Most web publishers, content creators, online marketers will continuously tell you that content is king" ?it is invariably one of the most critical ingredients for online marketing success. I couldn't agree more.

However, a fact that often goes unnoticed is the huge amount of money that many of these publishers leave on the table by not "pushing"? out their prized content to a much bigger market. By no means am I advocating stepping out of the niche that the publisher has created; rather, I'd like to highlight the opportunity that opens up when the website publisher is able to reach a bigger audience within that niche.

There is a very simple solution: translate your websites into multiple languages.

Now, we've heard many people say that the benefits of translation of websites are for the big multinational companies that have large plans for specific markets, including having a local presence. However, this is not true. Granted that the opportunities for these larger organizations and the scale of investment for their website translation and localization would be significantly different, but the opportunities for smaller websites to boost their revenues are certainly not insignificant.

Why translate websites?

It is easy to gauge the considerable potential by translating websites (or even some pages of a website) into more languages, when we look at the numbers. Vast numbers of Internet users (in fact, well over 50% worldwide) do not use the English language. Let's consider for example some of the biggest markets in Asia- China, India, Japan and Korea. Barring India, English is not spoken or understood by the vast majority of the Internet-using population in the other countries. At the same, users in Japan and Korea are amongst the most net-savvy users in the world, with the Internet playing an integral part in their lives, from seeking information to shopping online.

Web publishers in the US or UK who are looking to monetize their websites with contextual advertising or affiliate marketing can drive so much more traffic when they have their website content translated into Japanese, Chinese or Korean.

It is likely that while a website may not rank very high for a particular keyword phrase in English, it may rank much higher for its translated version in another language.

In a case study in a Global By Design report, published by Byte Level, a German software company adopted this strategy to multiply its traffic from search engines and attract the right kind of traffic to its website, despite the fact that it translated only a fraction of its content on the parent site into other languages.

Even though this particular example pertains to the advantages of web localization and globalization undertaken by a software company, the same rationale applies to online retailers or information publishers monetizing websites with contextual advertising such as Google AdSense or affiliate marketing links.

Many website publishers who do take cognizance of the opportunities presented by translation, take a short cut and try to get their websites translated using some free online translation tools.

While these tools are certainly useful for some purposes, they can hardly be a substitute for professional translation by a native translator who knows the intricacies of the language as well as its cultural nuances.

The consequences of not taking into account the cultural sensitivities of the Japanese or Chinese, for example, when translating a website into these languages can be disastrous.

Professional marketers - be they of products, services or content-- can ill-afford to let their message get lost in translation.