We know that trying to find someone qualified to translate your SaaS, website, app, UI/UX, marketing collateral, or any other text can seem like a daunting task. You want to avoid scammers and ensure that your translation will yield the results you’re after, whether that’s attracting more business, increasing brand awareness, improving communication between teams, etc.

Panic not! Choosing the right translation agency or team is easier than it seems: all you need to do is look out for some basic indicators of professionalism and ethics. The question of how to choose the right translator is simple to answer when you can ensure they have the below:

• Documented translation training
• Documented translation experience
• Industry expertise (i.e., tourism, health care, marketing, etc.)
• Responsibility towards data protection (e.g., by being members of ICO, like us)
• Professional accreditations (by associations such as ATA, ITI, CIOL, etc., of which we are members)
• Native-level proficiency in the target language
• Positive online reviews and testimonials (like a Business Excellence Award!)
• A well-written website
• Solid online presence
• Industry reputation
• Responsive communication
• Flexibility

There are a number of ways to go about charging for translation services when it comes to website and software localisation. We can charge per hour, per type of collateral (e.g., blog post, newsletter, landing page, etc.); per word, or others.

For some of our clients we work on a retainer, to some others we offer a flat fee for certain projects, so it varies a lot. We will need you to get in touch for a personalised quote, as many factors need to be weighed in (such as language combination, turn-around time, tools, format, etc.).

For you to have a rough idea, our hourly rate is between £60 and £80, our per-page rate when we translate official documents (such as birth certificates, travel documentation related to COVID-19, etc.) for private clients is approximately £80, and our per-word rate fluctuates in the range of £0.25 to £0.40. Read more about pricing structures on this blog post.

We mainly translate from English into Spanish (both Latin American and European) and from Spanish into English (both American and British).

However, we also provide other European language translation services, such as combinations between Italian, French, German, and Portuguese (both Brazilian and European). If you need any other language combinations, do get in touch as we might be able to refer you to a qualified professional who can look after you.

We are scattered throughout the world. We have offices in London, UK (in the beautiful area of Kingston-Upon-Thames); in Córdoba, Argentina; and in Barcelona, Spain.

For first-time private clients, we usually request a 50% advance payment and the rest will be due upon delivery of the translated file.

For our SaaS clients, we submit one monthly invoice due at 15 days, or we arrange a retainer contract.

Translation involves transferring the content of a text quite literally from one language to another. It’s ideal for content that doesn’t involve culturally specific references.

Localisation involves adapting texts for a specific market by acknowledging the target culture, habits, and mindset. It goes beyond simple translation.

Transcreation is a blend between “translation” and “creation” and is used for advertisement content, mainly. It focuses on the intended impact of your message and is closer to copywriting than to translation.

We know this is hard to grasp, so we explain it in simple terms on this page.

SEO translation is all about tailoring a brand’s messaging and content to regional audiences through on-page and off-page search engine optimisation.

It sounds pretty straightforward, but there’s a big difference between knowing which words and phrases to use and truly understanding what they mean in the context of a given region.

The need for translation has become greater than ever before, but it’s no longer enough to translate keywords. The localisation of content and of SEO efforts is more than just an exercise of replacing words; it requires understanding the culture, the way people think and talk about certain things there, what resonates with them and how they express themselves in search.

Learn more about SEO translation in this guide.

Google Translate is one of the forms of machine translation, also known as automatic translation. Google Translate and other similar tools work by automatically converting words and phrases, with no human input, from one language into another.

This software bases its results either on statistical analysis or on neural networks (neural machine translation), and they are sometimes really accurate! Machine translation can be particularly useful for specific use cases (such as user-generated content that is highly perishable).

However, machine translation only works well with small factual snippets of text where the meaning is unambiguous and there’s no creativity involved. Because they work with words and not with language (unlike human translators), machines cannot understand the nuances of language and the emotion behind it. Neither can they spot mistakes in the source text.

As a result, content aimed at eliciting an emotional response in your audience with the purpose of getting them to buy from you should be left in the hands of human experts. While you might need to make a sizable upfront investment, it will save you money long-term by skyrocketing your ROI.