Translating a Web site is very time consuming and quite expensive, depending on the complexity of the web content. Some content such as company profile may have to re-written due to difference culture and values for two languages. However, for some standard products/services such as computer and consumer products, a translation might not be entirely necessary. Also, for some technical specifications or products, English is often sufficient, since buyers are used to reading English around the world. Of course, if you want to penetrate deeply into a local market, it is always recommended to translate all of web pages instead of part of it. .

To start with web translation, you can just translate the most important pages of your Web site such as company profile, contact, enquiry, support etc in order to "hook" the interest of your visitor, demonstrating that you are quite ready to do business locally. For some technical specifications, you can have the caption written in the native language and then continue in English for the details. This is better than no translation at all, and is a lot more affordable than a full-blown Web site translation. As a fully translated web site may take months or even years to finish, it is always recommended to do the web translation in phases. Meantime , you could evaluate how the web translation can help you in terms of sales volume before you go deeper into the web site.

Which languages to translate first ? Localizing your Web site resembles software or book localization: you have to consider the potential market for this particular country before you decide to translate the web site into her native language. Of course, f you do want to give your customer an impression of having global presence, it is common to have English, Chinese, Japanese, German, Spanish and French versions of your Web site. Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Russian and Scandinavian languages are next in importance, because of the big online population in those countries.