Is anyone having success with any of the software available that translates websites into different languages? It seems like this could be an effective tool for attracting prospects that do not speak English.

Google has some code available that can be incorporated into the source code of websites. Users then do not need to visit an external page to translate the page into German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

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John Allen
Realtor®/Broker
Allen Real Estate Services, Inc.
Sarasota, Florida
Representing buyers and sellers of fine Sarasota real estate.

John, I've got a project that's being translated from french and the tools are great but don't come close to being sufficient. For most pages they can get you in the ballpark but every page has to be edited by an english speaker and in about 40% of the pages there are phrases or terms that make seem to make no sense at all unless you go back to the french.

I don't know about the translations on the page but can't imagine that it would be any better than their tool.

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I don't speek French, but here is the translation of my home page:

translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.buysarasota.com&hl=en &ie=UTF8&sl=en&tl=fr

They also have a cool gadget you can add that will instantly translate the page - translate.google.com/translate_tools

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John Allen
Realtor®/Broker
Allen Real Estate Services, Inc.
Sarasota, Florida
Representing buyers and sellers of fine Sarasota real estate.

Hmmm...had not played with it. Thanks for the heads up... i think the difficulty of the translation tools is about the same as voice recognition...5% off is REALLY off (grin).

VRI! How's the fishing?

Best;

Eric

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Eric Blackwell
Technologist, SEO Specialist and Consultant

Louisville Real Estate

Southern Indiana Search Engine Marketing Blog

Real Estate Industry Watch - Real Estate Industry News Blog

John - do you know if it creates a new page on the "fly" or if it creates a page in every language with a unique URL like some of the WP translators.

I've tried out the WP translators and our indexed page count shot through the roof but I haven't noticed an increase in traffic related to it.

I'd bet that you'd have to build links or promote any new pages to see a huge increase in traffic.

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What do you do with a client you can't understand? Do you have access to interpreters?

Most clients can't understand our contracts even without the language barrier.

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That is a very good point. We've worked with many prospects that do not speak English who are interested in vacation homes in Sarasota. Typically, if they speak no English at all, they have someone with them that does. On several occasions I've had to go out and find an interpreter.

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John Allen
Realtor®/Broker
Allen Real Estate Services, Inc.
Sarasota, Florida
Representing buyers and sellers of fine Sarasota real estate.

John, unfortunately.... I don't speak french either, maybe someone in the house from the great white can tell us how clean that is.

E.B., fishing is great... when you can get out around the areas summer thunderstorms. Thanks for asking.

__________________
OverSite.US | A Unique Web Directory
Real Estate Directory | A regional listing of quality real estate related web sites.
Tampa Bay Charter Fishing | Seeks references from the area resource pages of quality local sites.