Both feature intuitive web interfaces, meaning they are easy to use instantly.

SYSTRAN Translate supports more languages than DeepL. If you require many language pairs, DeepL has nothing on SYSTRAN.

On matters of accuracy, both services offer usable translations since they both use neural machine translation technology.

DeepL has a free tier that’s perfect for light use. You can translate your content for free, provided you don’t exhaust the limits. We cannot say the same of SYSTRAN Translate.

Remember that if you exhaust the limits of the DeepL free tier, it can get more expensive than SYSTRAN.

Unlike SYSTRAN Translate, DeepL comes with desktop and mobile apps for Android and iOS.

SYSTRAN Translate vs Google Translate

Google Translate is one of the most popular web translation services and the default choice for many businesses.

Unlike SYSTRAN Translate, Google Translate has a free version that lets you translate 500k characters/month.

You’d need a paid plan to translate more than 5k characters with SYSTRAN Translate.

Google Translate supports over 130 languages, blowing SYSTRAN Translate out of the water in this regard.

In comparison (and considering the generous free tier), Google Translate is cheaper than SYSTRAN Translate.

However, SYSTRAN Translate delivers better translations than Google Translate. In addition, Google Translate doesn’t support customizable and industry-specific translations.

Lastly, Google Translate offers apps for Android, iPhone and iPad.

A Case for TranslatePress

I must agree that SYSTRAN Translate is a formidable translation engine with lots of potential.

However, it has some shortcomings. For instance, you will have a hard time trying to integrate it with your WordPress website, especially if you don’t know how the REST API works.

Here’s where TranslatePress comes in.

If it’s your first time, TranslatePress is a powerful yet easy-to-use WordPress translation plugin that anyone (no matter the skill level) can use.

The plugin has a fully functional free version that helps you to translate your WordPress site on the front end using a visual translation editor.

It has full support for WooCommerce, visual page builders, complex themes, strings from plugins, SEO, multiple languages, URLs, and more.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

However, TranslatePress doesn’t support the SYSTRAN Translate engine as of yet. The plugin delivers automatic translations using DeepL and Google Translate. After that, you can edit your automatic translations manually to fine-tune everything.

Final Words

SYSTRAN Translate is a powerful translation engine with a lot to offer. You get a robust system backed by over five decades of industry experience.

It’s easy to use and offers adequate features to handle translation for freelancers, small businesses, and large corporations.

It’s an award-winning service with a proven track record of high-quality translations. Additionally, SYSTRAN is a cost-effective solution compared to some competitors.

However, it has some disadvantages. For instance, it doesn’t offer a free plan, and is relatively more challenging to connect with WordPress.

What are your thoughts? Please let us know in the comments. If you found this SYSTRAN review handy, please consider sharing.

The post SYSTRAN Translate Review: Is It the Best Translator for Your Business? appeared first on TranslatePress.

Firstly, the tons of WordPress chatbots on the web make it harder to choose the perfect solution for your particular needs. After all, they all promise heaven on a silver platter.

Secondly, many chatbot platforms bombard you with overwhelming features that don’t work. So you waste days learning the software only to drop it because it doesn’t meet your needs.

And thirdly, if feature bloat doesn’t put you off, the extortionist fees charged by some platforms sure will. While you have 100% free WordPress chatbot plugins, some solutions cost an arm and a leg.

But fret none, you came to the right place. You won’t have to waste time and money looking for the best WordPress chatbot plugin anymore.

Today, we cover the ten best WordPress chatbot plugins for 2024 and beyond. The article has free and paid chatbot plugins to cater to newbies and power users.

By the end, you should have all you need to add a chatbot to your WordPress site without stressing.

With that reassurance, I believe we are ready to rock and roll.

Related reading: ChatGPT for WordPress: How WordPress AI Can Help Your Site (+ the Best Plugins).

What is a WordPress Chatbot Plugin?

Chatbots are all the rave nowadays, but did you know the first chatbot (ELIZA) was created in 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum at MIT?

That’s roughly 18 years before Matt Mullenweg, founder of WordPress, was born. How time flies.

While ELIZA was a giant leap for chatbots, it was nothing like ChatGPT, Bard, or Bing. The modern chatbot is a powerful tool capable of doing many tasks ELIZA never could.

But what is a chatbot? As the word alludes, a chatbot is a chatting robot. In other words, it’s software designed to converse with users as if it were human.

Unlike good ol’ ELIZA, today’s chatbots do more than “chat.” They can book appointments, tell jokes, write songs, code, make things up, learn, and do much more – all thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI).

Here’s a quick ChatGPT example:

For a machine, you must agree the jokes are good. You’d think I’m chatting with a friend if you didn’t know better.

Who knew chatbots would be incredible, albeit ersatz companions?

Chatbots use two main approaches to generate human-like responses.

• Train the chatbot AI model – Here, you add canned responses that the chatbot uses to respond to various chatbot triggers, such as keywords, time, first website visits, abandoned carts, etc. That means you need to edit the chatbot responses manually or hire an NLP engineer;
• Machine learning – The chatbot analyzes current and historical data using AI to “decide” the correct responses to the user’s queries.

Today, you will find chatbots everywhere, including on WordPress websites. And how do these website owners add chatbots to their sites?

You guessed it. They use WordPress chatbot plugins.

So, class, what is a WordPress chatbot plugin? A WordPress chatbot plugin is a typical plugin that you use to either:

• Add and host a chatbot on your server or,
• Integrate with a third-party platform to add a chatbot widget to your WordPress site.

Plugins make it easy to add chatbot functionality to your website without coding. I mean. Why reinvent the wheel trying to code a chatbot from scratch?

Later, we will share the best chatbot WordPress plugins perfect for beginners and developers. But first, what are the benefits of adding a chatbot to your WordPress site?

7+ Benefits of WordPress Chatbots

Perhaps adding a chatbot sounds cool, but what is the importance of adding one to your website? You’ll be glad to learn you stand to enjoy several benefits, such as

#1 – Improved Customer Service

Chatbots can help you enhance your customer service instantly. Firstly, chatbots are available 24/7, unlike human support reps. This can improve the speed of customer support immensely.

Secondly, chatbots can answer about 87% of frequently asked questions. It’s primarily why over 69% of customers prefer chatbots to get instant responses.

Using a chatbot also frees your customer support team to focus on other vital tasks.

#2 – Generate More Leads & Sales

A chatbot can ask website visitors to provide a name and email before starting a chat. This is a golden opportunity to populate your email lists and CRM.

Besides, chatbots are adept at qualifying leads before sending them to your sales team. The bots can pose relevant questions to identify the visitor’s needs and where they are in the customer journey.

Generating quality leads and prompting users to complete purchases with well-timed nudges leads to more sales down the line.

#3 – Enhance Time Efficiency

Time is a precious resource we don’t seem to have enough of. As such, businesses try all avenues to maximize time efficiency while delivering on their promise.

You can use live chat to offer timely customer support. The only limitation? Human reps must man live chats.

For a small business, this might not be an issue. However, it is a big problem when your live chat requests increase with the growth of your business.

This is where chatbots come in.

Chatbots work tirelessly and can take on multiple chat sessions simultaneously, which reduces the need to wait for human response.

#4 – Cost Savings

Offering effective customer service is an expensive affair for businesses. A study by HubSpot pegs the average figure at $200 per lead.

A WordPress chatbot can cut your lead generation expenses significantly. To begin with, you can use a chatbot to automate daily tasks such as responding to commonly asked questions, booking appointments, and product research.

Secondly, installing a WordPress chatbot is cheaper than hiring staff for each task or building a platform to handle repetitive tasks.

#5 – Improve User Engagement

Keeping users engaging with your website is one of the biggest goals for any website owner. The longer they stay on your site, the higher your chances of converting.

Chatbots are a splendid way to keep users engaged with your brand. You can use a chatbot to offer faster support, announce sales, entertain users (e.g., Rythm by Discord), and personalize offers to keep visitors engaged.

Further, you can personalize the interaction for every user based on their data. For instance, you can program your chatbot to translate chats into multiple languages, which helps you boost user engagement and reach a wider audience.

#6 – Automated Data & Feedback Collection

The more you learn about your users, the better. With augmented data, you can offer better support and the products your customers need.

However, it is usually confusing to collect data and feedback, especially for beginners. What to do?

Chatbots can help you collect data about user behaviors and preferences. This can help you to refine your marketing strategy. On top of that, the data is crucial for retargeting campaigns.

In addition, you can use chatbots to run surveys, which helps you to improve your product and services.

#7 – Offer Omnichannel Support

Like 74% of online consumers, you’ve probably contacted a brand on multiple channels before purchasing.

That said, you need to be where customers need you. Implement your WordPress chatbot on as many messaging apps as possible.

Many customers prefer to contact customer service on messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and social media. It’s convenient and faster than email.

Ensure users can access your chatbot on multiple messaging platforms. The good thing is most WordPress chatbot plugins integrate with messaging apps seamlessly.

#Bonus: These are a few benefits of chatbots. There are many other benefits, including:

• Providing conversational marketing – Chatbots can recommend products, offer discounts, take orders, and take leads through the sales funnel thanks to conversational AI.
• Decreasing bounce rate – The bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave your site without interacting with your content. You can use chatbots to show messages or offers when the user is about to leave. Lower bounce rates lead to longer dwell times and better SEO.
• Proactive customer service – Many brands use passive customer service. They only respond after the customer has reached out. Instead of responding to users, you can initiate the conversation using chatbots. And it works. 68% of consumers love brands that offer proactive customer service.

Let us move on and look at the WordPress plugins you need to add chatbots to your website.

10 Best WordPress Chatbot Plugins for Your Website

In the following section, we will highlight several chatbot plugins for WordPress.

We will cover free and paid chatbot solutions in no particular order since all the plugins offer the features most businesses need.

At the same time, play around with a few plugins to pick the best option for your particular needs.

#1 – Tidio – Live Chat & AI Chatbots

First on our list is the Tidio Live Chat & AI Chatbots WordPress plugin.

Tidio, in itself, is not a chatbot plugin. Instead, it’s an all-in-one customer experience platform that helps you turn passive users into active buyers.

One of their formidable features is their AI-powered plug-and-play chatbot. Tidio chatbot offers you the features to automate sales and customer service without trying hard.

The Tidio WordPress chatbot plugin has 35+ workflows to reduce abandoned carts, offer discounts, recommend products, generate leads, and make shopping fun.

You can start with chatbot templates or use the drag-and-drop visual editor to create custom conversations. On top of that, you have an intuitive dashboard that makes managing your messages easy.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop visual chatbot builder;
• Clean dashboard;
• Multiple chatbot triggers;
• Easy to install and use;
• Android and iOS apps;
• Personalization;
• 20+ integrations with MailChimp, Klaviyo, Mailerlite, and more;
• Etc.

The free plan supports two operators and 100 monthly outreaches. For more features, go for premium plans that start at $29/mo. They offer a 7-day free trial.

#2 – HubSpot WordPress Chatbots

HubSpot is one of the most popular CRM platforms on the web. It offers robust marketing, sales, and customer service features.

The HubSpot WordPress chatbot is one such feature. Their easy-to-use visual builder lets you create chatbots to answer common questions, qualify leads, and schedule meetings, among other things.

Use pre-built templates or create responses to match your brand and goals. All messages are saved in your HubSpot CRM.

If need be, HubSpot chatbots can redirect conversations to the most relevant member of your support team.

Key Features

• Lead qualification;
• Appointment scheduling;
• 1,000+ integrations, including Facebook and WooCommerce;
• Clean analytics dashboard;
• Mobile access;
• Etc.

HubSpot offers a free-forever plan for basic chatbots. Paid plans start at $20/month with a 14-day free trial.

#3 – AI Engine WordPress Chatbot Plugin

AI Engine by Jordy Meow is a free WordPress plugin to add several AI features to your website, including chatbots.

The AI Engine chatbot uses ChatGPT, DaVinci, and Babbage models, making it one of the most versatile WordPress chatbot plugins.

Even with many features and parameters, the AI Engine chatbot is incredibly easy to set up and use.

The chatbot is fully customizable. You can change aspects such as chatbot icons, user avatars, welcome messages, placeholders, positioning, and styling.

Key Features

• Easy to use;
• Internal API;
• Create custom templates;
• Multi-lingual support;
• Fully customizable;
• And more.

You can start with the free version or spring for the pro version at $49 per year.

#4 – AI Power WordPress Chatbot Plugin

AI Power is a full AI pack for WordPress powered by ChatGPT, DaVinci, and more models.

It offers many nifty AI features, including a content writer, image generator, AI assistant, WooCommerce product writer, SEO optimizer, form builder, chatbot, and more.

The plugin is easy to set up. Enter your OpenAI API key in the plugin settings, and you’re ready to use all the features.

AI Power features a clean user interface that allows you to access all the options you need without being overwhelmed by clutter.

Key Features

• Easy to use;
• 40+ languages supported;
• Seamless integration with your favorite tools;
• Text-to-Speech converter;
• Fully customizable,
• AI training;
• And more.

I was pleasantly surprised by the many features in the free version. Choose the premium version for more features, such as chatbot moderation, integration with Google Sheets, and priority support. Prices start at $9.99/month or $95.88/year.

#5 – WPBot AI Chatbot

WPBot is a superb native WordPress chatbot plugin that’s packed with features. It helps you to create and manage chatbots inside the WordPress dashboard.

You don’t need any technical knowledge to use WPBot. Install the plugin, and it will start chatting with visitors using DialogFlow or OpenAI.

The chatbot allows you to display responses and FAQs or let users email you for more support.

Of all the WordPress chatbot plugins on this list, WPBot is the most feature-rich. It’s a brilliant solution to increase dwell time, boost page views, and lower bounce rates.

Key Features

• Countless interactions;
• Onsite retargeting and remarketing;
• Multiple chatbot triggers;
• Works with any language;
• Seamless integration with Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Telegram;
• Tons of integrations;
• Six design templates;
• Fully customizable;
• Et cetera.

The free lite version is perfect for beginners. It will give you a good general idea of how the plugin works. For more features, spring for the pro version, starting at $49 per year.

#6 – Zendesk Answer Bot

Like HubSpot, Zendesk is an all-in-one customer service platform that lets you collect and make sense of customer data.

Zendesk Answer Bot is one of their flagship products. They claim their AI is built on billions of real-world customer service interactions, and we can’t agree more.

We can expect nothing short of stellar solutions from a company that’s made huge strides in the industry since 2007.

Zendesk chatbot uses deep learning to gather the content and context needed to solve issues and route requests to relevant support reps.

Answer Bot is scalable and multi-lingual, making it perfect for businesses of all sizes. Once implemented, the chatbot continues learning independently to deliver better interactions in the future.

The chatbot also integrates with Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.

Key Features

• Android and iOS mobile apps;
• Multiple integrations;
• Customizations;
• Unlimited chats;
• Templates;
• Automatic translations;
• And much more.

Answer Bot is part of the Zendesk premium suite of features. Prices range from $55/agent/month to $169/agent/month with a 14-day free trial.

#7 – Smartsupp WordPress Chatbot Plugin

Trusted by more than 100,000 customers worldwide, Smartsupp is a reliable WordPress chatbot plugin to grow your sales.

It’s the only chatbot plugin for WordPress that combines bots, live chat, and video recordings to offer personalized interactions when relevant.

Chatbots let you automate repetitive tasks, live chats allow you to add a personal touch, and video recordings help you see where users get lost in your online store.

Think of it as having a shopping assistant that works around the clock.

Key Features

• GDPR compliant;
• Support for seven languages;
• Promote and upsell products via chatbot;
• Welcome messages;
• Lead generation and qualification via chatbot;
• Android and iOS mobile apps;
• Access real-time visitor list enriched with eCommerce data (know who’s buying and the products they need);
• And more.

After creating a free account, you can use the lite version of Smartsupp with limited functionality. Upgrade to a paid package to enjoy advanced features such as statistics, team shortcuts, and video recordings. Prices start at $19.5/month with a 14-day free trial.

#8 – Collect Chat

Collect Chat WordPress plugin is a refreshing addition to this list. It’s a lightweight chatbot plugin perfect for lead generation, appointment bookings, feedback collection, and more.

Thanks to 54 pre-built templates, you can create a chatbot in minutes without coding knowledge. You can customize the templates till you drop or create a chatbot from scratch with the drag-and-drop visual editor.

The Collect Chat WordPress plugin lets you generate and qualify leads, engage visitors, collect vital data, and notify the sales team about hot prospects.

Key Features

• 50+ chatbot templates;
• Drag-and-drop visual builder;
• Unlimited bots;
• Insights;
• Native 3d-party integrations;
• And more.

The plugin offers a free-forever plan with unlimited bots and 50 monthly responses. If you need more features, consider the paid version, with prices starting at $18/month when billed yearly.

#9 – BotPenguin WordPress Chatbot Plugin

If you want to generate more leads, boost engagement, and offer better customer service, you’ll want to try the BotPengiun WordPress chatbot plugin. After all, they have a free-forever plan, so there’s nothing to lose.

BotPengiun takes chatbot automation to the next level but keeps things simple so anybody can implement chatbots with a snap. It doesn’t matter your skill level.

With marketing, Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp automation, you can better engage with your customers on autopilot.

With visitor details and analytics, you can quickly tell how customers interact with your chatbots and website.

Key Features

• Marketing, FB, WhatsApp and Telegram chatbots;
• Analytics;
• Multiple ready-to-use templates;
• Rich media options;
• Intuitive dashboard;
• Unified chat inbox;
• Chat routing;
• Intelligent filters;
• Et cetera.

The free plan offers one bot and 2,000 messages/month. Premium plans start at $50/year or $5/month.

#10 – WP Live Chat

WP Live Chat by Chaport is a powerful chatbot plugin that lets you generate more leads, reduce operator workload, and offer instant help 24/7.

The plugin ships with a user-friendly editor to build chatbots in minutes, even without programming skills.

Additionally, WP Live Chat lets you proactively reach out to visitors before they ask a question. This helps you to generate, qualify, and convert leads automatically.

Instead of forcing users to fill out forms, you can collect names, emails, and other information in every chatbot conversation.

Key Features

• Simple chatbot builder;
• Multi-channel support to reach customers on Facebook, Telegram, and Viber;
• FAQs and knowledge base;
• Lead generation and qualification;
• Workflow automation;
• Fully customizable;
• Insights;
• Unlimited chats;
• Unlimited websites;
• Mobile apps;
• Multi-lingual support;
• And much more!

WP Live Chat has a formidable free plan perfect for many use cases. Choose a premium plan to increase operator efficiency, get more control, and make even more sales. Prices start at $19/mo.

WordPress Chatbot Plugins: Honorable Mentions

There are many WordPress chatbot plugins on the web to cover in a single post. Here are some bonus plugins to add to our list.

• HelpCrunch – A full-house solution to catch valuable leads and deliver second-to-none customer service;
• Chatbot with IBM Watson – Add this plugin and train IBM Watson to answer FAQs and help users navigate your website;
• JoinChat – With 600,000 users, this plugin allows you to chat with your users on their favorite channels, such as WhatsApp, Skype, etc;
• Landbot – Grow your revenue, cut operational costs, and delight your customers;
• Zobot – An advanced AI chatbot builder from Zoho SalesIQ to create conversational AI chatbots that boost user engagement;
• WP-Chatbot – WordPress chatbot plugin for Facebook Messenger;
• Crisp – A free and beautiful chatbot for WordPress;
• Live Chat by Formilla – Create custom chatbots to boost sales, increase engagement, and improve support;
• Cliengo – Reach better sales opportunities and offer visitors a great user experience on first contact.
• WoowBot – Chatbot plugin for WooCommerce.

Using plugins is the easiest way to add a chatbot to your site. Most chatbot WordPress plugins are easy to install and use. Many come with visual editors and intuitive dashboards that make creating and managing chatbots a breeze.

Chatbots help you to increase user engagement and increase leads right off the bat. To provide a more personalized experience and boost engagement further, consider using TranslatePress to offer support in multiple languages.

You have nothing to lose. The lite version of TranslatePress is 100% free and supports automatic translations.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Conclusion

Choosing a WordPress chatbot plugin needn’t be challenging. To pick the perfect solution for your website, ensure the plugin is affordable, easy to use, and offers the features you need.

Also, ensure you read the documentation to implement your chatbot effectively. I say this because nothing pushes visitors away faster than a poorly implemented chatbot.

Which is your favorite WordPress chatbot plugin? Did you find the post handy? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The post 10 Best WordPress Chatbot Plugins for Your Website in 2024 (Free & Paid) appeared first on TranslatePress.

I agree translating a WordPress website is often confusing. And if you don’t do it right, you might do more harm than good.

How?

Think of literal translations that don’t make sense to your target audience—or having to fight complex translation tools that make you want to pull your hair out.

Also, you might do your best tinkering with lots of tools only to end up with a website with half-done translations.

I mean. Unlike simple static websites, a WordPress website has so many moving parts.

For instance, how do you translate dynamic content that your theme or plugins generate on the fly?

How do you rephrase WooCommerce products and emails, for example? How about translating URLs or SEO elements added by an SEO plugin?

Translating a WordPress website can drive anyone crazy, even experienced developers.

Still, you want to translate your French website to English because it’s crucial to the success of your business.

But how do you do it properly with so many moving parts?

Ladies and gents, I would love to call your attention to a remarkable translation tool that will rock your world.

Taking center stage is TranslatePress, the subject of today’s review.

In the upcoming sections, I will show you exactly how to translate your French website into English. We will translate text, images, plugins, themes, and everything else.

By the end, you should handle French website translation like a boss.

Deal? Good.

Let’s get down to business.

Benefits of Translating a French Website to English

You’re ready to translate your website from French to English, but did you know you stand to enjoy some sweet benefits? I bet you didn’t, so here we go.

It’s a Numbers Game

Humor me this. Which is the most spoken language in the world? Perhaps that’s too easy. Here’s another one. Which is the most studied foreign language in the world?

Yep, it’s English, with more than 1.4 billion speakers.

French? Well, not so much, with about 310 million speakers globally.

Do you know what that means?

It means there is a good chance there are plenty of English speakers in your target audience. It’s a no-brainer, no matter how you look at it.

And do you know what else? A survey of 8,709 consumers in 29 countries by CSA Research found that 65% of online shoppers prefer content in their language, even if it’s poor quality 😲

On top of that, 76% prefer to buy products with information in their native language. Wait, it gets better. From the same report, 40% of the respondents said they would never buy from websites in other languages.

You very well know what this means as a marketer or website owner. If your analytics reports show you’re receiving many hits from English-speaking locales, the time is ripe to translate your French website.

With over 1.4 billion speakers, you can see how you risk missing out on many golden opportunities if you don’t offer an English version of your site.

In other words, you’re leaving a lot of revenue on the table.

You’re here because you’re looking to enter English-speaking markets. Right? Translating your French website to English gives you an advantage over your rivals.

If it’s an entirely new market, you have the head start to set the quality and standards your competition must beat to outshine your brand.

SEO Advantages

You may rank high on Google for French keywords, and that’s good. But how are you fairing when it comes to English keywords?

Yeah, that’s right – you won’t rank for English keywords for the most obvious reason; you don’t have English content.

Another thing, some French keywords might have a high keyword difficulty (KD) compared to their English counterparts.

Look, you already have French content down pat. Translating the same content to English helps Google rank your website for English keywords – all without creating fresh content.

In other words, Google ranks both versions of your website, which – as you’d expect – gives your SEO rankings a much-needed boost. As a result, you receive more traffic to your website.

Seeing is believing, right?

Kinsta noticed an 18% increase in organic traffic when they translated their website to 10 languages. Neil Patel boosted search traffic by 47% by translating his content into 82 languages. That guy is something else 🙂

People tend to search Google in their native languages. English-speaking searchers will hardly find your French content, even if they are looking for the products or services you sell.

Does that make sense?

And if English-speaking searchers find your website by chance, they will bounce immediately because they can’t understand your French content, which leads to high exit rates and lower SEO rankings.

A poor experience doesn’t reflect well on your brand image, which leads to our next point.

Brand Visibility

Think of global companies such as Apple or Samsung. How would such companies reach a global audience if they offered websites in one language?

And how would you perceive either if their websites were in one language only? It wouldn’t reflect well on their brand images, now would it?

An English version of your French website allows you to reach more people, which translates to more brand visibility.

Since English visitors can understand your now-translated content, it reflects well on your brand image. In other words, it shows you care about your customers.

The translated content is also easy to share on social media, boosting brand awareness. It is a chance to earn brand mentions and social signals, which tells Google you’re the real deal.

Trust and Credibility

Remember the stats we dropped earlier? About the 40% of online shoppers who would never buy from a website that wasn’t in their native language? I bet you do.

Now, if an English-speaking person lands on your French website, they are most likely to turn and run. Why? They wouldn’t enjoy the user experience.

And we all know a poor user experience doesn’t instill a feeling of trust. As a result, you lose credibility points left, right, and center.

As I have said, offering your English-speaking visitors a version of your site in their language shows you care about their needs.

What better way is there to boost your credibility as a reputable brand? I can’t think of anything. You? Would you trust a website you don’t understand? Would you even hang around long enough to buy anything?

Do you want to boost trust and credibility among your non-French-speaking visitors? Give them what they want – a website they can understand without opening Google Translate.

We live in a global multilingual world, so assuming your audience consists of only French speakers (yes, even if you’re in France) is akin to shooting yourself in the foot.

Now that you can tell translating your site from French to English has some lovely benefits (this is just the icing on the cake), let us see how TranslatePress helps.

How to Translate a French Website to English with TranslatePress

In the following section, you will join me in installing and configuring TranslatePress to translate your site from French to English.

I promise it’s as easy as pie anybody can do it. You don’t need special coding skills or tech superpowers since TranslatePress lets you translate your website visually. Also, I won’t skip a step and will be with you all the way 🙂

Ready for the fun part? Great, let’s get to it already.

How to Install TranslatePress

The main TranslatePress plugin is 100% free, meaning you can install it inside your WordPress admin dashboard.

Navigate to Plugins → Add New.

Next, enter “TranslatePress” in the keyword search box and click the Install Now button.

After that, Activate the plugin.

Next, click Allow & Continue because you rock.

You’re doing just fine.

After that, let us set up the default site language, i.e., French, and the translation languages, i.e., English. Go ahead and choose French under the Default Language drop-down. Then add English under the All Languages section, as shown below.

Always remember to save your changes. 👍

Pro Tip: TranslatePress Business lets you add multiple translation languages, e.g., English UK, English South Africa, English Australia, et cetera. You also have many more features, as you will learn later.

⛔ Stop: Don’t rush to check your website yet. At this point, we have just installed TranslatePress and added our preferred languages. Now you are ready to translate your website automatically or manually.

In the following section, I will show you how to translate your website automatically using Google Translate. Later, we will do it manually.

How to Translate French Website to English Automatically

Are you having fun yet? No? Okay, this next section should get you going. TranslatePress supports automatic translations via Google Translate and DeepL.

The free version of TranslatePress offers Google Translate, but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version to use DeepL.

Automatic translation helps you to save time and cut costs. It’s faster and cheaper than hiring professional translation services.

Tip: You can translate your French site for free if you don’t exhaust the limits of Google Translate’s free tier.

The free tier lets you translate 500,000 characters per month. That’s about 100,000 words per month. If you exhaust the limits of the free plan, you’ll pay $20 per 1,000,000 characters ( ~ 200,000 words).

Since we’re working with the base version of TranslatePress for this section, we will use Google Translate for our automatic translations.

First, we need to generate a Google Translate API key.

Follow the guide linked above or watch the video below.

Note: If it’s your first time, Google will hook you up with $300 worth of credits. Also, you won’t be charged if you run out of credits. You are only charged if you upgrade to a paid plan.

Oh, by the way, here’s a screengrab of the test site I’m working with.

After generating your Google Translate API key, head to your TranslatePress settings page and click Automatic Translation, as shown below.

After that, enable automatic translation, enter your Google Translate API key, and save your changes.

And that’s it. TranslatePress will take over from there, translating your website automatically in the background. All of your pages will be translated upon the first visit in the English language and all the translations will be stored in your own database.

Now, if we check our test site, we see the English version.

That wasn’t so hard, now was it?

Note: I had already translated the image on my test website using TranslatePress (more about this in a minute).

At this point, you have an English version of your French website.

The TranslatePress plugin uses Google Translate AI to power automatic translations. As you’d expect, a machine can easily miss the nuances of human language.

For example, Google Translate might miss street lingo and other phrases common in French but lack equivalent counterparts in English.

Also, you might not like how Google translates some words.

What to do?

Enter manual translation, and you save the day.

How to Translate French Website to English Manually

This is where TranslatePress truly shines. After enabling automatic translations, you can fine-tune translations manually to edit/remove anything that doesn’t sit well with you. All in all, you end up with polished translations.

TranslatePress lets you translate your website in a visual editor on the front end. That way, you can see the translations in real-time like your readers would.

How?

Open the page you’d like to Translate and click Translate Site on the WordPress admin bar, as shown below.

After that, set the language to English so you can see the translation changes directly on the page.

Next, choose the text you wish to translate by clicking the pencil icon. After that, add your English translation, and click the Save button, as illustrated in the GIF below.

See? I told you it was easy. You can translate all content on your website similarly. That includes menu items.

But that’s just text. How do you translate images?

How to Translate Images From French to English

Often, you need to change images when you switch from French to English. This is especially true if the image contains text that needs to change when the page changes.

We have a helpful guide on translating images in WordPress, so I will keep this part short. Still, here are some use cases where image translation comes in handy:

• Adding an image or logo with text that needs to change when you switch the language;
• An ebook cover that needs to change the title from French to English and vice-versa;
• Multilingual sliders that contain several images with text that needs to change when you switch from French to English;
• Translating WooCommerce product images.

TranslatePress makes translating images extremely easy. You can even translate the title and alt text. Here’s how to do it.

First, you need two images; one with French text and one with English text. Use the same image with similar dimensions, but you can be creative. Upload the pictures to your WordPress media library.

Inside the TranslatePress visual editor, click the image you wish to translate and replace it, as highlighted below.

As a result, the image will change whenever you switch from French to English. You can replace all media types similarly.

So far, so good. I hope you’re learning something today. And to think that all these features are available in the gratis version of TranslatePress.

But what if you need more? What if you need to translate dynamic content, e.g., strings added by your theme, plugins, and menus? What about WooCommerce emails?

If that’s the case, the upcoming sections will be helpful.

Let’s move on and learn how to translate strings from plugins.

How to Translate Dynamic Strings from Plugins & Themes

Plugins are an integral part of any WordPress website. Without plugins, website owners would have to hard-code every feature they need into the website. As you’d imagine, this is not feasible.

As much as plugins are helpful, they present a unique challenge when translating a website from French to English. This is especially true if you’re dealing with plugins that aren’t translation ready.

Plugins usually generate what is commonly known as dynamic strings. This type of content is not set in stone. It’s not like the static text content in your article.

Dynamic strings (or gettext strings) change depending on multiple factors, including user input and other variables.

For example, the popular e-commerce plugin WooCommerce does a lot of heavy lifting in the background to create the online store you see on your WordPress site.

In the process, it generates dynamic strings–or pieces of content that are impossible to type manually. They are generated on the fly. Thank God plugins such as WooCommece are translation-ready.

These dynamically generated elements can get in the way of things when it comes to translating your website.

Examples of dynamic content include:

• 404 page content;
• Next page;
• Previous page;
• Rated %s out of 5;
• Published by %s;
• Proudly powered by %s;
• No products in the cart;
• Continue shopping;
• Etc.

Phew – I tried to make that as beginner-friendly as possible. I hope it makes sense 🙂 To learn more, please check out translating dynamic strings in WordPress.

Not to worry. You can use TranslatePress to translate dynamic strings in any plugin or theme. This lets you offer an augmented multilingual experience on your site.

In the TranslatePress visual editor, you can view gettext strings active on any page, as shown below.

Click on any gettext string to provide a translation and save your changes.

If this is confusing, please check out the following guides.

• How to Translate WordPress Plugin in Any Language;
• How to Translate WordPress Theme – Full Theme Translation Guide.

With that done, let us mention a thing or two about translating WooCommerce emails.

How to Translate WooCommerce Emails

We can agree that the emails WooCommece sends you and your customers are super important. The emails let you stay on top of things and keep the customers in the loop.

WooCommerce emails for multilingual sites can get tricky since you must consider each user’s preferred language.

So, how does TranslatePress translate WooCommerce emails?

For emails that WooCommerce sends your customers, TranslatePress uses the language in which the user last visited your site.

If the website doesn’t require login before purchase, the plugin uses the language selected during checkout.

For emails that WooCommerce sends to the admin or shop manager, TranslatePress uses the language the user has set in their profile.

Check out how to translate WooCommerce emails manually to learn more.

How to Translate SEO Elements & URLs

SEO is a crucial part of any multilingual website. When done right, SEO can help you rank higher in SERPs and drive more traffic from the same content in different languages.

The same goes for your French-to-English translations. You can rank for French and English keywords. But how do you ensure you have the appropriate SEO elements for each language?

That’s simple. You use a plugin such as TranslatePress, which makes translating SEO titles, meta descriptions, and URLs super-duper easy.

Note, however, that translating SEO elements and URLs requires the pro version of TranslatePress.

Once you activate the paid version, click Addons and activate the SEO Pack addon.

After that, open the post/page you’d like to translate in the TranslatePress visual editor. Next, click the drop-down menu to view and translate your meta information, as shown below.

Click to translate the meta description you want and save the changes.

To translate URLs, select the slug you’d like to translate from the same drop-down menu.

Edit the slug and save changes.

As can be seen, TranslatePress allows you to translate all content on your website visually without breaking a sweat.

Other TranslatePress Pro Features include:

• Full Yoast SEO support;
• Support for 221 extra languages;
• Translate SEO title, descriptions, and slug;
• Publish only when translation is complete;
• Translate by Browsing as User Role;
• Different Menu Items for each Language;
• Automatic User Language Detection;
• And more.

Finally, you can use the same process to translate your website from English to French.

TranslatePress Multilingual

TranslatePress is the easiest way to translate your WordPress site. It's fast, won't slow down your website, works with ANY theme or plugin and it's SEO friendly.

Get the plugin

Or download FREE version

Translating your website from French to English needn’t be challenging, especially with an easy tool such as TranslatePress in your toolbox.

What are your views? Let us know in the comments!

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The post French Website Translation Tool: How to Translate a French Website to English and Vice-Versa appeared first on TranslatePress.