Translating Web Content From English To Spanish
Content strategies are one of the most effective ways to grow your organic reach online by creating topics that target keywords and search phrases that people are looking for on Google. Most business websites in the United States have English-written content, and only a handful take the time to implement a content strategy in Spanish. Website owners should consider having popular web pages on their website translated from English to Spanish.
Write Content For Hispanic & Latin American Readers
Based on 2020 US Census Records, Hispanics are the second largest ethnic group making up 18.7% of the entire population in the United States. Most of these people are bilingual and prefer to speak and read Spanish online. A Spanish content strategy is a great way to connect with Spanish-speaking customers.
Writing web content that Hispanics and Latin Americans can understand helps your website show more organic results for Spanish keywords and search phrases. It will also show that you cater to people who do not speak English as their first language.
Writing SEO-Friendly Content In Spanish
Business owners are missing out on potential customers finding their website simply because the content is not written in Spanish. Doing so ignores a large population of locals who search Google in their native language.
To connect with a Hispanic audience in organic search results, you’ll need web pages with actual Spanish content. Unfortunately, many business owners try to cut corners and costs by skimping on quick tactics like translating existing content using Google Translator or adding a translation feature to a website rather than creating actual web pages with Spanish content.
As we mentioned above, not all Hispanics speak the same dialect of Spanish. While most Latino people can understand essential Spanish words, there can be significant differences in Latin languages. A person from Puerto Rico understands content written for them versus someone who is Cuban, Mexican, Dominican or Brazilian, who may not entirely understand every word.
Content Writers Specializing In Spanish Transcreation
When hiring a content writer to translate your existing content written in English to Spanish, you’ll need to keep a few things in mind to gain the most out of your content written to target Latinos. We ask our clients who their Hispanic and Latin Americans are so we can have the right content writer work on the translation. It’s our way to ensure the content can be understood and read by the people it is meant for.
If a business wants to target Brazilian customers in local search results they’ll need a content writer who is familiar with the Portuguese language. Another example of using different writing styles applies to creating content for Puerto Ricans versus Mexicans. While they both speak Spanish, their speaking languages are not the same just like differences in American (USA) and British (UK) English.
The content writer you hire to do your Spanish translation will need to be familiar with the native language you need your content written in. When seeking a content translator make sure to ask what Spanish language they write in to make sure your customers can understand it.
Best Way To Translate Content To Spanish
The best option for translating content on your website from English to Spanish is to use a human. A professional content writer who specializes in content translations will take your existing web content and will rewrite it so Spanish-speaking users are greeted by a well-written page. Just like Americans who have issues with business websites that have blatant grammatical errors and typos so do Latinos who are searching for answers online. They will leave a website if the content doesn’t make sense due to a bad translation.
Common Mistakes When Creating Spanish Content For Websites
The temptation to automate content translation writing by using a bot or AI service is understandable however a complete waste of your content marketing budget. If you do not know how to read Spanish then how do you expect to know what you just translated? Content bots and AIs are the worst choices you can make to write Spanish content followed closely by Google Translator and WordPress content translation plugins. You are writing content for humans so avoid using automated content services if you want your translated web pages to get found in Google results.
Do Not Use Google Translator
The Google Translator is a great tool to use when you need a quick translation online in any language. The Google translation tool however is horrible for translating content written in English to Spanish. While it does translate the text into a version a Spanish-speaking person can understand, it doesn’t mean it reads the same or even correctly.
Do Not Use a Website Plugin To Translate Web Content
Due to cultural and linguistic differences between Hispanics and Latin Americans, website translator features may produce results that come across as confusing or offensive due to “lost in translation”. While website translation tools are a great way to allow website users to quickly change the text on the page to their native language, the translated text may not read the same.
The other downside to using a language translator tool on a website is the translation is topical meaning it is dynamically generated only on the browser of the person using it rather than being an actual page that Google can index into its search results. Website translation plugins and modules will not help with SEO at all because the original page is still written in English and will only be served when someone searches in the same language in Google.