Language barriers are more than just an inconvenience. For many business owners, they can be a deal breaker. Not being able to speak the same language as your target audience can derail relationships with customers and prospects near instantaneously. So, what do you need to consider when paying for a translation?
When it comes to translation prices, not all translations are equal, and factors such as subject matter, text length, and language pair often have an impact on price. Let’s take a look at some of the most important factors that could affect the translation price.
- The Language Pair
The language pair rarity is the first factor that will affect your translation prices. The more common a language pair is, the cheaper it is to translate from one language to another.
For example, if you want to translate from English into Spanish, this is a very common language pair and it should cost less than translating from English into Korean. This is because there are fewer translators who have that language as their native tongue or who have experience working with it in the past.
- The Volume
The volume of your translation project is another important factor that affects translation prices. The more words you have to translate, the more expensive your project will be. In fact, the price of a translation depends on the number of words in your document.
However, there is a golden rule when it comes to translations: the bigger the volume, the cheaper the cost per word will be. If you have a large project, there may be some ways to save on translation costs.
- Formatting Requirements
Translation jobs that require special formatting and desktop publishing skills may cost more than others. You may need your translated document to be translated in the same format as your original document (e.g., if you’re translating a pdf into another language). Or you may need to translate it into a different format altogether (e.g., if your source document is in Word and you want it converted into PDF). In both cases, this can influence how much time and effort goes into translating your document and make it more expensive than expected. When you work with a professional translation agency, they’ll take care of this for you.
So if you are trying to decide on the price of translation services it’s good to know that there are three main factors that may inflate or deflate your quote. Having these at the back of your mind will allow you to budget accordingly and pay the right amount without too much worry.