Hotel website translation: How to grow international traffic and increase conversion rates

As a modern hotel marketing manager, you have a lot of plates to spin. From creative online campaigns to SEO, from refining the keywords of your AdWord campaign to hiring the right photographer that will deliver that perfect snapshot of your new spa, your work is never done. All your efforts are geared toward raising awareness, driving traffic to your website and getting those rooms filled. Is a hotel website translation just one of those things that keeps being pushed down your to-do list?

In Cornwall, domestic tourism accounts for 90% of all tourism, so it’s easy to ignore the 10% that is made up by overseas visitors. Or maybe not? Over recent years, the number of Cornish hotels that are specifically targeting German and French visitors has steadily increased. Why? Because French are the largest foreign visitor group to the Southwest, followed closely by Germans, who are in turn the biggest spenders. So although they may not be as numerous as your British customers, they are certainly the high-value customers you want to be staying at your hotel. Translating your hotel website is an important first step in reaching out to those valuable overseas visitors. Here’s why:

Visibility

It’s quite simple: Local search engines favour websites in the local language. Most people search the web in their mother tongue, so the chances that your English hotel website will show up in German or French search results is pretty slim. Translating your hotel website drastically increases your international visibility.

Relevance

Once they’ve found your site, it’s important to show your visitors content that’s interesting and relevant to them. Your conference facilities or your wedding packages might not be all that exciting for overseas holiday makers, but in-depth information about the local history, how to get around, where to find that picture postcard fishing village or where to sample the finest local ale will strike a chord. Go that extra mile and provide original and informative content that will keep them hooked and browsing your site.

Trust

When it comes to making that final purchase decision, language can really make the difference. A translated website helps to build trust in your hotel, it shows that you care about your overseas visitors. Did you know for example that people are six times less likely to buy from a website that is not presented in their mother tongue? You really don’t want visitors to drop out of your sales funnel because they don’t fully trust your website or because they simply don’t understand the information in front of them.

Translating your website is not only polite, it makes good business sense from an SEO perspective. Find out more about our translation services or simply give us a call – we’d love to chat to you about your hotel website.