No doubt that the web has made the world a hell of a lot smaller and has also increased the need to operate in other markets and navigate round parts of the web, that are outside our native langauge(s) - for example, if you're traveling in China, you might want to check out the latest train timetable or news article.

There is a whole raft of automated translation tools - some of them are free - that can help us negotiate non-native web pages, to name a few:
http://babelfish.yahoo.com
http://translate.google.com/translate_t
http://www.translution.com/tcc/tcc.aspx
http://www.freetranslation.com/


Using automated translation tools to make a purchase or get the latest local weather update is one thing, but what are the ramifications of using for online marketing.

Firstly: how do these automated systems work?

Many systems claim to use sophisticated grammar mapping rules as well as understanding the context of the original content to give like for like translations. However, particularly when you look at the results, you can see that they are no more than dictionary look ups and direct word replacement, with inconsistencies in subject/object, tenses, local customs, as well as grammar.

Let's look an example, for those English only speakers, using Babel Fish, we'll take an extract from www.webcertain.com home page, translate into Simplified Chinese, and then back into English:

Original Extract:

WebCertain is passionate about generating business growth for its clients in any part of the world. A team of native speakers of all the world's major languages works together to achieve client objectives - no one understands working with different cultures and the nuances of language in the globe's search engines better than the WebCertain multilingual team.

Translated into Simplified Chinese and then back to English via Babel Fish:

WebCertain is the enthusiasm about causes its customer enterprise growth world any part. All world' Said mother tongue's person team; the s main language achieves the customer goal - nobody understanding and the different culture and the language uses the slight difference together in globe' ; the s search engine improves compared to the WebCertain multilingual teams.


This doesn't make much sense. Ok, so some words have been changed, but still have similar meanings, we can live with this, in most instances. The real issue is that the tool has not grasped the context of the original content. Translators are often given web-copy which has been processes though automated or machine translation tools, however, many are not keen to take on these projects - as it would be more straight forward to rewrite from scratch.

How about Google translate?

Original Extract:

WebCertain is passionate about generating business growth for its clients in any part of the world. A team of native speakers of all the world's major languages works together to achieve client objectives - no one understands working with different cultures and the nuances of language in the globe's search engines better than the WebCertain multilingual team.

Translated into Simplified Chinese and then back to English via Google Translates (done across different browsers):

WebCertain generating enthusiasm for the business growth of customers in any part of the world. A group whose mother tongue is all the world's major languages works in order to achieve the objectives of customers - no one to understand different cultures and languages and the nuances of the search engine in the world than WebCertain multilingual team.

Ok, so this is more understandable, but we wouldn't want this conveyed as part of our website or any other marketing materials and would still need to be rewritten.

Automated systems do posses the ability to make quick fire translations, giving you an idea about what the content is about, however, they are machines - lacking the ability to make exceptions and adapt to the cultural, grammatical and contextual norms.


Automated Translation tools and SEM

How about keywords? - the foundation of any successful search campaign? We come across so many instances of translating keyword lists, often wondering why the campaign hasn't generated any sales or even any traffic. Given automated tools are quick and easy to use, it is often difficult for a company, which lacks the native resources to bulk machine translate keyword lists. In some cases this might hit the spot, however, this translation might not be widely searched in target local market. The end result is that you could be missing plenty of good searches or even targeting irrelevant queries.

Working on an Italian online dating site research project (yes, even Italians need these, apparently) - purely business reasons, I assure you - we took some English 'seed' words to kick off the research:

"Find singles"

The word ‘single’ doesn’t really translate in Italian in only 1 word. The most direct translation is ‘persona sola’ (single, person alone).

However, you would need to do some keyword research to uncover other expressions that are also widely used in Italian and that convey a very similar meaning such as ‘ non sposato’, ‘ non sposata’ (unmarried), ‘celibe’ (bachelor) and ‘nubile’ (maiden). So it's going to be difficult for a machine to help your SEM activities here.

"Matchmaking"

This is an expression and is not really used in Italian and for which there isn’t a direct translation. It is often translated simply as ‘incontro’ (meeting) which surely doesn’t convey the same meaning.

Likewise, the word dating in Italian is translated as ‘ appuntamento’ (appointment) which could also indicate a doctor’s appointment and is therefore not specific enough. You would be disappointed if you wanted a date, but got a flu jab. This is why you cannot simply translate the English and expect to get the same results. You would need some research to find which combinations are most searched for.

"Partner"

It translates in Spanish as 'pareja'. The plural of this word has two meanings in Spanish: both ‘partners’or ‘couples’. So, it could be very ambiguous and refer to both ‘finding partners’ or ‘finding couples (swingers). This is why you would need to understand all the nuances of the language and do some research, filtering the most ambiguous keywords.


Adcopy...

Adcopys or Adtext are slightly different, as they are more transparent to the end customer. For some languages, German for instance, it's very difficult to translate from English and get the result to fit into the limited character allocation. However, without fully understnading the target market and the local language, the result is going to be apparent to those searching - your ads WILL stand out from the crowd, but for the wrong reasons unfortunately.

Landing Pages

Even if the Ads tick all the boxes, if you use automated tools to translate your landing pages, there is even more scope for inaccuracies to occur - as in the example above - and it's extremely transparent and off-putting to the end user. The result is likely to be a campaign that converts poorly at best and/or a negative impact on your brand, at worst and is likely to transcend more than your paid search campaigns.

It's all to common that we can get enticed by the functionality and technology and fail to see through some of the common issues that arise when reliance on these tools has set in. Freetranslation.com does actually concede that, 'When speed and cost are important factors, Machine Translation is ideal. However, Human Translation - or a Human-Edited translation service - is often more desirable for its accuracy and quality.'

If you require your paid search campaign, online content or any other marketing materials to be localised, although the more expensive option, the human way is the only option. However, even this is only going to be as good as your brief to the translator.

Top translation tips are to full brief the translator on:
*The client, the products/services
*The target audience - who is likely to be reading the copy?
*What are the brand guidelines of your company/client
*Ensure a sample of translation is done initially for approval, before pressing on with bulk translations

Any questions, please drop me a line...... (if you're auto translating this, it means write me an e-mail, nothing to do with fishing or anything else)