Why You Should Never Use Google Translate for Websites

Are you using Google Translate? Google Translate is a free automatic translator and currently supports translation for around 57 languages. I’m often asked to install a Google translate plugin. Do you come across websites where languages are translated using Google Translate and pasted into the pages? Do you sometimes wonder why reading them is so difficult?

If you cannot read, speak or know the language it may all look very pretty but most of the time it’s un-readable. Did you know that Google translate does not have or apply grammatical rules! So how does it work?

Why You Should Not Use Google Translate

Google Translate does not translate from one language to another (Language 1 -> Language 2). It mostly translates to English first and then to the target language. It always depends on the subject matter and the two languages being used. It may have the most language combinations but should never be used on your website!

Google Translate and Google-bots

It has been rumoured that Google-bot could also penalise your website for using an auto translate as the results are sub standard, hence poor quality content. Below is a post from JohnMu, a Web-master Trends Analyst and Google Web-master Help.

I just want to add a word of warning here — using automated translation tools to directly create content for your site could be seen as creating auto-generated content, which would be against our Webmaster Guidelines.

Instead of just taking the output of a program like Google Translate, I’d strongly recommend at least having it corrected before putting it on-line. While Google-bot may initially fall for some Spanish keywords in your text, your users are not going to appreciate content that has been automatically translated and published without a review.

I love Google Translate, but if you publish the results and get them indexed without having them reviewed, you’re not showing a lot of respect to your users – JohnMu

If you install a translation plugin into your blog, or any other kind of website the translated content cannot be cached and therefore will not be indexed by Google or any other search engines. This means that your website cannot be found in foreign language searches.

Google Translate or Professional Translator?

Even today’s most sophisticated software does not have the fluency of a native speaker or possess the skills of a professional translator. While this is a great tool for you to get a gist of any website in a foreign language it can’t replace professional translations. There are many professional translators who charge very little and why not check out Fiverr or a copywriter!