Question and Answers

FAQ - Services

Although translation and interpreting are often used synonymously, they are two completely separate language services.

The main difference between translation and interpreting is that translation is written while interpreting is oral. 

Translation is therefore the service that allows you to translate a website, a brochure, catalogs, business presentations and many other types of documents. 

Interpreting, on the other hand, is the service required to interact with a supplier, customer or potential customer who does not speak the same language as you. This service is required for conferences, business meetings and trainings, trade shows and other events. 

As you can see, the difference between translation and interpreting is clear and well-defined. Talking about oral translation or simultaneous translation instead of interpreting can create misunderstandings and misconceptions that could turn out to be detrimental and potentially deadly to your business.

However seemingly similar, translating a document and localizing a website are two services that require significantly different knowledge, skills, practices and soft skills.

Why? What is the difference between translating a document and localizing a website?

Translating a technical document or transcreating marketing material requires technical language skills and, in the case of media transcreation, a certain amount of inventiveness and flair (while respecting the original meaning).

Localizing a website for SEO purposes, on the other hand, requires knowledge of User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI). The translated version of the site must take into account the internationalization process, but above all it must be fully adapted to the culture, way of thinking and uses of the target audience. To be successful and get conversions, a global website must sound "local" - that is, speak directly to consumers in the right tones and terms.

From translating a document to localizing a website, there is a gulf. In the first case, precision and terminological accuracy are fundamental. In the latter, fluency and effective, engaging communication are the cornerstones of a successful, SEO-optimized multilingual website project.

Once again, the myth that proofreading and editing are synonymous is debunked. 

Proofreading a text is the stage that occurs before the final proofreading of the text. During this phase, a check is made on the correspondence between the original version of the text and the translated copy. It is therefore a side-by-side revision in which the two languages are compared. 

Rereading a document refers to the final proofreading of the translation in which only the translated version is taken into account, regardless of the original, assuming that the translation fully corresponds to the source text. It is therefore a monolingual rereading of the text.

In accordance with professional ethics, each translator reviews and proofreads his or her own work to avoid typos before submitting it to the Project Manager. 

However, it is recommended that, together with the translation, localization or transcreation service, you purchase a proofreading service to ensure that there are no further corrections and/or adaptations to be made by a second linguist who is an expert in the document's field of reference and who was not involved in the translation. 

The final proofreading service is added and billed separately from the translation phase because often some clients, organized within their own company with a branch system, decide to have the final proofreading and translations approved directly by the sales or marketing department of the branch located in the target country. 

Ideally, the best option for ensuring super-efficient communication is to add the proofreading service to the translation service and only then have the foreign subsidiary or salesperson provide the counter-check.

Of course. Actually, in about 99% of cases, when our clients contact us, they decide to translate a document into several languages.

Naturally, it is always possible to translate a document into just one language. The most important thing is to specify the language combination you need from the very first contact.

While we receive requests for all language combinations, the most translated languages in the post-pandemic period are English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish. 

Among the languages that are increasingly in demand is Japanese, due to the very strong growth in exports to Singapore.

No problem. If the entire language combination or the source language and/or target language you need are not available in our Instant Quote tool, please use the contact page or email us at [email protected]. 

We will reply to you as soon as possible.

Question and Answers

FAQ - Organization

Our website allows you to purchase translation, trade show interpreters and other interpreting services, professional guides and courses and multilingual social management packages on your own or by writing to us at [email protected].

For each type of service, our Project Managers will work to organize and manage your team's work and answer your questions.

The time required to translate a product catalog varies depending on the volume of text to be translated, the type of articles and product descriptions, and the technicality of the texts.

Product descriptions that are neutral in style, informative and without technicalities translate faster than product descriptions that are written in a storytelling style or with highly technical terminology.

Generally, a translator translates about 1600-2000 words of general text per day and about 1000-1500 words per day for very technical texts.

If the catalog is very voluminous and the timeframe is tight, we will organize a team specialized in the field and the work will be assigned to several translators, terminology harmonized during the work and refined during revision.

Again, indicating a timeline for localizing a website is a difficult task.

It is impossible to generalize on a case-by-case basis.

Generally speaking, it takes between 30 and 100 working days to localize a website, depending on the complexity of the project (translation volume, file format to be localized/transcribed, cultural adaptations and related research).

The goal is to provide clients with a website that is perfectly adapted linguistically and culturally to the target country, thus increasing visitors' trust in the brand and increasing conversions.

48-72 hours is the time it generally takes to translate and send the digital copy of the sworn translation.

We will send the hard copy of the sworn translation by express courier, however, the waiting time will be longer. You will receive an email upon confirmation of the assignment with the exact timing for receiving the hard copy.

In case of large volumes to be sworn, the delivery time may vary. Our teams will inform you in due time about the delivery time of sworn translations.

Generally, yes. You can get faster delivery within a reasonable time frame.

If your translation request is urgent, simply indicate this in the Estimator. Our teams will contact you to indicate the best translation delivery schedule.

We would like to point out that, although for many people the translation phase is one of the last steps and is often taken lightly, the reputation and image of your company is at stake.

A well done and accurate job requires technical time just like any other job. Cook a plate of pasta in 1 minute? Build a car engine in 48 hours? Produce 100 garments in 24 hours? IMPOSSIBLE. As you can imagine, these are totally nonsensical and decidedly unrealistic demands. The same goes for a translation service worthy of the name.

No, that's not possible. Training and preparing multilingual staff is a costly business in many ways.

To bypass the middleman is therefore disrespectful to those who work every day to train and hire other linguists and to match up the profiles according to personal experience and aptitudes with the companies that require our services.

Trust is precious and it is in the long term that the results are always appreciated.

We rely on qualified Social Media Managers with proven language training.

What is the difference between a traditional Social Media Manager and a Multilingual Social Media Manager?

The main difference is that a multilingual Social Media Manager, in addition to knowing the secrets of social and the best techniques to give visibility to your profiles, is also an expert in interculturality.

This means that he will know how to carefully choose the creativity for the posts avoiding any cultural problems or statements that could be misinterpreted or not appreciated by the target audience.

Question and Answers

FAQ - Rates

The cost of a translation depends on various factors:

  • the type and format of the document
  • the volume of text in the document to be translated
  • the delivery time
  • the technicality of the text
  • the level of reworking/research/creativity required by the project

There are no objective tables and parameters to extract a universal formula valid for all, nor is there an official price list.

However, thanks to our proven experience in our fields of specialization, we have decided to develop an instant quotation tool that takes into account all the elements mentioned above.

The development of an ad hoc quotation tool was only possible thanks to our in-depth knowledge of the sectors in which we operate.

It goes without saying that in the event of major discrepancies between what is communicated in the quote and the actual document, the rate could be revised.

You will find the terms and conditions of our services in the relevant page.

It is practically impossible to give a universal rate for the translation of a document because the variety of documents that can be translated is almost infinite. There is no single answer to this question.

As explained in "How to calculate the cost of a translation?", there are several factors that determine how much a document translation costs.

We can provide some indicative examples.
The cost of translating a newsletter from English into French is around 350 dollars. The price for the translation of a product catalog can reach four figures, while the localization of an e-commerce or marketplace can easily reach five figures.

For a free translation quote, we invite you to use our instant quotation tool.

Do you have a very complex project that needs to be completed in several steps? You can contact us at [email protected]

Among the most requested services, there is certainly the translation of websites, e-commerce and marketplaces.

To calculate how much it costs to translate a website, several factors must be taken into account:

  • Does the translation need to be SEO optimized? If so, are the keywords provided by the client or do we need to conduct market research?
  • Are the texts extracted by the developers and reintegrated by them?
  • What is the timeframe within which the translation is needed?
  • In which and how many languages should the site be translated?

Based on these answers, we will be able to provide a more precise estimate of the cost of translating a website.

If you already have the extracted texts, please use our quotation tool to get an instant translation quote.

To find out how much a sworn translation costs, the following variables must be taken into account:

  • the foreign language of the original document to be translated and sworn and the target language of the translation;
  • the complexity of the document to be translated and sworn;
  • the length of the document to be translated and sworn;
  • the urgency.

The price for the translation of a single standard page of about 200 words is around 50 Euros + VAT + 80 Euros sworn for the most common European languages (English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese), provided there is no urgency in delivery.

However, for less common languages, the cost can increase significantly. The price of a sworn Chinese translation is 80.00 Euros per page for the oath only (translation cost excluded).

Of course. Translation service, trade show interpreter, social media management, all quotes prepared by Verbavox are free of charge.

To make this step even simpler and more effective, we have developed an instant estimator that will take into account the most important variables of each project.

For very large or complex translation projects, please contact us at: [email protected]

Let's answer that question with another question: does the lawyer, the trusted webmaster, the accountant... offer discounts? The answer tends to be no.

The linguistic services offered by Verbavox are professional services. Each mission is studied in advance and entrusted to the linguist whose profile and experience are most in line with the client's needs.

Translating documents into more than one language, working on extremely voluminous documents requires the creation and coordination of a team of ad hoc professionals, the creation, sharing and updating of translation memories and terminology glossaries, and finally a 3-stage proofreading process to remove any nonsense or typing errors, standardize the style and verify terminological consistency.

From 50,000 words onwards, however, a more competitive rate can be proposed depending on the client's needs and the project delivery time.

There may be extra charges for some documents to be translated if the formats are particularly complex and you need to add a Desktop Publishing DTP service to restore the initial layout.

Another type of complex file is scans, 99% of which require a complete rewrite because OCR software cannot extract some or all of the text in the document to be translated.

For translation services, extra fees are applied for express deliveries or for major changes not foreseen in the contract that occur after the project is underway.

For interpreting services and multilingual exhibition staff, extra fees are applied for any additional hour not included in the contract.

For Multilingual Social Media Management and SEO copywriting services, any additions and/or significant changes to the project when the latter is already underway are subject to an additional charge.

Question and Answers

FAQ - Payments & Accounting

We accept bank transfers, PayPal and credit card payments.

Payments for services ordered through the quotation tool will be immediate.

For large projects or long-term ongoing collaborations, payment terms may be adjusted on a case-by-case basis.

For more information about payment methods and terms of payment for the linguistic services offered by Verbavox, please contact us at [email protected]

Verbavox will issue an invoice for each language project carried out.

In the case of long-term, ongoing collaborations, case-by-case formulas may be agreed upon with the client. However, also in this case, the client will always receive a monthly or annual invoice, according to the agreement.

Verbavox cares about its customers and abhors unfair competition.

Therefore, we are more than willing to enter into confidentiality agreements should the client so desire.

However, with or without an NDA, the sensitive and confidential documents and data that our teams come into contact with will remain completely confidential.

For more information, please read our Terms of Use.