20 Updates to Make to Your Translation or Interpreting Website in 2020
It’s no secret that having an online presence is a vital component for any business. I’d argue that it’s even more important for professional freelance translators and interpreters to have a dynamic website these days.
A website, as I’ve often said, is like a virtual welcome mat for potential clients and a familiar place for current ones. But I talk to so many freelance translators and interpreters whose websites are incredibly outdated. Some have even told me that they’re embarrassed by their current websites and that they avoid giving the link to potential clients.
And while I realize that taking on a website revamp feels like a massive undertaking, the hardest part is usually just getting started. With a good process and a bit of scheduling, you can update your website little by little, making the overall project a lot less daunting.
Even if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands between all the client projects you take on and personal commitments, every freelance translator and interpreter can tackle these 20 website updates with just a few minutes a day. Within weeks, you can have an improved website on your hands—you don't need to do a complete overhaul to improve your online game!
Set the Stage for a Solid First Impression
1) Update your business logo. For a lot of translators and interpreters, a fresh logo gives them the little boost of motivation they need to take the next step in updating their website. If your logo feels outdated, or if you're just itching for a change, contact a few freelance graphic designers for a quote. Even if you don’t have the money for a new logo right now, taking the step to find out the cost will give you an idea of how much you need to save. If your current logo still fits the brand you want to portray, make sure that it doesn’t appear fuzzy or pixelated on certain screens or in print documents. I noticed this once with a previous logo I had and it was simply a matter of asking a graphic designer to adjust it.
2) Make sure the colors on your site reflect your logo and brand. Colors convey meaning. When it comes to your professional brand, how do you want clients to perceive you? Do the colors on your website reflect the image you want to portray? Are your colors complementary, or do you feel like they could use a little tweaking? Try your best to stick to a color palette that aligns with your ideal client's preferences and your own. This may seem hard to do at first, but you can definitely find a compromise. If you are unsure about this, just choose your main colors based on your brand and know that you can always go back to your website later and update any complementary colors as well.
Need a bit of inspiration? Take a look at these color scheme ideas from Canva.
3) Use white space to your advantage. Even though it’s becoming more common to use white space, it is still an often overlooked design element. Have you ever visited a website that had too much visual clutter? White space, also called “negative space,” is not to be confused with wasted space. Instead, it is a way for you to guide the reader’s eye from one element of your website to the next. It also increases the readability of your website. Check out how our colleague Veronika Demichelis uses white space to guide the site visitor from one element on her Home page to the next. She still uses plenty of text to relay her message, but it isn’t overwhelming!
4) Update the layout of your Home page. The layout of our websites will greatly affect whether or not our site visitors are willing to read what we share with them. Have you ever visited a website that had so much text on it, you didn't even know where to begin?
We all have.
Before you write too much, consider this. Make a note of what is most essential for your ideal clients to know:
Who you are
How you can help them overcome their challenges and achieve their goals
Why you’re the right person for the job
That’s it!
One layout I particularly like, and one that clients find easy to navigate visually, is the Z-pattern. This layout allows you to guide site visitors from one piece of content to the next in the form of a Z-pattern. Site visitors will know what to read and where to look next because you’ve intentionally placed images and text to show them the path.
Take our colleague Barbara Grigoletto’s website, for example. She did an excellent job of using the Z-pattern on her Home page.
5) Test various font sizes, colors and contrast. It may seem like a small thing to choose a font, but when you consider these little (but important!) details, you can better understand why some websites are easier to read than others. If clients have a hard time reading your site content because the font is too small or the weight of the font is too light, they can easily click away to a site that is easier to read.
And who wants that?
Take the time to consider your fonts, font colors and even the contrast of your font colors against the background images and color of your site. When you make it easy for site visitors to consume your content, you increase the chances of them sticking around longer!
6) Use images that appeal to your ideal client. When it comes to what images to choose for your site, it can be tough to know what will look best. The key is to convey to your clients that you are the right choice for them.
So, how do you choose the right images to convey this?
Well, first, you have to understand your ideal clients. Take some time to create an ideal client profile, and you’ll find that you can more easily reduce the number of choices you have to make. If your client base is mostly direct clients in the field of aviation, for example, choose images that show them you understand their field and that you’re a professional they’d want to partner with. Oh! And don’t forget to include a professional headshot of yourself on your About page. Everyone likes to see who they’re working with!
7) Shorten your copy. I know. I’m wordy. What about you?
But the thing is… clients don’t want to have to sift through a lot of copy to find what they’re looking for.
Instead, make your web copy concise and just tell them the most important details. Save the rest for a phone call or email when they enquire about your services. Use bulleted lists where possible (on your Services page, for example), and keep paragraphs short and crisp. Busy clients need to get to the point fast, so do them the favor of providing only the essential information.
8) Use appealing and catchy headlines. The power of headlines is highly underrated.
Did you know that headlines have huge SEO power?
That’s right. By using keywords and phrases in your headlines, you increase the chances that your ideal clients will find you online. Headlines are also an important visual aspect of your site. When you use appealing headlines that pop off the page, site visitors will pay attention!
9) Update the links on your website. You don’t like coming across broken links or 404 Error pages, right? Well, neither do your clients.
There’s plenty of research to show that when site visitors come across broken links or 404 Error pages, they simply click away to another site.
Don’t let this happen.
Schedule two times a year when you go through your website and test all the links (both in your navigation menu and hyperlinked text) to make sure they still work. Update any pages and links that are no longer relevant or useful, and check this little tweak off your list.
Build Trust with Your Content
10) Gather and share testimonials! Testimonials are an overlooked marketing tool. These days, checking customer reviews and asking for referrals is common practice. So, while there’s not an app yet to check translation or interpreting client reviews, why not let your potential clients know how much your current clients enjoy working with you?
Take the time to gather a few client testimonials a year, and before long, you’ll have a handful of first-hand experiences you can share as part of your online marketing strategy. The key is to have a good variety of testimonials to share!
11) Craft a more creative About page. Consider what your clients really want to know when they come across your website. Is it where you earned your degrees or why you love a certain language?
While those are nice details for a friendly conversation, they’re not really what clients are looking for when they land on your website.
Instead, utilize the prime real estate on your website to share what sets you apart from other translators or interpreters and what makes you a solid translation or interpreting partner for a client.
Why are you an expert in your area(s) of specialization?
What obstacles do you help clients overcome?
Share this information about yourself, but frame it in a way that shows how you serve your clients by adding more value than what they even thought possible. I've shared some tips on how to do just that.
Speaking of value…
12) Mention the value you provide, and leave pricing for a future conversation. Too often I see translators mentioning that they offer competitive or reasonable rates. And while this might seem like the way to hook a client from the onset, it actually plants the idea in a client’s mind that they can negotiate with you if they feel your prices are too high.
Instead, mention the value you provide to your clients and the work that they do.
Why are you the best choice for them to be able to achieve their goals?
When you use your website to share your value, rather than your pricing, you have the opportunity to shape the conversation with new clients and attract the right ones for you.
13) Craft your copy in a way that builds trust. People like to work with those they know, like, and trust. And while your potential clients may not know you yet, they can certainly learn a lot about you from what you share on your website. So, let your personality shine through in your copy so they can start to garner trust in your work before they ever sign on the dotted line.
14) Provide a link to your professional affiliations and organizations. When you belong to a professional association, you send a signal to potential clients that you care about the work you do and that you’re willing to put in the time for professional development in your field.
Sharing your affiliations with reputable organizations also adds another layer of trust to the client-provider relationship.
Instead of simply naming the associations to which you belong, display their logos (with permission, of course) proudly and link them directly to their home pages. Bonus points if you link the logos to your directory profile/listing on your associations’ sites!
15) Let people see the real you. Not everyone wants to provide a photo of themselves on their website.
I get that.
But don’t you prefer to see who it is you’re doing business with?
Well, so do your clients.
Spring for a set of professional headshots, and choose your favorite one to add to your Home, About, and/or Contact pages of your website. Again, people like to do business with those they know, like, and trust. By giving your clients an idea of who they're working with, they get to know you as a future partner!
Make Some Easy SEO Tweaks
16) Name the images on your website. Did you know that the images you use can help drive traffic to your website? Well, not the images themselves, per se, but most certainly the name of the images.
That’s right! If you simply upload an image to your website without considering the file name associated with it, you could be leaving some SEO points on the table.
Images are a great way to plug in your keywords (the search terms your potential clients might use to find someone who provides your services) with very little work involved. So, check the images on your website and make sure the file names describe your services in some way.
Rather than having an image with a file name like “IMG1953.jpg,” choose something like “Spanish-English-mechanical-engineering-translator.jpg.”
Do this for the rest of the images on your website, and this small tweak could lead your next client down the internet rabbit hole and straight to your website.
17) Update your URLs. When it comes to your website’s page URLs, you can gain brownie points by using keywords that you know your potential clients would use in an online search.
However, it’s important to know where to place these keywords.
The part of a URL that comes after “.com/” is called a slug. I know… it’s an odd word, but just roll with it.
This is the part of the URL that you can update to describe the services you provide and what a customer might find on the page a given URL is associated with. Avoid using URLs like this:
www.thisisanexample.com/?p=abc
and instead, create URLs like this:
www.thisisanexample.com/medical-translator-technical-devices-expert
That way, you can take advantage of the searchability of URLs by strategically including words you know someone might put into a search engine when seeking the services you provide.
18) Update your site description and page descriptions for SEO. Each page of your website should allow you to insert a description of that page on the back end of your website. It is important to insert really solid descriptions of your main site pages, as well as any blog posts, portfolio pages, etc.
Why does this matter?
Because the better your descriptions, the more likely people are to click!These meta descriptions, as they're called, are what appear below your URL in search results. Think about anything you've ever searched for in Google. There is a description right below the websites or pages that come up after you hit the "Search" button, right? Those are meta descriptions, and they are what tell search engines about the content on your website. Make sure that yours are concise and accurate for your pages.
19) Acquire quality backlinks to your site. Backlinks are another often overlooked, but important, factor when it comes to how your website is “seen” by search engines. These are the links that exist elsewhere on the web and lead back to your website.
The key is to make sure they are high-quality links, meaning that they come from reputable websites such as a professional directory, an article you wrote for a highly regarded publication or even a blog post you penned as a guest on someone else’s blog.
Think outside the box a bit, and make good use of backlinks! If you find that any of the links leading to your website are broken, take the time to kindly request they be fixed by providing the person or publication with the proper link. Sites that have high-quality backlinks are considered to have higher-quality content by search engines.
20) Verify your site and request that Google index your site! This last tip is a two-parter.
In fact, I’d venture to say that most freelancers never take this step at all. I hadn’t for the longest time, and I realized that I was missing out on really valuable information and web traffic from potential clients as a result.
Sign up with Google Console and verify your website. This allows Google to know that you own your website so that you can start to receive Google Search data and act on the information Google collects about how visitors find and use your website.
Once you verify your site, request that Google index your website. This is especially important if you have recently updated your website or created a new one. Of course, if you’ve never taken this step at all and your content isn’t new, I would still suggest requesting that Google index your site.
Why? Because you’re basically letting Google know that you have valuable information for it to index so that more people can find it in searches. For more information on why this is important, Neil Patel shares a really excellent blog post all about why it’s so important to index your website.
Hopefully you can take some time this year to knock out these updates little by little. If you plan to work on them for just few minutes a day, you’ll be well on your way to feeling less overwhelmed by your website. You’ll definitely feel more proud of your online presence, knowing that you’ve taken some key steps to drive more of the right clients to your site and greet them with a warm welcome once they land there.
And you want to know the best part? Over time, you should start to see the traffic to your website increase and hear from more potential clients who found you through online searches!
What website updates are you ready to tackle?
