If your website needs to be understood globally then adding Google’s translate tool could be for you! Google is a globally trusted brand, it’s translate tool can easily be added to any site and works in a flash.
Currently, over half a million websites worldwide use the Google Translate plugin, with the vast majority being based in the United States. Google Translate currently supports 103 languages, it is used by over 200 million people daily and is free to use and install.
Like any plugin, Google Translate has, it’s positives and negatives. It’s free and it works at lightning speed, almost ‘click to translate’. It can, however, not always convey the correct message when translating from English to other languages. Whether that be nuanced technical terminology or the correct grammar and sentence structure, it does have its failings.
It is a very easy plugin to install but it can look awkward on some sites where it can stand out from the clean design. Some alternatives we believe are worth checking out include –
- Polylang – Free and easy to use as both a developer and user. Constantly updated and scores highly amongst users it currently has over 300k active instalations.
- WPML – This is a paid plugin and one of the more popular multilingual tools used across the web. It comes with one year of premium support and it also connects with professional translators, so you can make sure your message is being correctly translated into any language.
Here at Sleeky, we design and build websites for companies who do business with the whole World, so it’s important for them to be able to communicate effectively in as many languages as possible.
Norvic Aero Engines are one of the leading aircraft engine overhaul companies in the UK, however, they work with clients across the globe. They asked us to install the Google Translate tool on their home page to make it easy for visitors to quickly navigate their site.
In summary, Google Translate may not be perfect for every website, but it’s free and easy for the user to operate on their page and is a suitable solution for most SME’s.
