1. Focusing on yourself, not the visitor.
Copywriting experts have been telling us for decades: focus on the benefits for the visitor, not the features of your services. Studies have shown that less than 1% of website visitors visit the “About Us” page. People simply don’t care how wonderful you think you are. Without exception, visitors have one thing in mind when they visit your site:
What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM).
People buy benefits, not features, and clients are people just like everyone else. It is basic underlying psychology that drives human behaviour.
It’s just not about you. It’s about them.
How you can solve their problem, make their lives better, and make them feel good. So remember to appeal to visitors my writing your website copy with their needs in mind.
Features are part of the service. They are there regardless of who the client is. Benefits are what the client will gain by using the service.
For example:
feature: car with four-wheel drive
benefit: you can drive in areas other cars can’t, safer driving on poor road conditions, won’t get stuck in snow etc.
2. Not researching the market
If you don’t know what keywords people are using to search for translation service providers, how can you ensure you show up in the search engines for those keywords?
If you don’t know the tactics and strategies used by your competitors (by competitors I mean any website in the first page of Google for the keywords people use to search for translation service providers), how can you hope to emulate their success and improve on it?
The good news is you don’t need to guess, and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can research keywords, and study the competition, before you start creating your website.
3. Not having a clear idea of your ideal client.
To win visitors over and convert them into clients, you have to speak their language. When they look at your home page, they must immediately feel a connection: you “get” them, you understand their problems and concerns: you are on the same wavelength and can deliver what they are looking for. You can’t do that if you have no idea who you are writing to.
4. Having a generic page title, or the same title for each page.
This is a Search Engine Optimization issue. The title tag in each page’s html is the most important on-page factor for search engine optimization, and the biggest mistake you can make with it is to have a generic phrase like “page 1″, “home”, or similar. Another mistake, albeit not quite as disastrous, is to put your name in the title tag, instead of targeted, researched keywords, or to cram as many keywords as possible into each title tag. Less is more: use razor-sharp focus instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
5. Not providing anything of value on the website.
People use the internet to search for information. If you can provide valuable content, you will attract visitors, who will read what you have to say and begin to view you as an authority on your subject. You can leverage this to show clients that a) you can write, and b) you are an expert in your field. If you provide something they didn’t previously know that is actually of value to them, you have instantly established yourself as an authority in their eyes.
6. Not establishing your personality.
Translators are often so intent on appearing “professional” that they forget that clients are people, and people like working with people they like. Again, it comes down to human nature: if people don’t like you, they won’t want to work with you. You can be professional and likeable, and part of that is revealing who you are. Professional doesn’t necessarily have to mean cold, generic or anonymous.
7. Not establishing uniqueness.
What is it that makes you different from all the other translators working in your language combination? It’s an advertising and marketing cliché – the USP, or Unique Selling Point. But it’s a cliché for a reason: it’s necessary. And be specific: claims of “quality translations” don’t really mean anything. Uniqueness often goes hand in hand with specialisation and expertise. If you don’t have a specialisation yet, then start working on one, and in the meantime find something else that will distinguish you from the masses. For example, are you in a time zone that means you can deliver overnight translations for clients? Or can you provide a “within 5 minutes of deadline or the translation is free” guarantee? Does your rate include third-party revision or proofreading? Brainstorm possibilities, and remember, if you don’t have a unique selling point, create one: what would you like to be able to offer your clients? Then work on that selling point until it’s something you can offer your potential clients.
8. Thinking that, if you build it, they will come
I’ve heard translators claim that a website doesn’t bring business. It won’t, if you just put up a static “brochure” site and sit back and wait for clients to come rolling in (they won’t). Websites that work are ones which a) rank highly for keywords that people are actually searching for and b) effectively convert those visitors to clients. That takes time, knowledge, some skill, and effort. But once you have it up and running, the maintenance is minimal and the benefits could transform your business.
9. Not keeping your site fresh
This is a mistake for two reasons:
a) search engines love websites that have fresh content added on a fairly regular basis. Fresh content is rewarded with higher search engine results page rankings.
b) fresh content is the ideal opportunity to show clients that you are a real person, that you work regularly. You can use it to establish both authority and likeability.
I don’t mean using your site to write about your cat, what you had for lunch or your current gripe with your mother-in-law. However, you could use a blog on a section of your site to write about the research you are currently doing for a highly technical job, the linguistic challenges you faced and how you overcame them.
The good news is that this is now easy and free to do online. There is absolutely no reason for you to have to send content to a web designer to update it for you, or for you to have to fiddle around with code and re-upload entire pages everytime you want to update or add content. Take advantage of the latest free open-source technology.
When someone takes the time to visit your website, grab this wonderful opportunity with both hands and both feet to show potential clients how you work, and for them to get to know and like you in a no-pressure, no-obligation environment that will possibly have them returning for more. Don’t waste this opportunity with a static CV website!
11. Not having a clear call to action on each page.
Many people forget this very simple element on a site: remember to tell your visitors which step to take next. It’s a very powerful tool which should not be underestimated. On every single page, there should be a clear call to action making it easy for the visitor to take the next step: ask for a quote, sign up for a newsletter or email updates, contact you, or take some kind of action.
Try to make the “barrier to entry” as low as possible. The best way to do this is to offer something for free in exchange for an email address. This doesn’t have to be a free translation: it could be a free report or PDF providing information that educates the client and is useful to them at the same time. By doing this you have established the first contact and have permission to contact them in the future. At the same time, if the PDF is well-written, informative and useful to the client, you have also established authority and expertise in their eyes.
12. Violating standard design conventions
Even with the most innovative design, there are certain standards that we have become used to. Don’t make visitors hunt around for links, incite them click text that look like links but aren’t, or hunt around for a way to contact you. People are busy – make things as easy as possible for them. While we are discussing design, avoid moving, flashing elements and stick to three colours or less.
13. Not analysing and tracking website performance and visitor behaviour
Do you know the path visitors take through your site? Do you know how many and which visitors “bounce” straight back off your site without doing anything? Do you know which keywords the people who contacted you through your site used to find you? Do you know which pages cause your visitors to leave the site? Do you know which country most of your website visitors are in? Do you test different page versions with different headlines and copy, to see which one results in a higher rate of people contacting you?
Without knowing all the above and much, much more, how do you know what is working and what isn’t? How do you know which areas to concentrate on (the bits that are working) and which you can stop wasting your time on (the bits that don’t?). Failing to test, analyse and track means you are stabbing in the dark, with no idea of whether you are hitting your target or not. Again, the good news is you can now do for free online what companies paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to do only a few years ago.
————————————————
Does all that sound like too much hard work? Great news 
Because the hard bit is the bit most other people won’t be bothered with. Meaning you get a massive head start.
Whether you like it or not, you are a business person, not just a translator – unless you have a full-time, in-house position, of course.
If you haven't already, subscribe to our email updates. Just enter your name and email here.