Like any other business decision, determining whether to translate your website includes cost and benefit considerations. If your primary market is non-English speaking, the decision makes itself. But perhaps you’re still missing markets you could be reaching. If you’re on the fence, here are a few reasons why you might need a professional language translation of your online content.

1. Your intended audience makes it worthwhile: Maybe you already do business with markets overseas, or maybe your strategic plan calls for international expansion. In either case, your website is as important as any other aspect of your brand management. Your customers in new markets will be far more welcoming of your company if they can access information about you and your product in their own language. If you are already doing business overseas or are planning to, professional language translation of your web content is essential.

2. You work with out-sourced producers: Sourcing production work to some foreign markets often makes good fiscal sense. But in bi-national trade, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Your producers gain from their operation and have their own cost-benefit decisions to make. Your website is an important way to let them know they have a committed partner. If you work with overseas producers, reaching the best and most reliable production companies requires a professionally translated website.

3. Your product details require it: If you sell t-shirts or novelties, maybe translation isn’t important. Pictures say enough about some products. But if you market high-tech products or services, or if you serve an industry where specifications and details matter, professional language translation can ensure that your website contains the right technical language for expert consumers. Compliance standards, industry regulations, and other variables may even require that your product include translated specifications. No matter what, if you’re targeting a niche market, a professional translation service can do what no online translation software can – it can deliver your exact message with the accuracy and precision required by your field.

4. It saves time and money: One Information Age perk that businesses often take advantage of is the ability to serve customers with limited staff time. Your website provides your customers with a place to find answers to their questions, information about your company, and to make purchases – all without time-consuming, costly personnel support. Translating your website through a professional language translation service gives your international customers access to information that saves you time and money.

Only you can decide when the time is right to invest in a professional translation service. The above situations are just a few in which that decision might make sense. If your site statistics include foreign visitors, if your customers are eager for native-language support, if your plan includes reaching new markets – in all these situations and many more, the time might be right for you to invest in a professional translations. It could be an investment that pays untold dividends.