What impact can a good translation have on my company?

When we talk about the impact of a good translation on your company, we are obviously talking about the benefits of a high-quality professional translation. If the translation is not good, it just makes things worse and, far from helping you, it could damage your brand image. Something that should never happen!

That is why it is so important to always count on professional translation services. Achieving a professional result means using professional services instead of a bilingual friend or a free automatic translator.

Translating is not simply transferring one word from one language to another. To carry out a good translation, it is important to have a thorough understanding of both the original culture and that of the target language. This is how we can avoid those unforgivable errors. Hence the importance of relying on professional native translators to carry out any translation you may need. The best translation is one that can help your company to reach another level in the international market. That is why it is very important to know how to choose your translation company.

Bad translation can ruin a company

In 2013, Kyle Wiens, the CEO of an American technology company, wrote in the Harvard Business Review blog: “Your company is only as good as your writing”. That is, a company is measured by the quality of its texts. He argued that it is very difficult to trust a company that does not pay due attention to something as essential as communication with clients and suppliers.

Companies that work search for texts and words that are inspirational. These companies realise that choosing one word over another can subtly alter the meaning. Good texts reflect essential qualities: patience, reflection, quality, attention to detail, beauty in the form.

Writing the original text correctly in the source language is as important as translating it into the target language. A text translated by an automatic translator such as Google or DeepL and then corrected by an English-speaking colleague is neither professional nor will sound natural. That is because knowing a language and knowing how to translate it are not the same thing. Undoubtedly, an interpretation of a foreign text written by someone who is not a translation professional can feature many inaccuracies and even unforgivable cultural errors.

Badly written and/or poorly translated texts can sow mistrust amongst potential customers and even scare them off. This can, of course, have a negative impact on our brand image.

The benefits of a good translation

A translation must be true to the original text, serve the same purpose, generate the same impact and convey the same intention and nuance. This can only be achieved by a professional. Looking for more reasons? Here are a few more.

Make your future clients fall in love

An entrepreneur who invests time and money in internationalising the business (marketing campaigns, press releases, Google Ads, adapting the corporate website, etc.), but who wants to save on their translation is simply throwing money away. A good translation is the golden ticket and it is essential in order to speak to the customer in their mother tongue, as this is the language with which they have grown up, with which they feel comfortable and which they use in their daily life.

Your income will grow exponentially

One of the keys to a company's success (whether large or small) is to maximise the returns on every euro invested. Using a professional translation company doesn't need to be expensive. Especially when compared to the cost of a bad translation. The money invested in a good translation will help you attract new customers and will increase your returns. A good translation will undoubtedly help you to improve your business.

Better positioning with Google

Did you know that the Google Gods penalise pages that use automatically translated content? Therefore, the best way to avoid SEO problems when translating your website or online store is to entrust your translation to the professionals. It is not just a matter of image: Google actually awards good translations and punishes the bad. In extreme cases, texts with multiple errors can even be considered fraudulent. When positioning the content, Google's search engine takes into account the meaning of each sentence rather than just the keywords as was previously the case.

That means that websites that have been translated well are better positioned in Google than a website with editorial or translation errors. This level of quality will never be achieved by a non-professional translation (done by our famous "spent-one-summer-in-France" friend).

If you want to make sure your translations are high quality, the best option is to entrust them to a translation company. At (ATLS) AT Language Solutions we have over 24 years' experience helping companies access international markets by working with professional native translators from all over the world. Shall we talk?