Add Google Translation To Your Website And Become Truly International
Is your website optimised for International visitors? You should never assume that although you yourself only speak or read English, your visitors might not. There is a free solution from Google Translation Services that can solve this problem for you, so why not use it.
I myself had indeed built my own website thecorner4women.com without ever realizing, or giving much thought to anyone but English speaking people. It never even occurred to me at the time, as I busied myself with the usual HTML struggles all webmasters and website designers go through. Although the common international unwritten language rule on the Internet is undoubtedly, web pages constructed in English, and indeed many sites will not accept postings in any other language. The Internet itself is expanding exponentially, into more countries, the infrastructure and availability through libraries, Internet cafes and the increase in home Telecommunication Systems with cable, dial up and the faster Broadband, all offering greater access by visitors globally. China, being a newly developing Internet country with its millions of eager nationals, all wanting to visit western websites.
INTERNET DEVELOPMENT
The Internet was originally founded in the late 1960's, and indeed established by English speaking people, notably the USA with its universities, being instrumental in its invention and future growth and development. Libraries, scientist's engineers and the US Government Departments were its main users, plus a lot of computer nerds, the innovative 60's "Whiz Kids" who formed the backbone of Internet Development, and indeed many of the original Internet Business's and other computer enhancements. So it was only natural that English was the first and only language used, with what after all was basically a text based infrastructure, which was not very stable or user friendly at the time, but it all played a vital roll in the birth of the Internet we all love/hate and know it today.
WHY OFFER OR ADD TRANSLATION ANYWAY?
As mentioned above I'd built my own website thecorner4women.com assuming every visitor could naturally read English. Oh! How fickle I was, and I happily continued building page after page without a care in the world. Then one day my partner and editor Luella May received an e-mail from a lady visitor from Spain saying how she had loved our site. Now this may seem strange to most, but the concept of my humble site actually being visited by a person whose first language was Spanish and not English, was mind blowing to say the least, and it was at this single point in time that I truly realized how international the Internet really was. It also showed me a fundamental flaw in my otherwise perfect (well in my eyes at least, LOL) website design. Luella May in fact originates from Cuba and speaks and reads Spanish, everything suddenly making complete sense. My site was not optimized for none English speaking/reading visitors. Indeed I also realized that non-English speaking/reading people were in every country throughout the world and not just confined to their own country of origin. I needed a solution, and I needed one fast.
THE GOOGLE TRANSLATOR CODE
After extensive searches I decided to use Google's Translation code snippet to add a good reliable and trusted service to my website. I've included the link to a text file below, with a small selection of languages to get anyone started, save it to your computer as a .txt. Simply copy and paste this code onto the page, using your html editor, where you'd like it to appear. There are lots more languages available from google
http://www.google.co.uk/language_tools?hl=en and by modifying the option value lines you can easily include a larger selection.
http://thecorner4women.com/DOCUMENTS/Google-Translator-Code.txtIN CONCLUSION
By offering simple translation on your own website pages, you open up another area of potential visitors who would otherwise find it difficult to fully understand your site. Your website would be better optimised in the process and be offering a more valuable service to your potential visitors from the Global Internet community. Many sites continue as they are and fail to comprehend the benefits for everyone, and neglect to capitalize on the non-English speaking/reading people of the world. Offering translations allows you to become a true International entity on the Internet.
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About the Author
John Elliott Aka Oaky Wood is currently the Agony Uncle and Co-Founder of The Corner 4 Women.com ©2006 Is a Poet, Writer, Artist, Webmaster and Designer. He is also the owner of the Oakwood Grafix ©2005 group of websites
