When marketing to an international audience online translation widgets come in handy. On my personal blog I chose a WordPress template with the translation widgets integrated. But it is not really ideal. This widget does translate from English to 4 languages, and since I write primarily in English it does 85% of what I want.
On weekends I write in French. The translation tool does nothing for that, my English readers could not read the French posts unless they are among the lucky bilingual few.
First, I have a few comments on what the big guys are doing towards website globalization
My newsletter has been published weekly now for three months.
One of my weekly sections is to have a look at a website that has been voted as one of the top 20 best Global Websites by John Yunker. I only do a brief review and look at 3 different points:
* My general first impressions
* The choice in language and country navigation tools
* The use of templates
There are often some interesting things to note just by looking at these three points. With regards to the choice in language and country navigation tools it is obvious there are a few different solutions available for global companies.
All of the big companies have fully localized and translated websites in a large number of locations.
But not all of their localized websites are translated.
Most of the top 20 Global Websites use some sort of world map in the navigation from one country to the next, and one language to the next.
The important thing is to write the language in the foreign language. This does give the website a better global flavor.
Get International Clients - Translation Widget
And now let's look at companies at the other end of the scale.
What are the choices for small companies, with one website targeting the world?
On my other blog at Get International Clients I am using another option. I have installed a nearly instantaneous translation widget that translates from any of 24 languages into any of the same 24 languages. The widget appears twice on my site, on the sidebar and on individual posts, so a reader can to choose from any of my pages and articles.
This widget can be installed on sites that use Arabic, Bulgarian, Simplified or Traditional Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
From a site in any of those languages, by clicking on an image, the content is translated into any of the other languages on the list. Simply amazing.
My articles on Get International Clients are longer and more detailed. They are customized to provide real tips and how to instructions for small businesses who want to do something now to get more international clients.
So the articles are more detailed. And they are read all over the world.
I wanted to try an easy translation tool, strategically placed on all of the articles, covering as many languages as possible. And the whole idea behind the Get International Clients website is to provide useful tips and how-tos.
So this downloadable widget helps my readers by giving them a translation service and also provides them extra value.
The widget was made for my readers in China, and in any of the countries where Google Translate supports the language. They can download the GIC Translation Widget, for free, and put it up on their website.... it would be a useful service for my readers to offer all of their readers too.
You can read more about the Translation Widget on my site in the Resource Guide
Small Step Towards Globalization
Translation widgets come in a variety of different formats. Businesses just starting to expand internationally might consider putting up one of these free translation widgets.
They are not ideal tools for any marketing or sales materials. Only human translations can bring you sales results.
But they can be better than nothing in certain circumstances. International thought leadership does not always need 100% accurate translations online. In any event international thought leadership is subject to the many pitfalls in cross cultural communication, with or without translation.
Free translation widgets have one distinct advantage, they clearly identify your openness to the world.
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