How much does it actually cost to translate a website?
Well, before I can answer that question I need a little more information. How much text is there? How big is the website? How many languages will it be translated into? What web publication system does the site use? As a customer, when deciding to translate a website it’s also important to think about your own time involved in the process. If you’re well prepared you can save a lot of money, especially if we can work in a way that means you can avoid copying and pasting to get the translated text back onto your website.
What questions do you normally ask the customer?
I normally start by asking what web publication tool the company uses. We have solutions that make it easy to import and export text for translation for many of the main tools, such as WordPress or Episerver. But whichever system the customer uses, we always try to find the most time-efficient and cost-effective solution for the company in question.
Can you export the text from the website?
Yes, there’s often a convenient solution that allows the customer to export the text for translation and then re-import the completed translation just as easily. This is particularly useful for large websites or if you want to translate a site into multiple languages. Otherwise, you would have to spend a lot of time dealing with the texts.
As I mentioned, we already have ready-made solutions for many of the bigger web publication tools. For other systems, our technology department can help to find the most suitable solution.
How do you produce a quotation for translating a website?
We do this based on the cost per language. We analyse the files to see if there’s any text that crops up more than once. We call this ‘repetition’. If we find repetitions the customer gets a discount, as the text in question only needs to be translated once and can then be re-used using our translation tools. If it’s a large website and the customer doesn’t know how to extract and import the text without having to spend weeks doing so, our technology department can help. Get in touch, and we’ll speak with your company’s IT team or web service provider about how we can tackle the job.
Do you want to know which search terms the company uses?
Yes, I always ask which search terms the customer uses for search engine optimisation (SEO). If the company has an SEO manager, they can send the SEO-validated list of search terms to us for translation. Once the list has been translated, the company’s SEO contact validates the translated text so that the company’s target group visitors in other countries can find the company when Googling.
How do you complete the project once the actual translation work is complete?
Once we have delivered the text to the customer, we ask them to review the translation and give us any feedback on style, tone and terminology. We want to have close dialogue with our customers, and our price always includes updating the translation and redelivering after we have received feedback. We save all the information we receive for use in future projects.
