Do you want to reach Chinese-speaking markets? Chinese website translation is a core step for reaching a huge and growing global population. But, there are some best practices to follow and common mistakes you'll want to avoid.
Chinese is the world's second most spoken language. It makes sense that you want your products to reach people in Chinese-speaking markets.
Translating your website is increasingly necessary to reach these customers. According to research, 92% of buyers in the People's Republic of China are more likely to buy a product with content in the local language and 52% will only buy from websites and apps in their own language.
If you don't translate your website into Chinese, you risk missing out on a very lucrative online market.
But, you need to translate your website correctly or your efforts may be in vain…
How to reliably translate a website from English to Chinese
If you want to translate your website into Chinese, you need to get strategic about your website content.
Moving into a Chinese-speaking market is not always an easy task. In the rankings for how easy it is to do business in different global markets, the USA ranks the 6th easiest market in the world. The People's Republic of China is 31st.
However, Chinese-speaking markets can be very lucrative if you approach them in the right way. Not all the markets are equally difficult to enter. For example, Singapore ranks as the 2nd easiest market to enter and Hong Kong ranks as 3rd.
If you want success in the Chinese-speaking world, translating your website in the right way is a vital first step.
6 best practices for Chinese website translation
Here are 6 things that you should do when localizing your website for Chinese-speaking markets:
1. Be clear on the markets you serve
Not all Chinese-speaking markets are the same. Each has a different culture and may require differently translated content.
Start by identifying those markets that you will serve. Then, work with your translation provider to ensure that the translations will meet the needs of those markets. For example, Singapore requires content written in simplified Chinese while Hong Kong uses traditional Chinese.
2. Learn the buying habits of your markets
Companies sometimes make the mistake of assuming that they can sell their products using the same processes as in their home market. You should become deeply familiar with the buying habits and payment systems in your target markets.
The buying habits in Chinese-speaking markets can differ greatly from those you are used to. Most payments in the People's Republic of China are made without banks through mobile payment platforms. You need to be familiar with systems like Alipay, WeChat, and others. Other aspects like fulfillment, returns, and customer services are also extremely important and likely to vary.
Remember, if you can't get paid by people in the market and send products to them, there is no point in translating your content for that market.
3. Use the right character encoding
On the technical side, one key step to remember is that your content will be displayed using either simplified or traditional Chinese.
These writing systems require an extensive set of extra characters that are not included in some character encodings. For example, ASCII is what is known as a "single-byte" character encoding, so each character requires only one byte of computer memory. For both Chinese writing systems, you need double-byte encoding or variable-byte encoding such as UTF-8.
4. Ensure your systems and fonts support Chinese
Even if you know your website supports Chinese characters, your font and other display features might not support written Chinese. There are over 20,000 characters in written Chinese. This number is almost doubled to support both traditional and simplified Chinese.
Many fonts have been designed for Latin characters only (those used in English). For example, at time of writing only 12 of the 1359 families on Google Fonts are designed for Chinese. You have probably spent a lot of time and effort selecting the best fonts for your brand for your English content. You should also do the same for your Chinese content.
5. Host your website in China
A common hurdle that our clients have to cross is the requirement for Chinese business websites to be hosted in the People's Republic of China.
We have found that Chinese-language websites hosted elsewhere tend to receive very low traffic and very low search results. This is likely the result of a set of legislative actions and technologies often referred to as The Great Firewall
6. Involve your translation provider early
One of the best moves you can make to improve your company's success in your Chinese markets is to involve your translation provider as early as possible.
A good translation provider will help you look strategically at your Chinese-language content. They will help you make the right decisions from the start to avoid costly mistakes further down the line.
6 things to avoid with Chinese website translation
There are also some things that you shouldn't do when you are translating your website into Chinese.
These include:
1. Thinking of Chinese as one language and market
If you approach Chinese as a single language and market, you could end up with content that doesn't perform as well as it should.
Start with the conservative assumption that each market will require different treatment. This is extremely important with the payment and fulfillment issues we mentioned above as these can vary hugely across markets. Your translation provider will then be able to identify where you can reuse translated content for different markets.
2. Focusing on translation instead of localization
Companies often wrongly assume that preparing their website for another market only means translating the written language.
It's important to remember that translating your website content is not enough. You likely need to fully localize the website. This involves preparing the images and other media for the target market. For example, various images are banned in the People's Republic of China so you couldn't use them on your website. Some of these restrictions are surprising and not obvious, such as images of the children's cartoon Winnie the Pooh.
3. Assuming or ignoring legal issues
Legalities are a part of any expansion into any new market. With the Chinese language, there is a raft of legal issues that you simply cannot know about without specialist legal knowledge of the markets.
For example, Chinese domain names are managed by the CNNIC: China Internet Network Information Center. There is a fairly rigorous process in place to register your domain name and you will need an ICP license. There is also the PRC Personal Information Protection Law, China's law on collecting and processing personal data.
Never assume the legality of your website content. It's always advisable to involve a lawyer who deeply understands the market you are moving into.
4. Going into the markets blindly
The internet has made it easier than ever for us to move into new markets. This is a great opportunity. But, it can also be mean that companies try to expand globally before they fully understand what they're doing.
The People's Republic of China is a good example of this. Companies often worry about counterfeiting in this market. However, with the right strategic approach and local advice, you can significantly reduce the risks of people counterfeiting your products.
5. Missing opportunities to localize your brand
The better you localize your brand for your Chinese-speaking markets, the more you are likely to see success.
For example, some companies choose to keep their brand name in English. This may be the right move for you, but you equally might miss out by now localizing your brand name. Nestlé, for example, translated its brand name to 雀巢咖啡 (sparrow nest coffee) in Chinese. This is a great translation as the original word "Nestle" is a German dialect surname, meaning small nest.
6. Assuming SEO will be the same
Search engine optimization (SEO) can be a complex topic in any part of the world. However, in the People's Republic of China, it can be especially tricky to get right.
Don't assume that the SEO strategies that work in your home market will still work in all Chinese-speaking markets. There is a whole process that you must follow when setting up and running your website or it will be penalized by Baidu, the major search engine in the People's Republic of China.
Should you translate your website into Chinese?
The decision to translate your website into Chinese isn't one to be taken lightly. However, it can be a very lucrative move for your company.
If you would like to discuss your chosen languages with a global content strategist, just get in contact and one of our team will help you.
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