Sometimes when you are browsing through the pages of the internet for information, you may stumble on a website that contains vital information that you are searching for but there is an issue. The issue is that you are only comfortable reading and understanding contents in the English language only, whereas the language of the site or webpage you are currently on is far from English language. Here comes the thought of how you will translate that website or the webpage from that language to English language.
Before we advance, it is best to put in mind that translation of website or a webpage goes beyond mere rendering of texts from one language to another. In fact, this is where the concept of website localization comes in to play. When we talk about website localization, we mean that localization entails creating contents and experience that are unique in which local visitors of your website in your target location can quickly relate to. It is a means in which the content, product, document of the website is adapted such that they match or meet up with the background, standard of language, and culture of a specific group of people you are targeting.
If you are right here on the page reading this, I will like to say you that are lucky. This is because in this article, we will discuss 2 ways in which you can translate webpage that is in another language to English language. Now let us dive in to these ways one after the other.
- Translating a webpage with Google translate: probably you might be familiar with translating contents with google translate. Like some people, you too might have been copying contents little by little and translating them with Google translate. However, there is a way you can translate the whole website with Google translate without having to copy bit by bit. Here are few simple to follow steps to doing that:
- Launch your web browser and advance to translate.google.com
Type the website URL in the text field on the left hand side and select English on the right hand side of the box to choose the language as shown below:
- Click on the link icon and yes, your website is ready in English language.
- You can also switch from English to another language right there on the translated page via the toolbar.
Here was the page before translation:
And English translation:
You may notice that the google translate did well but you will also notice that there are some words and contents that remain untranslated. The reason is that Google translate translates only the actual words and phrases on the webpage but fails to translate texts on images. It is true that Google translate offers a quick and very easy way to translate the webpage but for its shortcomings it is not the best. It is not the best in that it does not employ human translation and therefore lacks complete accuracy. It also does not offer any kind of support if things goes other way round.
- Translating a webpage with Chrome browser: an advantage of using chrome browser is that it allows you to automatically translate many of the foreign languages websites into English be it that you are browsing on the desktop or on your mobile device.
While it is true that you can always turn this feature of the browser on and off, it is usually on by default.
Now, to access the foreign webpage in English language, follow the steps below:
- Launch your Google Chrome, go to the webpage of the foreign language.
- Immediately the webpage opens you will notice a pop up message near the top screen of the webpage inquiring of you if you will like to translate your website to English language.
- Immediately you see that, click Translate or roll your mouse and click English.
You can set how the translation works on the Chrome by clicking the hamburger icon. You may want your chrome browser to always translate the webpage to English whenever it is in that language. Or should it be that the language Chrome did not correctly identify the language in which the webpage is originally in, you can always change it with that options.
In case the page did not bring up the popup, simply refresh the page and it will bring it up. However, if after several refreshing it still could not bring it up, follows the steps below to adjust the chrome settings:
- Go to the top right side of the screen. You will notice a hamburger icon i.e. three dots and on clicking this icon, select settings.
- On clicking settings, scroll down the page to the bottom part of it and click Advance.
- You will notice language section on that page. Select it. You may want to click on the arrow that points downward beside the language in order to expand it.
- On clicking it, ensure that the button beside the Offer to translate pages that aren’t in a language you read part is turned on.
Well, that’s all. If the page would still not translate that webpage after this settings, then there is something wrong with Chrome detecting the language at that moment. And you can always try it over and over again.
If you are using a mobile device to browse the page, you can follow the same process as listed in the steps above for translating a foreign language on the desktop using chrome. It is that easy.
It is true that Google translate is simple and very fast way to translate the entire webpage, you will agree with me that it is not the best translation solution to choose when it comes to translation. Remember that the automatic translation option on Chrome as well as translating the website directly with Google translate only handles the translation of the texts that can be found on the webpage not all the contents of the webpage. For example, these options cannot handle the translation of the words and phrases that are written on an image. Also, the options fail to be able to offer other services such as localization of the website. It is not the best in that it does not employ human translation and therefore lacks complete accuracy. It also does not offer any kind of support if things goes other way round.
Now, the question is that ‘is there a website translation solution that gives the best when it comes to translation and localization?’ Well, there is and that is ConveyThis
Translating a website online using ConveyThis
If you have a website, you will want to save the visitors of your website the stress of having to translate your page on Google translate or Chrome translation. It is therefore best that you let your website be readily available to be translated into different languages when different visitors come on the webpage.
The truth is that ConveyThis is compatible with the different kind of CMS available out there. However, for the sake of learning we have chosen translation of a WordPress website as an example. You can always explore other integrations that ConveyThis is compatible with.
Steps:
The very first step in translating your website into another language is that you should install ConveyThis plugin. You can do this by searching for ConveyThis Translate, install it and then activate it in connection with your WordPress website.
At this point, if you are yet to do that, create a ConveyThis account. While creating your account, supply your active email and a password you can always remember. After this, you will get a confirmation mail for the verification of your account. You will also receive your API key.
Now you can get ConveyThis configured by going to the ConveyThis on the menu item from your WordPress dashboard. Here you will be required to supply the API key earlier sent to you. Then select the Original language that is the primary language of your website, in this case Irish. After that, you can set your Destination language that is English. This will translate your website from Irish to English.
From that dashboard you can always add several other languages and you may also want to customize the language switcher button. You will also find interesting to know that you can exempt some pages from been translated. Also you can turn on auto detection so that the language of your website’s visitors can be detected and therefore automatically translate your page into it.
Once you are done with these, you can click save.
You are set. Anytime you translate your website into another language, ConveyThis will use machine translation as the basis for your translation. However, if there are parts that are not properly rendered, you have the opportunity of manually adjusting this part using the visual editor where you can preview your website and make necessary adjustments when needed.
Localizing, not just web translation is the key to being a successful player on the global scale. When you translate as well as localize your website for audiences in different part of the world, you can be assured of increase sales if you are business oriented and you can expect increased traffic on your website which may with time leads to high conversion rate. The best solution to handling this is no other tool than ConveyThis. Start using ConveyThis today.