How to obtain quality translations as an SME

As an SME, ensuring the highest quality translation of your documents or articles can raise some relevant questions. What type of professional should you opt for? How can you prepare your documents effectively? This article will provide you with all the answers.

A translation that often presents problems for small enterprises

The internet is a valuable tool for any company, business or organisation, regardless of the nature of its activities. Therefore, presenting a translation adapted to foreign readers requires impeccable quality. However, some SMEs favour online machine translation platforms because they are free of cost. The result? Questionable quality that often undermines their initial objectives, where translation errors and loss of message have a negative impact.

Translating text content with a machine translator and for free will undoubtedly be counterproductive for an SME. Knowing this, you can ask yourself a pertinent question: which professionals should you choose to avoid this type of situation?

Translation agencies and their teams of translators

While cheaper options may seem tempting, using a translation company for professional translations offer a considerable advantage: access to a team of experts.

Therefore, depending on the nature of your document, the internal selection among available translators will favour the quality of the work done. In short, each professional has their own skills and affinities according to the subject in question. Would you like to translate a document intended for English or German-speaking readers? Are your documents related to the medical field or high-tech products? Whatever your needs, some translation agencies will guarantee you indisputable quality.

Choosing a recognised translation company for quality translations

Each agency is characterised by a more or less verifiable quality of translation. Some comments published online can reveal the quality of the company. Therefore, choosing a good agency is an essential step to ensure a high-quality translation, whatever the profile of your company, business or organisation.

The translation agency’s image and its customer list are key factors in choosing the right translation company. Do not hesitate to ask for a customer list related to your industry. Obtaining verifiable references is good practice for working with a good translation agency.

Translations for companies: preparing your content efficiently is vital

Finally, it is worth remembering another crucial step: the initial preparation of your documents. While it may seem obvious at first glance, some revisions will allow you to enhance your documents or articles in order to optimise the results:

• Is the main message perfectly defined?
• Should you modify certain grammatical structures in your document to make it easier to read?
• And what about SEO?

A high-quality source text will lead to higher quality translations, helping the translator in their task.