Last week, we posted “Fear Not on the Inflation Rates in Asia”. This week, we tested on how much Google translation in Chinese can achieve.

*Our edits are based on the least alterations of Google Translation to get the meaning across. Content Translation Applies as this is the fundamental element of marketing translations.

The Google translation result was direct and we could only understand around 30%.

To help our customers to realize how accurate Machine Translation is, we will test other languages using each week.

Just to give you an unbiased view if you are tempted or have already added the Google translate plugin on your website. Here are the pro’s and con’s:

Pros

  • Adding the Google Translation tool will increase your presence on the web, as this tool will enable non-English users to stay on the site for longer.
  • Budget – It’s free and will help businesses who struggle with a budget for translation purposes.

Cons

  • It’s hard enough to hit the right customer base even in your own language. How likely will you convince your customers if they can only understand 30% of what you are selling? You may end up having to spend more time answering queries, sorting out returns etc.
  • Poor branding – If you care about your business then surely you want to ensure your marketing message is carried across properly in other languages.
  • According to Google Webmaster, John Mu, Google will ban sites that make heavy use of Machine Translation tools. It’s nice to know that Google values human translations. Again you wouldn’t want your effort on building a good rank being jeopardized by machine translation.
  • Gaining traffic doesn’t mean gaining customers. If it doesn’t give you the targets you want, you need to U-turn quickly.

We do understand that not every company has the budget. If you have an e-commerce site and are keen to gain genuine customers through your website, then why not get in touch with us and see how SanTranslate can help.