Creating a Chinese translation version of your company’s website is a brilliant idea. By creating a Chinese version, you are making your site accessibly to the most populous culture in the world. Of course, the reason that many businesses don’t go through with this process is that it’s not easy. There are many versions of the Chinese language and deciding which one to translate to is difficult in and of itself. If you do translate to Chinese, you need to be careful not to make regional errors, as they could offend your visitors. You should also make sure certain phrases and concepts don’t get lost in translation. In addition to these common mistakes, there are two huge errors that many websites make when they are translating from English to Chinese, so you should try to avoid them.
Don’t Rely on PayPal
If your company is based in the United States and your site has an e-commerce option, you probably have a PayPal option. Many people use PayPal or simply upload their credit card information to the website’s shopping cart. If you’re having a Chinese translator redo your site, you’re probably expecting people from China to visit it. Keep in mind that PayPal is not popular in China. China’s economy is more cash-based, and they use local payment services such as Alipay. If you don’t offer such a service, you could lose out on sales and your translation could be for naught.
Don’t Rely on Google
Many of your website’s visitors in the United States probably come from a search engine such as Google. If you translate your site into Chinese and expect people in China to visit it, Google won’t be nearly as effective, as barely anyone uses it. Baidu is the major search engine there, and 80% of people on the Internet use it. If you’re interested in listing your site on Baidu, make sure you know the rules of search engine optimization, as they differ slightly from Google’s. The translation services you paid for probably won’t be seen by anyone in China if you don’t list your site on a search engine.
The first step in optimizing your website for Chinese visitors is hiring a professional translator to ensure there are no errors in the translation. However, this is not the final step, as you need to make sure site can be accessed and used by Chinese customers.