Providers of immigration services and legal aid have always had many challenges to overcome, and it is a difficult occupation under the best of circumstances. Those who practice this area of social services can be a godsend to new arrivals in this country as well as immigrants who have problems with attaining legal status or citizenship after living here for decades. However, one of the biggest challenges for both providers and their clients can be the first step of matching clients to the services they need, and a language barrier can make that even more difficult. In promoting the services that you offer, there are many good reasons to consider designing a multilingual website to reach those who need you the most.
How A Multilingual Website Can Increase Business For Your Immigration Service
In thinking about how building a website with multiple languages can help you to meet your goals, you must first think about what you want to accomplish with your web presence.
Do you want to:
- Expand your client bookings?
- Have better-informed clients upon a first visit?
- Educate potential clients on immigration laws and processes?
All three of these can be accomplished by providing your website in multiple languages, including those that are only applicable to a minority of clients. With over 220 languages spoken by the residents of California, maintaining a bilingual website in English and Spanish is bound to serve the majority of your clients but also will leave a significant amount of clients in the dark about how your services can help them. Although many immigrants and residents seeking immigration services do speak English, those who do not have a strong command of the language have a natural reluctance to work with an agency who may not understand them or be understood.
How Difficult Is It To Create A Multi-language Website?
Retooling your existing website to support multiple languages is easier than you think. Half of the design infrastructure is already in place with your existing design, and most pages will simply require translation and posting of additional pages accessed by adding links to the new pages on your existing homepage. For the benefits that are realized from clearer communications with potential clients, it is a minimal investment of time and money that has the potential to substantially grow your client base.
A Multilingual Website Success Scenario
Imagine this – your immigration services agency, “Torrance Immigration Service Solutions” realizes success by using multiple languages in your website design. Torrance Immigration Service Solutions had already created a website with English and Spanish sections, which accounted for the majority of their clients. However, they realized over the years that there was a growing interest from other clients who were not from Central or South America. They found that inquiries were often not followed through by the client even when information was sent or attempts were made to book an appointment. Once they made the decision to update their website with a more inclusive mix of languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Tagalog they found that their booking rates were improving for those under-served populations in the Torrance area.
Serve Your Clients’ Needs With A Multilingual Website
The web design experts here at UmeWorks are dedicated to designing the perfect pages to reach your target demographics with a multilingual website. With the help of our translation partners, we can provide your business or agency with the promotional tools you need to get your message out in any language.
Contact UmeWorks today for an estimate to translate your immigration services website, or more other information about how we can help improve your online presence.
