Online Translations: What kind of translation do you need?

Your business needs a translation, maybe it’s for a new multi-lingual website? a new product page? or maybe it’s for some legal documents. You’ve decided to seek help from a translator online. You search online and there are lots of different types of options offered by translation companies. Certified translation? Technical translation? Proofreading? Which one do you need? 

Picking the right type of translation not only can save you money, but it can also ensure that the translation is exactly what you will need to make your business appear as professional as possible in your audience’ eyes! This article is aimed to tell you your options so that you can pick the best translation for your needs!

Flawless translation for your business

General Translation

When you need a translation for your business, ​​you simply cannot rely on free online translations. General translation is the most basic translation service you can find. General translation is best suited for everyday business needs, such as internal information for your overseas employees, foreign marketing materials or any of your personal writings. Those can all benefit from general translation.

General translations are cheaper than other more specific types of translations and usually have a faster delivery time. This will still be done by humans and will help you to avoid a lot of problems caused by mistranslation. Online website translation services are very popular and have been helping countless businesses expand to overseas markets. If your business does not involve a high level of technical knowledge, then this is the service that you should choose! Just remember to get your translation from a transition agency that has a good reputation to ensure the quality of the translation.

Specialised / Technical Translation

Specialised/ technical translation is needed when the material that needs to be translated requires special knowledge in that specific field. These include fields such as medicine, finance and sciences. Technical translation will be needed for materials such as technical journals, academic papers in sciences and even user manuals For the translation to be perfect, a technical translator will be doing the translation. A certified technical translator has to have knowledge of the technical terminology in the specific field in both of the language pair.

Specialised/ technical translation is going to be more expensive and may take longer than general translation because not every translator is a technical translator and it requires a higher level of knowledge to translate them. However, it is necessary to use a specialised/ technical translation for those materials as the mistranslation might bring more problems than just the loss of reputation and business.

Certified Translation

A certified translation is used in formal procedures, such as immigration, legal or financial application. A large number of embassies require the submitted documents to be certified translations. The translation should be provided by a certified translator and must be a word-for-word translation of the original text. 

The certified translator has to certify the translations that they have done with their name and is responsible for the accuracy of the translation, which means the translator is accepting any possible civil liability of the translation. Since the translator has such a big responsibility that comes with his/her work, he/she should be a native speaker in the language pair and will ensure that every word on the text is translated as accurate as possible. 

Certified translations are prepared in hard copies with the translator’s signatures or stamps on them to verify the translator’s work. They are more expensive than general translations and usually takes longer. Those important documents must be translated with a certified translation because extremely expensive lawsuits or rejected applications might follow after a mistranslation.

WPML Translation

WPML translation is translating a WordPress based webpage using plugins. It allows faster translation delivery at a lower cost, but the CRM of your website has to be WordPress. It is fully automated and can be used to translate your website to create multilingual versions of it. However, there are a large number of different plugins and configurations, it is advised to have a specialist select and configure them for your website to have the correct translations that you’re looking for. You should hire a translation agency that offers technical support with the WPML translation for the most convenient experience. WPML translation should definitely be considered when you want your WordPress based website to be translated.

Proofreading

It is important to ensure that your material is correctly translated and is appropriate to its audience. If your material is not translated by a specialist, then you might want to consider having the translated material proofread by a translating agency. They will focus on checking if your material contains no typo, grammatical mistakes and the writing style fits the purpose of the material. 

Different countries use different words and non-professional translators might not be aware of that. That’s why you should have your materials proofread by professionals who are native speakers who have a good understanding of the purpose of your materials. Native speakers can also ensure that the material is culturally appropriate for your target audience which can maximise the effectiveness of your material. Proofreading often has a short delivery time and it is cheaper than translation services, which is a good option if you already have your translated materials.

Online Translation

It is very convenient to hire language translators online nowadays. A lot of translation agencies offers online document translation by professional translators in most language pairs that you can think of. Making it easier than ever to have your materials translated. just remember that it will be beneficial to pick the right type of translation that you need from a reliable translation agency to have the best translation possible at a lower cost. 
There are also other less common types of translations out there and conflicted materials might confuse you on which type of translation you need. If you are still unsure of what type of translation you need or have any questions regarding translation services at all, feel free to contact us here!

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