German Website Translation
Do you want to build an online presence in Germany, Austria or Switzerland and penetrate the German market? We are happy to help.
svaerm is an online marketing agency based in Frankfurt, Germany. We work with renowned clients such as Messe Frankfurt, Kuraray, Prime Capital and Union Investment and manage their international web presence – including their German sites.
Why Choose Us
German Native Speakers
Your English-to-German translations are handled by professional native speakers. We have studied at English-speaking universities or lived in English-speaking countries. We are bilingual academics with a hands-on mentality. We have been on the job for long enough to drain the paralysis out of our analysis, but we have kept our thoroughness.
Specialist or Technical Texts
As a content-driven online marketing agency, we work with different industries and target audiences. Whether B2C or B2B, simple texts or highly specialized subjects, you can count on us.
(If what you are trying to do isn’t significantly harder than convincing business people of the advantages of dynamically vulcanizable styrenic block copolymers, we should be good!)
Online Competence
We believe that optimizing websites for visibility in Google is the cornerstone of successful online marketing. Google.com and Google.de are two search engines from the same company, but they do not always follow the same rules.
The search intent of an English keyword might differ from its German translations, and sections of the German page have to be reworked. Sales propositions that work for international audiences may not convince Germans. Our “search intent hierarchy analysis” framework has been specifically designed to detect these differences and find a solution.
Project Management
Our management believes that our competitive advantage is built on our three core competencies: Industry-leading design, strategic online marketing and a project management you can depend on.
As a result, there are some truly scary people working at svaerm, who ensure that we communicate and stay within our budgets and deadlines! Do not worry: as they work to meet or exceeded your expectations, they are friendly towards clients – and they will have had their breakfast by the time you get in touch. If you need anything, you can reach them by phone during regular business hours.
Translation at scale
We are used to handling very high volumes of text. In case of emergency, we work with a sub-contractor firm we trust. As we have collaborated with them for over 12 years, vouch for their skills and our meticulous proofreaders do not miss a thing, you will not notice any difference in style and quality.
More than just words
Have you thought about regionalizing currencies? Adapting case studies, illustrations and graphics, opinions and positions to match the German cultural and design sense? Does your website support a multilingual infrastructure? Are your hreflang tags correctly set up?
Have a chat with us about your additional requirements. It’s more fun this way!
German web translation: Things to consider
Formal speech
Just like Japanese, the German language uses honorifics to address people. Will you talk to your target audiences in the “du” or the “Sie” form?.
Humor
Unlike stereotypes suggest, Germans have humor. We like to keep our professional distance in business and written advertising, though. (For German standards, I’m going quite overboard on this page.) And our puns follow different rules.
Length
German translations tend to be longer than the English original texts. This may affect your web design. Meta descriptions have to be rewritten frequently.
Gender-sensitive language
Individuals have a “sexus” and words in the German language have a “genus”, which happen to share the same articles. Thus, German translations may appear gender-biased. Some people are easily offended and your company or brand could be affected. It is best to apply different frameworks depending on the industry, public vs. private sector and further target audience characteristics.
Special characters
Do not place “ä”, “ö”, “ü” or “ß” into URLs or file names. Transcribe them with “ae”, “oe”, “ue” or “ss” instead.
Lead generation
The EU has the strictest data privacy regulations worldwide. German-speaking audiences are really sensitive about their data. Some prospects are not comfortable with sharing their contact information through digital channels and may prefer calling you by phone.
I found working with this agency a really great experience and can highly recommend them
