As your business expands, you will find the need to translate your materials and website so that you can expand your services or product to other countries. For that reason, you need to know how to choose a translation agency that best fulfills your requirements is of paramount importance. But, what exactly should you look for in a localization company that offers these services? And how do you know the translation agency in turn select a translator that is suitable for your project?
In this article, you will learn exactly what you can do to choose between many translation agencies, how to identify the best professional translation agency and why VEQTA is the best option for you:
1. Make sure the translators are trained and knowledgeable
To avoid incorrect or sloppy translations, you should always make sure that the translators working for the company you’re researching and are well-trained. A good translator will have the proper education and translation certifications from an accredited institution. Languages can be tricky, so it is very important that the translator has the proper education to assure you that your business is in good hands.
2. Translators with industry expertise able to translate with your business in mind
Business is conducted daily around the world. Within the business realm, there are different aspects each company likes to use to help them stand out from the crowd. A good translator will work hard to understand the industry your company falls into so that they can use the proper jargon associated with the industry.
3. Find translation agencies that take context in mind
With proper education, anyone can translate a document or website word for word. However, in every language, there are words that have double meanings. The same can be said for whatever language you’re looking to translate your documents or website into. Similarly, you may have a word on your site that doesn’t exist as a single word in another language. It is important that you find a translator who can find the correct words and the equivalent expressions in the target language that will effectively tell your customers about your business’ product or service to convey the exact intended meaning without any confusion.
4. Check the reviews online
It is always a good idea to check out the reviews a translation company has before you buy services from them. You can find reviews for most translation companies on the web or across various social networks. You can study blogs to learn about the experience others have and get a feel for the company’s reputation to better judge if the company is right for you.
5. Find a company that is familiar with the local language or dialect
In many regions of the world, people use different dialects. That means that people may use certain words instead of others. In places like Canada, English and French are used to communicate ideas and information, countries like Thailand and Vietnam also have regional accents. The same will likely go for your translation. A professional translation company should take these dialects into mind and only use translators with native language proficiency when translating your content. This will allow you to really connect with your customers and will allow them to better understand what your company has to offer.
6. Find a company that can expertly typeset your text
In America and the United Kingdom, people read from left to right horizontally across a page. In some Asian cultures, however, people read from top to bottom vertically down the page or read from right to left like Arabic and Urdu. This is what’s known as typesetting. Typesetting your translation is crucial to your business because it changes the way people in other cultures read your information. Find a company that can not only translate your materials or website but can also properly format the text for easy reading that won’t be confusing to your customers. A big tip here is to tell the translation agency in advance in which format you would like to receive the documents. In some cases e.g for right-to-left text, copying and pasting text between files may not be as straightforward as you expect if you’re doing it yourself.
7. Ask for a Sample Translation!
If you are able to review the translation then why not ask the translation agency to provide a sample? Most translation companies will be happy to do so.
For larger projects, the agency can often translate a small section of the pages first to help the client evaluate if the translation is a good fit for their business.
8. Price – Compare Apples to Apples
Translation agencies and translators may quote you a bit differently. Some may charge per word, some per page or by the hour. If you receive a price that is considerably lower than others, you may need to ask a few questions to ensure you understand the service reach your expectations.
How is the translation carried out?
-Some of the cheapest translation service providers may carry out the translation as one step, deliver the translation and if you need any revisions done it will cost you extra.
-Others as translation firms take on a higher level of accountability and carry out as translation step by step: Translation + editing + proofreading and provide revision as part of the service. There’s often a noticeable difference in quality, but the rate may be slightly higher.
You may also need to ask:
-Does the quoted price include translation by certified native speaking linguists?
-How many years experience do the translators have?
-What is the familiarity of the translator with the subject matter? E.g financial, legal, I.T/Software or the tourism and travel industry.
Some agencies use senior subject matter experts and some translation firms may use more junior translators just starting out their careers, offering a cheaper price.
If you need to translate important marketing material or a legal text you may need a terminology experts to avoid a very literal translation which may not be suited for the intended purpose.
As the saying goes ‘ You get what you pay for’ and as with any quality product or service, mid-level and senior translators may charge a bit more, so you need to decide what is suitable for your budget.
How VEQTA can help you
VEQTA is a professional translation company that can help transform your promotional materials and website into content that can be understood by a number of customers from across the world.
The firm helps companies that need translation services with localization language solutions most major commercial languages – and some minor languages too! Each translator is a native speaker with expert writing and translation skills. You can be sure that, with VEQTA, you will be working with an expert translator who is knowledgeable, well-trained, and takes each and every translation into context before returning it back to you. Each new project will be handled by a team of skilled translators, a project manager, and a single point of contact to make checking on your translation fast and simple. Are you ready to start translating your important content into another language? Contact us today!
Another way to evaluate a translation company before a project starts is by the questions its sales team or representative asks their clients.
QUESTIONS TRANSLATION AGENCIES ASK THEIR CLIENTS
A good translation company should ensure and confirm they understand the client’s expectations before commencing the translation.
As with any consulting company, the language service provider always likes to make sure that they are rendering the best service possible. So, it should come as no surprise that a translation agency may have questions for their clients that may help them complete the job in the best way possible.
Below are a few common questions that translation agencies ask their clients along with an explanation as to why know that information can help the agency better serve the business they’re working with:
DO YOU HAVE A STYLE GUIDE?
Style guides are guides that contain information about how a translated document should be written. In the style guide, a company can indicate how they want their company name to be referred to and if any terminology should be referred to in a certain way. Asking this question is important because a style guide can help answer many secondary questions a translator will have about your information. It conveniently places information on references, spelling, grammar, and more in one location. Using a style guide has proven to cut down on translation errors and confusion. Not only will answering this question save you time so that the translator doesn’t have to keep asking how to refer to certain things in the translation, it will also provide your customers with more accurate translations and reduce time spent on reviewing and commenting on the translation.
DO YOU HAVE ANY REFERENCES?
If some of the company’s content has been translated in the past it will be a useful reference for the linguistic team to understand the style and tone of language that may be suitable.
Legacy translation can be considered, and if feasible, terms can be extracted from any available legacy translations to build bilingual glossary and form the basis for a style guide creation.
SHOULD CAPTIONS AND GRAPHICS BE TRANSLATED?
Because you are localizing your business to new countries, your graphics may also need to be changed to be better understood by your clients. If something is listed in dollars, your translator may ask you if you want to change that into a local currency, same is true for weights and measurements etc. Additionally, the captions on photos that describe your product may be something you want to be changed.
DO YOU HAVE A NATIVE SPEAKER WHO CAN REVIEW THE FINISHED TRANSLATION?
Translation companies know that you might not want to just take their word that the document was properly translated. The translator may ask you this so that someone who speaks or reads the language you are translating to can read it to provide you with a peace of mind. It is important for your translator to ask this so they can include additional editing time in case your reviewer or stakeholders have a few edits or comments.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
Your target market is the most important thing your translator should ask you about. This can help the translator plan things like tone and feel and context of the materials. In addition, your target market may be more than just everyone in a specific country. You may want your product geared toward a certain gender or age group. Knowing this will help your translator accurately write for your market the first time.
WHAT FORMAT WILL I BE WORKING WITH?
Your translator needs to know what format the original document comes in so that they can be sure they have the proper programs to translate and edit the original document with. You may simply send them text in a word file, or the text may come from a website link, PDF, or InDesign file. They may also ask you what form you expect the translation to return to you in.
HOW CAN I PROVIDE YOU WITH THE BEST EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE?
A lot of companies are not new to the translation and localization process and the project management lifecycle. Many businesses may have had a not-so-great experience with a different translation company. Your translator may ask you if you’ve run into particular issues so that they can go ahead and tell you how they and their company address the issue to provide you with the best service possible. This is useful because you will go into the project confident in your translator and their ability to complete your project.