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Translation - art & business » Marketing for language professionals »
How should we make our first website for our translation agency?
Thread poster: Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson
Fredrik Pettersson  Identity Verified
Hong Kong
Local time: 03:02
Member (2009)
English to Swedish
+ ...
Jan 21, 2010

How should we make our first website for our translation agency?

We started our business a few months ago, and now only have a homepage (one page)
on our website, briefly describing our translation agency (English-Chinese translations).

Now, we have hired a professional Chinese website designer that will make the website
layout more professional for us. He will do this during the next 2-3 weeks. The site will
be in both English and Chinese.

... See more
How should we make our first website for our translation agency?

We started our business a few months ago, and now only have a homepage (one page)
on our website, briefly describing our translation agency (English-Chinese translations).

Now, we have hired a professional Chinese website designer that will make the website
layout more professional for us. He will do this during the next 2-3 weeks. The site will
be in both English and Chinese.

I think that we should just give the basic ideas (the overall outline) to the website designer, and then he and his team use their expertise to find the best solutions.

However, certain areas are of importance such as to clearly present what areas and types
of documents we can translate. I have found a way to very clearly make a top-level division
of about six very general areas, which are then further subdivided (each into about 5-10 sub-
level areas). For instance: Business>>>Financial law, marketing, etc.

Then, for each sub-level area, we will list quite a lot of document types that are relevant for that
particular sub-level area, and that our Chinese translators have the competence to translate. These
document types are taken from a 100 % reliable source, it's the most comprehensive collection of document types that exist! And we choose those document types that are relevant for each sub-level area, and that we have the capability to translate.

Also the sub-level areas are taken from a 100 % reliable source and are all-encompassing. We select
to publish those sub-level areas that we have competence for, and also those that there is a market for regarding English to Chinese translation.

Isn't this a good idea, even though the list in some instances (for some sub-level areas) could be quite long, quite many different document types.

I reason like this: If I'm a customer, and come to our website, a newly established small translation agency without any established customer relationships and without any personal networking yet, I want to quickly find the document type that lay before me on my work desk and that I need to get translated. So, I navigate in a very clear tree-structure for our areas of expertise and types of documents furthest down at the sub-level areas. And find what I was searching for, the exact document type I was looking for.

My Chinese colleague wants to add explanations instead of making this detailed tree-structure, add explanations to the top-level and some of the sub-levels. Explanations about that area. I think that is unnecessary, because I'm as a customer don't care about information about things I already know about, I just want to quickly find out which areas we can handle, and which documents we can handle.
Isn't this correct? ▲ Collapse
 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 04:02
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Keep it simple Jan 21, 2010

As a customer I would appreciate a simple form for uploading docs so that you can make an offer.
You never know what kind of documents the customer will send. Many customers do not know themselves. So I doubt if a complicated structure would satisfy the public.
Make sure your PM can handle all kinds of docs and does not make the mistake of sending partially pre-translated documents but no TM to the translators. (Happened to me yesterday).

Regards
Heinrich
 
Laurent KRAULAND (X)
Laurent KRAULAND (X)  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 03:02
French to German
+ ...
There also is a forum... Jan 21, 2010

for translation agency owners: http://www.proz.com/forum/translation_agencies-57.html

[Edited at 2010-01-21 08:12 GMT]
 
Tom Feise
Tom Feise  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:02
English to German
+ ...
KISS Jan 21, 2010

as in keep it short, simple (other variations abound).

A potential client looking at your web site may not know exactly as what kind of document you would classify it, and he/she is definitely not interested in that. He wants to know how much it costs and when you can have it ready.

That's it.

Anything more on an introductory web site would be an overkill, and if you list certain things, you will definitely have forgotten something you can translate as well... See more
as in keep it short, simple (other variations abound).

A potential client looking at your web site may not know exactly as what kind of document you would classify it, and he/she is definitely not interested in that. He wants to know how much it costs and when you can have it ready.

That's it.

Anything more on an introductory web site would be an overkill, and if you list certain things, you will definitely have forgotten something you can translate as well, but because you hadn't listed it, a potential client with just that sort of thing would go elsewhere.

So giving too much detail would also mean limiting yourselves to these, which may just be incomplete...

You should, however, not forget to link or embed files from ProZ. ▲ Collapse
 


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How should we make our first website for our translation agency?


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