At least in theory!
Unfortunately, the reality at this point in time is that while we have the ability to share our ideas with one another, we still have to get around the language barriers inherent in cross-cultural communication.
As webmasters, there was little else we could do in the past but link to sites like Google Translator or BabelFish and tell foreign visitors to copy and paste our sites’ URLs into these translation engines to convert each page into their native language–a solution that not only created a time-consuming and tedious (and for some, perhaps confusing) burden for our visitors, but also forced them to click away from our site, opening up the possibility of them simply not coming back!
This is where the free ConveyThis website translation button shines.
ConveyThis combines the power of all the major online translators and condenses them into a small, elegant button that can fit into any site’s layout or design with ease. Once added to the site, visitors need only to hover their mouse over the button. A drop-down menu will appear with a list of supported languages on it (as of this post, 29 languages are supported, with more being added regularly). Visitors select a language from the list, then choose from a number of popular translators (including Babel Fish, Google, WorldLingo, Kwintessential, SDL, Live Translator, Promt, and InterTran). After selecting the translator, the page refreshes, translated into their language of preference with their translator of choice. No clicking away to other sites, no copying and pasting URLs, just two clicks and your site’s content is instantly conveyed!
In addition to getting your content out to the widest audience possible (and undoubtedly increasing your site’s so-called “stickiness” substantially!), there is an additional benefit: by adding the ConveyThis button, you can periodically log back in to the ConveyThis site and view all kinds of data, including how many times your page was displayed, how many times it was translated, and what languages and translators were used most often. These invaluable statistics can help you target your content and keep track of which markets you’re attracting.
And the process is just as simple for you, the webmaster, to add to your website or blog. In just three easy steps, you can have the button up and running on your site.
Step 1: Visit the main ConveyThis page at http://www.conveythis.com/ and click on “REGISTER” at the top-right.
Step 2: Enter your email address and desired username and password.
Step 3: Click on “Get your button code here” and choose the language your site is written in and the button design you want to use. A small snippet of JavaScript is generated, which you can then paste directly into your website wherever you want the ConveyThis button to appear. That’s all there is to it!
You can see ConveyThis in action right here at Web Analytics World, where Manoj has added the button to the top of each post, immediately to the right of the AddThis social bookmarking button. To add it to your own site, register for a free account at http://www.conveythis.com/ and begin “conveying” your content today!
(With many thanks to Manoj for offering me the opportunity to introduce you to ConveyThis through his great blog!)
