How to Manually Translate a Page in 5 Steps

Whatever the purpose of a business web page, its message should be accessible to people worldwide. This is especially true for companies tapping into global markets.

But how do you translate a website into multiple languages?

The short answer is by using machine translation, human translation, or a combination of both. The longer answer? We’ll let our comprehensive guide do the talking.

Keep reading to learn:

-Reasons to translate a website

-How to translate a website in Google Chrome

-How to translate a website in Firefox

-How to translate a website in Safari

-How to translate a website in Opera

-How to translate a page on mobile

Pro tip: Use a professional localization suite to facilitate website translation process. With it, you can effortlessly manage the translation process, ensure the high quality of translations, and reduce the project duration and cost. Learn more.

Reasons to Translate a Website

Simply put, more languages, more customers.

A survey demonstrates that with an option to choose between two similar products, 76% of consumers purchase the one that provides information in their native language. What’s more, 66% of survey respondents use machine translation when purchasing online. Finally, 40% of respondents refuse to buy from unlocalized websites.

The survey results show that businesses neglecting website translation forego substantial revenue opportunities.

Additional benefits of translated websites include:

• Access to a wider audience

• Higher online visibility

• Increased customer trust

• Revenue boost

• Improved brand reputation

Clearly, website translation benefits most businesses and yours shouldn’t be an exception. But where do you start with it?

Below is a 5-step guide on how to translate websites. Follow it to reach global audiences and boost your business growth.

How Do You Translate a Website for Business?

Effective website translation requires the development of a translation strategy, selection of a relevant translation method, use of translation management system (TMS), SEO optimization of the web page, and QA of the translated site.

Let’s take a closer look at each step.

Step1: Choose a website setup

Website translation requires substantial changes to the website itself.

First off, choose between a multisite and multilingual website setup to save efforts and resources.

Multisite setup

A multisite approach requires you to secure domain names in different countries to make your website more relevant and localized to readers. For example, such multinational corporations as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Sony have local domains for websites in different countries.

Having multiple sites makes your business appear more local and relevant in search results, as well as provides quality backlinks. Yet, maintaining multiple domains can be costly.

Multilingual setup

Another approach to managing website translation is to set up a multilingual site similar to Apple, L'Oréal, and many other companies. This website translation strategy allows for simultaneous publication in multiple languages.

When entering a local domain after the brand name, users get redirected to the site root with a specific section for multiple languages. For example, when typing paypal.de, PayPal clients are redirected to paypal.com/de/home/.

Step 2: Choose a translation method

Once you’ve decided how to publish the translated content, it’s time to choose a translation method. The available options are human, machine, and hybrid translation.

Human translation

Using this approach, the content is manually adapted by qualified translators. This choice guarantees accuracy and customization to the needs of the target market. But it can be costly and time-consuming, particularly for large websites or frequent updates.

Machine translation

Machine translation is a quicker and more affordable method than human translation. However, the accuracy of this option depends on the quality of the machine translation software and the complexity of the content. Machine translation works best for the translation of simple web page content but often fumbles technical, legal and creative materials.

Hybrid translation

Hybrid translation is a combination of both methods and is the best of both worlds. Using this approach, a human translator revises and refines rough translations instantly produced by software like Google Translate or ChatGPT.

Although it’s not entirely devoid of disadvantages, hybrid translation strikes a balance between efficiency, accuracy, and cost.

Step 3: Choose a Translation Management System (TMS)

A translation management system (TMS) is software for organizing and tracking translated assets.

The right TMS allows automating most of the translation process, thereby saving you time and money. What’s more, the TMS can be integrated with your content management system, eCommerce platform, or helpdesk tools to make the deployment of translations easier.

Conversely, without a TMS, you would have to divide your website content into small increments and translate them by collaborating with individual contributors via email. Needless to say, the manual approach to translation is hardly suitable for large websites.

Here’s what to look for in your TMS:

• Collaboration features

• Integration with GitHub, Jira, and Figma

• Integration with CMS via API

• Support and conversion of popular file formats

• Version control

• Machine translation

• Built-in glossaries

A professional localization suite Centus has all of the above and much more. Use Centus to overcome the complexities of multilingual website translation and deliver high-quality results on budget. Learn more.

Step 4: Conduct multilingual Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Once your website is translated, you'll need to conduct multilingual SEO to ensure that your website ranks in search engines for your target languages. This involves optimizing your web page content for relevant keywords in each language.

Research the keywords that your target audience is using to find businesses like yours and incorporate them into your website content. Additionally, ensure that your website has a clear URL structure that reflects the language of each page.

Step 5: Launch and test the translated website

Before launching your translated website, thoroughly test it for accuracy and functionality. Review the content to ensure that it accurately conveys the intended meaning. Plus, test the website's functionality in each language to find broken links, formatting issues, and other errors.

How to Manually Translate a Web Page on Desktop Browsers

Translating a web page on desktop browsers takes only a few seconds but might require additional steps depending on the particular browser. Let's have a look at how to translate pages on Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

How do you translate a website in Google Chrome?

There’s a built-in Google Translate feature that can automatically translate web pages to your preferred language. Here are the steps to translate a website in Google Chrome:

1.Open Google Chrome and navigate to the web page you want to translate

2.Right-click anywhere on the page and choose the Translate to English option

3.Wait for the translation to complete

Alternatively, click three dots in the top right corner of the Chrome window and go to Settings > Advanced > Languages. In the Languages section, choose a preferred language.

If you translate pages using the drop down menu, they should automatically reload with the translation applied. If you change the language settings in Google Chrome, you may need to refresh the page for the changes to take effect.

If you want to turn off automatic translation for a specific website, simply right-click on the page and select Never translate this site from the context menu.

Note that Chrome's automatic translation feature relies on Google Translate, which does not always provide accurate translations. For better results, turn to a professional translation service.

How do you translate a website in Safari?

Here’s how to translate a website in Safari:

1.In the right corner of the Safari’s URL bar, click the translation icon

2.In the translation menu that opens, click Translate to English

3.If prompted, click Enable Translation

Note that Safari's built-in translation feature is based on the same technology as Google Translate, so the translations may not be perfect.

How do you translate a website in Firefox?

Unlike other popular browsers, Firefox doesn’t have a built-in translation functionality. To translate a webpage in Firefox, you need to install Google Translate extension. Here’s how to do it:

1.Go here to install Google Translate extension

2.Click the Add to Firefox button

3.In the menu that opens, click Add

4.Select the translation language and click Save

How do you translate a website in Opera?

Just like Firefox, Opera doesn’t have an built-in translation functionality. Therefore, you need to use Google Translate extension to read content in a preferred language. Here’s how it’s done:

1.Click here to install Google Translate add-on

2.Click the Add to Opera button

3.Navigate to the needed page and right-click anywhere on it

4.Choose the Google Translate option

5.Click Translate this page to English

Now that you know how to manually translate web pages on desktop browsers, it's time to look into mobile translation.

How to Manually Translate a Page on Mobile

iOS and Android are the most popular operating systems for mobile. The manual translation procedure is almost the same, with a slight distinction.

How to translate a website on iPhone

1.Open Safari and navigate to the web page you want to translate

2.Tap the AA icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen

3.Tap Translate to English

How to translate a website on Android

1.Open Google Chrome and navigate to the website you want to translate

2.Tap on the three dots in the top-right corner of the screen

3.Select the Translate the page option

4.Select the language you want to translate the page into

5.Tap Translate

Manual website translation is simple and doesn't need much effort or knowledge. But are your customers ready to go through all these steps to place an order?

To increase conversions, make sure to translate your business web page to make it accessible to customers around the globe.

FAQ

What is a manual translation of the website?

A manual translation of a website is the process of translating the content from one language to another by a human translator. The key focus of the translator is to achieve high accuracy and maintain the tone and style of the original content.

How do I translate a foreign page?

To translate a foreign webpage in Google Chrome, right click and select the Translate to English option. To translate a foreign page in other browsers, go to Settings and add the Google Translate extension.

How do I manually translate a WordPress site?

To manually translate a WordPress site, use a plugin to create separate language versions of your site. A plugin can also provide an interface for translating the content of your pages, posts, menus, and other elements. Alternatively, use a professional localization suite to streamline your WordPress site translation process. Learn more.

How do I translate a page in Chrome?

Here’s how to translate a foreign language page in Google Chrome:

1.Launch the Google Chrome browser

2.In the address bar, click the Google Translate icon

3.Select the target language

4.Wait for the translated web page to load