Translate Your Website for Free

Recently, we were asked about creating a website in multiple languages, so that all potential clients could access it. However, to minimize development costs, it was not an option to tap into the expensive susbscription services offered by some translation service providers which typically range from $50 to $250 per month.

And while there were popular widget-based services which redirected users to external websites, these were not a viable option. We wanted all users to have a seamless experience. Or in other words, we didn’t want to point users to an external website, or have them submitted to third-party ads.

Introducing Google Translate

After some consideration, we decided that Google Translate was the best fit. When compared to other services, it has a high degree of accuracy, is fast, and does not seem to be subject to certain page-view limitations like many other free services. If Google is not your flavor, you might also try the popular services by Applied Language and Yahoo’s Babel Fish (recently acquired from Alta Vista).

The only problem with these services is that the url in the browser’s address bar reveals that users have been sent to external websites. To fix this problem, you can load all external pages within an invisible frame, which acts as a container and masks the external url. This way, users don’t ever completely leave your website.

Want to see this article in Spanish? Click here.