How to evaluate the quality of your Japanese website translation

Did you translate your website into Japanese? Or are you looking to translate one? You might be concerned about the quality of the translation because you have no way to evaluate the results.

In this blog post, I’d like to answer your question.

How do you measure translation quality?

First of all, we need to talk about how we measure quality. When it comes to Japanese translation or localization, there is no single definitive way to determine the quality of work.

It requires a few native Japanese eyes before you get a reliable opinion about the quality. I understand you can’t afford to ask around. It is quite a lot of work. To reduce the effort, one quick way is to ask a professional who has experience in translation/localization and marketing.

You may ask why marketing? It is because your website has a goal, and that is often sales. We can call it conversion. Some sort of transaction needs to happen on your website. To make it possible, you need a good understanding of marketing.

That said, your goal is to make conversions happen. Does good translation always make sales? Unfortunately, no. Accurate translation is, of course, better than inaccurate one. But that is not what it takes for your business to be successful. I would rather call that a starting point. From there, you also need to add more value in terms of marketing.

To understand how well your website is translated, you need to evaluate it with respect to:

• Translation and localization, and
• Marketing

In simpler terms, you need to be sure that the Japanese texts are natural and compelling to encourage users to take certain desirable actions.

What makes translation natural?

I pay great attention to how natural the translation is when I am asked to check the quality of translation. Now, the question is, what is natural? What makes your Japanese website natural?

It all depends on who your users are.

Your website is, once again, made to make conversions. That is the goal, as long as you are in business. So to achieve that goal, you need to identify who your customers are. You imagine and capture the best persona for your business, and you help them. As a reward, they will be happy to pay you money.

Knowing that is the whole course of business, you need to make your users feel that your Japanese is natural to them. It doesn’t matter if it reads naturally to me because I’m here to guide you, but I’m not your website customer.

So the point is to use the lingo and language that your specific customers feel related to.

As a side note, of course, you can’t forget to reach a certain level where the translation does not sound robotic. This happens sometimes (I have seen some bad examples in the past and I helped with the translation/localization from scratch), but I hope this is not the case for your website.

What makes your Japanese website compelling?

After you check the box and be confident that your Japanese website sounds natural to your intended audience, you should also pay attention to the marketing aspect. In other words, you need to evaluate if your translated website performs well to convert your users to customers.

This takes a lot of knowledge and experience in marketing.

Personally, I have helped countless businesses review their translation (done by someone else they commissioned) and quite often noticed that this marketing aspect was completely not considered at all. It means that someone worked on the translation but didn’t do more.

Of course, the translator’s job is to translate a document from one language to another. You hire a Japanese translator, and they will get your English document and deliver it in Japanese. That is what happens. That’s why there is a problem.

You feel like you are in good hands because you hired a professional translator. But here is the issue: those translators are not necessarily good copywriters or marketers. I’m not blaming them. They are good and professional in their industry. However, marketing is different from translation.

When it comes to the whole journey of delivering a product or service to the Japanese market, translation or localization of your website is one very important aspect, but that is just a part of it.

After you translate your website to Japanese, you need to take care of the marketing. How can you take care of the marketing by yourself? That is too much to ask for someone who does not know the language. I recommend you find a marketer in Japan. But that is not easy. I will explain why.

Why is it difficult to find a good marketer in Japan?

Now, you would ask me, how can I find a good marketer? Here are the things you can do:

• Go to freelancer websites to look for one
• Go to social media and type in ‘マーケター’ in Japanese
• Look for agencies specializing in marketing in Japan

Each of them has its own pros and cons. Freelancers tend to be cheaper, but they can lack experience. Make sure to evaluate their skills before engaging. Often, reviews are the easiest indicator of the person.

The same can be said with social media profiles, but there are few reviews that can be found. Often, you don’t find enough information to make an informed decision. This can be quite tricky.

Agencies are more expensive in general. They are normally designed for bigger businesses and companies that can afford to hire a team of experts.

On a related note, at KOTPLI, we offer somewhere between individual professional and agency. I work as an individual Japanese expansion consultant with countless companies. I offer the level that you can expect from an agency or enterprise, but with flexible affordability. The reason I formed KOTOLI is to cater to the needs of those who want a reliable person to consult with, along with a nice interpersonal touch.

Conclusion

In conclusion, please remember that offering your website to the Japanese market is not just about translating content from English to Japanese. It should involve customer identification in Japan. You need to use the lingo they feel related to. You need to incorporate copywriting. You need to incorporate marketing into every aspect of the website. This requires:

• Translation/localization skill
• Copywriting skill
• Market research skill
• Marketing skill

I offer a comprehensive service combining all of these. If you need help with your Japanese business expansion or are struggling with sales stagnation, feel free to contact me.