If you’re planning to expand your business in Italy, translating your website into Italian is a necessary part of your strategy. Having a website that speaks the language of your target clients – that is to say the Italian market – means increasing its visibility, simplifying communication with your target, and earning your clients’ trust.

So, let’s look at five tips for translating your website into Italian.

Why have your website translated into Italian?

In their aptly titled “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” report, CSA Research describes how 65% of their polled Internet users prefer content in their own language. But it’s not only a matter of preferences: up to 40% of users will not buy from websites in other languages! As a consequence, it’s very important to provide your potential clients with information and content they can properly appreciate.

In fact, a properly executed website translation into Italian will help you convey your message in a natural way, as if it were conceived in Italian for Italians. And if you have decided to translate your website from English to Italian, don’t forget these five tips:

1) Take the cultural context into account;

2) Make a glossary;

3) Translate media;

4) Watch out for SEO;

5) Don’t use machine translation or Google Translate.

Five tips for translating your website into Italian

1)Take the cultural context into account

The first thing to do when you start planning a website translation into Italian is to really think about who it is for. Before even deciding on the technical details of how to publish the translation, you should do a culture check.

Make sure you are properly localizing your website content so that your target can fully appreciate your offer. Remember to localize punctuation (yes, punctuation!), currencies, and units of measurements – when you grow up using the metric system nothing else really makes sense!

2) Make a glossary

Yes, I wrote “make” and not “use” a glossary. It’s important to keep your English to Italian translation consistent in the chosen terms, especially when it comes to terminology that’s specific to your business. A common mistake I’ve often seen is using different translations of the same word throughout a website.

Let’s take the word “cabin” as an example, which is much loved in travel portals and websites. I’ve seen it translated across different pages of the same site, first as “capanna” then as “cottage” and even more. While all of them are acceptable translations, it’s better to only choose one, so the potential client can have the correct idea regarding your offer. (Also, let’s be honest, while both can be used, only one is the appropriate choice and, as I’ve mentioned in a separate article, only an Italian native translator specialized in marketing and tourism can provide the correct translation).

3) Translate media

Your website might contain more than just text; for example, you might have added graphics with text, or audio and video content. Make sure to localize these media as well and, if localization is not possible (or is planned for a later date), provide captions or subtitles.

This tip is really important: it helps you to better connect with your target, but also improves the accessibility and searchability of your website.

4) Watch out for SEO

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, essentially means helping your potential target find your website on Google. Optimizing your content for search engines doesn’t simply mean translating a list of keywords: it’s an optimization that requires additional work and starts with a deep knowledge of Italian language and customs.

5) Don’t use machine translation or Google Translate

Google Translate can give outstanding results when used on text of simple and medium complexity, but how would it do with your website translation into Italian?

You probably don’t have to wonder too much, we’ve all seen examples of automatically translated websites. Generally, there are plugins that integrate with your website to offer the power of Google Translate right your pages: you might have landed at some point on a website that looks translated into dozens of languages. Walking this path gives you no control over the text that ends up on your website: you might find out that the text in your pages gives false information or is even offensive.

Having a professional marketing translator carry out your website translation into Italian means taking care of the image you project as a brand. If you are looking to translate your website or travel portal from English into Italian, I will be more than happy to take a look and provide you with a non-binding quote. Head to my contact page and reach out!