How to Minimize Translation Disasters From Free Automated Website Translation Tools

Hello and happy spring! The month of March brings a sense of renewal, warmth, and the inevitable spring-cleaning. So while you’re busy reorganizing your desk drawers and file cabinets, this month’s issue of Translucence helps you in tidying up your website translation clutter.

Many organizations have considered free automated website translation tools like Google Translate and Microsoft Translator by Bing to be the best option for their website translation needs because of their built-in accessibility . Of course, we completely disagree but we also understand that organizations choose machine translation due to lack of funding, rather than a belief that the quality is comparable to human translation. After the decision is made to forgo professional website translation, most organizations simply leave their website alone. If you’ve resigned to sacrificing quality until budgets allow otherwise, it’s important to recognize that these tools do not have the capability to filter what type of information they translate. They're blind translations and all English words are translated, regardless of function. Here are some simple measures you can take to avoid losing your brand’s integrity by way of those free translation monsters tools.

1. Prevent webpages from being translated in entirety by inserting the meta tag <meta name=”NAMEOFTOOL” value=”notranslate”>  into HTML files.  Example: <meta name=”google” value=”notranslate”>

2. Prevent the translation of specific sections or content by inserting code <span class=”notranslate”> before the text and </span> at the end of the text.

For futher instructions on how to disable Google Translate click here. 

For further instructions on how to disable Microsoft Translator click here.

Stop automatic translation of:

• Your organization’s name

• Email addresses

• URL links

• Contact Us page

• Keywords and phrases

• Proper nouns

• Trademarks

3. Be selective. Website translation doesn’t necessarily need to be all or nothing. Ask key staff members to evaluate your website’s content to determine which pages or specific information would be most beneficial to your organization’s mission if translated.  

Curious about the costs of translating your current website? Shoot us an email and we’ll provide you with a free, no-obligation quote.

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