Is your website bilingual?

MaV

Because I need to stop coming up with excuses to procrastinate, I was reading @Dmitry 's articles on how to build a website (very helpful, by the way! Thanks!). And then I found myself wondering whether I should build one in English or in Portuguese. I work for clients that speak no Portuguese at all, and for clients who speak only Portuguese. Yet, most websites I come across, regardless of language combinations, seem to be in English. I guess that, for translation agencies, it is important that the most "universal" language is used, but that is not necessarily the case for private clients.

There. I got another excuse to keep putting it off.

What was your option?

Fuschia

Hi MaV,

I thought I'd reply because I've been thinking about this a lot and have reached my own conclusion.

I think that the key consideration is who your website is aimed at and what languages they speak. If you work only with English speakers and have no desire to work for direct clients then it probably isn't worth having a multi-language website.

I also translate into English (from Italian), and I am a copywriter. I currently work with Italian clients but they are based in the UK and we tend to communicate in English, however I do plan to target Italian clients. I think that before I do that, it will be important to create an Italian version of my website. It will look more professional, and also show the clients that I care about them if I communicate with them in their native language. Also making sure it is SEO optimised might make it easier for clients to find me through Google search.

However, I am going to concentrate on getting my English website up and running first, and then add the Italian one in further down the line. The reason is that I am going to get an Italian copywriter to write the Italian version, so that I can ensure it has the right 'punch' in Italian as it does in English, to give Italian clients a taste of what my writing is like, but in English. So that will take time as I will have to pay for it.

Of course that may seem a bit extreme, and is mostly because I am working in the marketing/ copy sectors. If I worked in a more technical field, or e.g. legal, then I'd probably write it myself and get a native to review it, or get a native Italian translator to translate it.

One thing that I sometimes see is websites of X language to English translators that have obviously not been proofread by a native English speaker, and I think it really undermines their credibility.

Hope my two cents help!
Fuschia

eleonorang

Hey @MaV, I totally agree with what Fuschia said ? Your key goal should be to target your potential clients, so try and work out where your actual and potential clients live and which languages they speak, and go for those! To have a website in your native language in addition to English could be a good chance to show potential clients your writing skills if you work on non-technical translations.

Fuschia

Interestingly Gwynedd Jones of the Translator's Studio published an article today about publishing your website in multiple languages and things to be aware of. It touches on something that I wasn't really aware of before.

https://translatorstudio.co.uk/multilingual-websites-single-multiple-domains/

coveredweb

I think you can build a website both in Portuguese and English. You can get a code that detects from where the user is, if it's from Portugal the page will open in Portuguese (with a link to the English version), if it's from somewhere else it'll open in English (with a link to the page in Portuguese).

MaV

I guess I'll end up by having it in both languages, yes, and asking a native speaker to help with the EN version. One day, I'll learn enough about coding to find out those bits of code that detect the users' location. Thanks for the tips and links. ?

annagiuliam

MaV

MaV asking a native speaker to help with the EN version

That's absolutely necessary, better no site at all than a website in poor English (with this I don't mean that your English is poor, but the revision of a mother tongue speaker is really needed).

MaV I'll learn enough about coding to find out those bits of code that detect the users' location

My website is in WordPress and I have a plugin that analyzes traffic location.
In addition, my hosting provider also provides traffic analysis, so you don't need to learn coding!

As a professional procrastinator with years of experience ( ? ), I advise you to maybe start planning half an hour a day to investigate the various possibilities to set up your website.
In the end it's gonna be fun!

LorenaGrancelli

Hi!
I also believe it depends on who your website is aimed at. For instance, I translate from Spanish into English and my website is only in English, since I want to attract clients mostly from the US.
Good luck with your website!

MaV

annagiuliam I advise you to maybe start planning half an hour a day to investigate the various possibilities to set up your website.

Since I have your advice now, it will be harder not to do it. ?

It is hard not to consider, at least, an English version of anything these days. Spanish agencies contact me in English, even if our languages are much closer. So I guess there's no way to avoid the linguistic empire (unless people start speaking Latin again - I'd be happy!).

coveredweb

I found another page on website creation. https://pinwheeltrans.com/blog/focus-and-launch-xl8-website