By Colin M.

LAS VEGAS – Today’s global marketplace demands a multilingual component to any online presence. Having a multilingual website significantly increases a virtual business’ chances of turning visitors into customers. Web users will stay on a website twice as long if site speaks to them in their native language. More than half of the world’s consumers say the ability to obtain information in their native language is more important than price.

If your website is available only in English, you are neglecting more than 1.4 billion people who access the internet in some other language. Nearly 90 percent of web users who have little to no knowledge of English spend most, if not all, of their time on websites in their native language. By translating your site into as few as two additional languages — Chinese and Spanish — you can reach almost 40 percent of the world’s population.

To avoid looking silly, though, it’s important to incorporate the human element during the translation process. Free online translation tools frequently distort meaning, rendering the intended message either incomprehensible or laughable. Some English phrases do not make sense in other languages; even worse, they can be offensive. Human translators with experience in the website’s industry can help site owners avoid such pitfalls by ensuring words, images, graphic design and color scheme are appropriate for the target audience.

Consumers prefer to transact with companies that make communication easy. Only 10 percent of web users with little to no knowledge of English say they will purchase products or services from a website that is available only in English. More than 60 percent of non-native English speakers who do read English still prefer buying from websites in their native language.

If you have a web presence and a good product, the international community will find you, whether or not you are prepared. Nearly 96 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the U.S., and they generate more than half of the adult entertainment industry’s revenue. Translating your website properly will give you an edge in untapped and underserved markets.

Colin M. is a business development specialist for TranslationsXXX, which specializes in translating websites for the adult entertainment industry. The company employs a pool of more than 5,000 translators and artists who are native speakers of a variety of target languages and residents of target markets.