SEO those translations... please!

When we are dealing with the translation of marketing materials for the Web, such as press releases, features analysis, and usage tutorials, one of the prime priorities to bear in mind is the proper usage of particular keywords in text titles, subtitles, headers and associated tags. This is a legitimate and wise method to ensure the webpage in which the text will be included ranks high in particular websearch engines, such as the ravishing popular "word-magnet & SEO-nemesis" Google.

This is one of the strategies to bring value into the translation process and must be brought into different types of websearch optimization, consider, for instance, news search, local search, video search, and audio search. Translation for SEO must bear in mind the way search engines deploy their results and the search preferences of the target audience, which includes the words or terms used as well as the preferred search engines.

Careful and persistent work is always involved when dealing with a team of translators and designers so that no detail is forgotten while keeping content open for search engines. An example we like using is the huge void left inside PDF files, so many fields to add information which will help sort and rank your document, we are talking about fields, such as, base URL, title, author, subject, keywords, description, copyright status, and others, and all of these are accelerators for page views and website ranking...

In any case, keep an open and proactive approch towards search engine optimization while you translate or proofread texts and documents for the Web, even if there's no SEO manager to offer you guidelines and a sense of priorities for words...

Open publication - Free publishing - More from TwColour

Subtitling project: territorial marketing video for a Portuguese municipality

This is our most recent project for translation and subtitling, but we also intervened to some extent in the production of this documentary. In this case the video piece is over 28 minutes long and features a medium-sized Portuguese municipality (something like 50.000 inhabitants in 350 km2) in central Portugal. The original language is Portuguese.

Check it for yourself!

Translation with Colour® now available at Thumbtack.com

Making yourself seen in the midst of a crowd is not at all that easy. Try to etch in your mind a huge squre full with people - in this case translators or wannabe translators - all of them waving a sign telling the language pairs they work with. The client goes to a balcony equipped with binoculars watching out for the right person...  How to sort the right professional for that urgent translation in order to close the contract? Now imagine you try to go local with this type of search! It's the needle in the haystack...

The solution comes in the form of Thumbtack.com. This nifty website is the ultimate meeting point for people offering services and their clients. What's best Thumbtack is a free service!

The service provider can grant all the details about his/her work (such as description of services, rates, information about the trade, the "do-and-don'ts",...), telling how he/she stands out from the crowd of professionals, curious, and DIY translators around the block. Reviews, testimonials, links, and question and answers (like a FAQ) are included for added assurance on the transaction.

Consider Thumbtack.com for your service needs... locally!

We can tell in the beginning we were a bit skeptic, but after the first contacts by prospective customers requesting quotes and awarding jobs... Yes, after this you know Thumbtack.com works.


We take this opportunity to talk about Translation with Colour® and about the work we love to do, that is, translation! Now also at Thumbtack.com: Translation with Colour


We are on-schedule, ethical, reliable and cost-effective.

We translate the following language pairs and directions:
» Spanish to English,
» Spanish to Portuguese,
» Portuguese to French,
» Italian to Portuguese,
» Italian to English,
» Italian to French,
» French to Portuguese,
» Portuguese to English,
» English to Portuguese,
» English to French,
» French to English.

We have over 20 years' experience in translating corporate, business-to-business and institutional documents in 5 different languages. Job completion targets are based on method and discipline towards client’s needs. Corporate assignments are completed, keeping in mind the global market and the desired outcomes for the client, so that our services bring value to the organization from a cost-effective point of view.

Our translation experience encompasses documents such as operating agreements, company registration documents, contracts, import certificates, bank letters, resolutions, certificates of authority, government documents, bid applications for funding, and other legal and administrative documents. Our writing and translating activity is indeed very diverse, as it also includes software localization, audio transcription and translation, video subtitling (captions), contents production and localization, in text types such as press releases, reports, blog entries, text rewriting, and other.

Consider us for all your needs related with our working languages for translation, proofreading, subtitling, article (re)writing.

We are on-schedule, ethical, reliable and cost-effective.

Top-notch conference interpreting assignment last June!

June 2011 saw another English/Portuguese interpreting assignment being trusted to Translation with Colour®.
The background for the two days - 6 and 7 June - was the Environment & Sustainability Week promoted by a Portuguese local government which included a conference on the role and responsibilities of municipal authorities for sustainable development. The audience of this seminar was mainly composed by political decision-makers and senior technical staff.

The individuality I was personally assisting was ICLEI expert and United Nations Secretary-General's Adviser, Mr. Ruud Schuthof, during the Portuguese language presentations, while consecutive interpreting had to be performed for the audience in the hall, which included Spanish-language native speakers. This context demanded extra care in pronunciation and use of the microphone as the interpreting was made not from the booth but on open view from the chairman's table.

Interesting, challenging and rewarding!

Video subtitling project... electric cycling for a sustainable future!

 

This is our latest English-language subtitling project and once again we bring value into a sustainable development project, in this specific case it refers to electrical cycling along with dedicated pathways.The video runs for 1 minute and 55 seconds, but it will not take this time for you to understand it took less to finish the minute task... and this post!

Next entry will feature impressions on our most recent extended translation assignment on the role of institutions of higher-learning in the development of small to medium-sized cities, i.e. cities which want to run up ... stay tuned!

Translation of a Paper about Municipal Programmes for the Senior Population

This short assignment was completed an year ago; it was another translation of a Portuguese language paper into English for an international seminar in Spain.

The text deals with the experience of a Portuguese municipality in improving socialization and physical exercise programmes for the senior population in its vast and assymetric territory. Very interesting reading for ideas!

Open publication - Free publishing - More culture

"Too-much-business-English-bla-bla-bla-for-the-under-medium-sized-Portuguese-city"?... can be!

By now you are no longer confused by the title: yes, it's true, the picture above was shot in Portugal. And no, you're wrong, English is not an official language in the land of Camões, not even a second language for any matter [... despite efforts by government officials to increase teaching of the Albion idiom to the most recent generations in elementary schools]. Simply the fad of English academic and professional titles has reached a new level: a bank (four letters, mind this!) has been elevated to a four English words coumpound. What for??? Check some of the theories: make the place look more professional and respectable; look "smart"; branch targeted at foreigners (?!!!), ...
The fact that one can find this in the present economic context in an under-medium-sized Portuguese city might give the impression the IMF has already began its "reality show" in those shores.

Another research paper translated into the Portuguese language

Translation with Colour®'s involvement with academic research is not new and this assignment is another evidence of this trend. The original article was written in English and focused on the Triple Helix Model for development, which involves academic institutions and associated research units, companies and the business sector, and the (local) administrations.

About the article itself one must point out that the writing style is what one can expect from an advanced academic piece of writing: neither simple nor eloquent; the paragraphs are long but concepts and ideas are well articulated, with subordination and coordination following smoothly. Don't know if the final English text was reviewed by an (a native) English teacher at the university but the English language used was well above average, considering the variety of vocabulary, grammar flawlessness, word collocation, and overall text organisation and pragmatics of English language. One final note: the authors of the research paper are two Portuguese university teachers in the University of Aveiro.

Open publication - Free publishing - More development