What to Prioritize – Checklist for Website Translation in Chinese

Promoting your business online doesn’t have to be stressful. First off, if you’re targeting Chinese consumers, you can always start with website translation services.

The English version of your site — if it’s well-designed and optimized for search engines — will remain the framework of the brand.

However, if you’re serious about expanding your reach and getting more visitors, it’s better to invest in localization strategies to thrive.

In this post, you’ll have a checklist that will be useful if you’re considering Chinese website translation services.

#1 Specialized skills

Choose professional translators that have specialized skills in your industry. 

 For instance, if you’re in the medical and healthcare sectors, search for translators that have these specializations to make sure the terminologies and phrases used are well-translated in your target language.  

 Don’t settle for low costs translations that most amateurs offer. Mistranslation of words or phrases can result in embarrassing content on your site. 

#2 Copywriting and marketing skills 

Translation of texts is as equally crucial to the optimization of content for marketing purposes. People browse online, and to get their attention, you must add a bit of copywriting and marketing tactics on your translated website. 

 Attention-grabbing slogans on the website and content that prompt them to know more about your products and services should be included. 

Don’t forget that you need to optimize your content by following the principles of Baidu SEO to make your Chinese website searchable.   

#3 Complete tools to translation and localization

Ask the translators what type of translation tools and software they use when working on their projects. 

 CAT tool or (computer-assisted translation) is one of the popular tools that speed up translation as it has a translation memory that stores phrases, segments of texts, and words. You can save money when you ask for discounts on repetitions that the tool detects. 

 For audio and video files, make sure that they have a studio for the dubbing and voice-over projects. These types of projects also require advanced features of tools for high-quality deliverables. 

#4 Workflow of the team

Check the workflow of the team from inquiry up to the final delivery of the website translation. The typical workflow often starts with the preparation of the documents based on requirements. Afterward, contract signing takes place, and most of the time, the project manager takes charge of the communication between the team and your company. 

 From preparation comes the translation process that involves reporting the team’s progress to stay on track of the schedule. Once the translation process is done, proofreading and QA takes place for consistency of terminology, layout, and other details. 

 The more detailed and more organized the workflow is, the better. That’s also a sign that the team is capable of handling small to large scale projects. 

#5 Samples of previous work

If the vendor hasn’t done any website translation in Chinese related to your sector, it’s at your discretion to pursue the project with them. Ask samples to check the quality of the work. 

As skills and expertise are essential in translating website pages, you’d have to find vendors that have already worked on the same projects. 

 First is, you don’t want them to waste time trying to figure out the best practices in your industry. Second, quality is more important than a low-cost budget when it comes to your website. 

#6 Video translation and voice-over in Mandarin

If your website has embedded videos, you also need to consider video translation in Chinese. Videos are a powerful tool to engage with your visitors. And you can start with the essential videos that promote, educate, and inform your customers about your products and services. 

One thing to note here is to ask the vendor for voicebank samples in Mandarin voice-overs that match the tone and style of your company’s branding. 

For instance, if you’re in an agriculture sector, promoting your products to Chinese buyers, choose a voice-over artist with an engaging style in speaking if you’re educating the buyers. 

#7 Glossary and style guide

 Glossary is a list of words and phrases with definitions to help the translators better understand the texts being used. Glossaries are pretty helpful in translating technical documents, but even with a website translation project, it can also contribute to speed up the process. Plus, you’d be able to use it on other types of projects. 

 The style guide is also part of the checklist, whereas it gives information on the branding style, capitalization, format of numbers, time, date, and among others. 

Although you might probably spend time building each one if you’re new in translation and localization projects, these two are great investments in multilingual efforts. 

Over to you…

 A website is a powerful tool to build your online presence these days. 

 However, investing in Chinese website translation not only helps in building an online presence, but you can also unlock other opportunities for the long-term. Promote it on local social media channels, integrate it with payment gateways for ease of transactions like WeChatPay or Alipay, and so much more.

Once you’re all set, only work with an established translation vendor who already knows the market and can accommodate even the most complex requirements targeting your audience.