Online video is becoming so popular that hundreds of hours are uploaded to the internet every minute. Making online video accessible to all is so important for a number of reasons. Before you consider why you should translate subtitles, you should ensure that your videos are subtitled in the source language of the video.
Viewers who are deaf or hard of hearing should be able to enjoy the content of your videos. This is why closed captioning and subtitling should be an essential part of your video production process. Subtitling and SDL (closed captioning) in the source language of your video is also an essential part of subtitle translation.
Why is Subtitle Translation Important?
Just as source language subtitling is essential for accessibility, so is subtitle translation, especially if you intend on targeting a worldwide audience. Having multilingual subtitles for your online videos ensures that viewers can enjoy your content in their language. Multilingual subtitling is brilliant for SEO and puts you way ahead of the competition, as most online videos do not have multilingual options when it comes to subtitles. The most accurate way of having your videos indexed by the search engines is to have your videos professionally transcribed, subtitled and translated. This allows you to add keywords and descriptions to add to your SEO efforts.
Subtitles for Educational Video
65% of the population learn visually and 30% learn auditory. When it comes to educational videos, having visual and auditory sensory stimulation means that your educational videos truly help your viewers learn more effectively. Just in case you were wondering, the remaining 5% are kinesthetic learners, so make sure you include practical exercises in your videos too! Having your videos available in different languages via subtitles means that your videos can be enjoyed by all. If your videos focus on teaching language, then obviously this is great as an additional aid to learning.
Subtitles and Social Media
When you consider that 85% Facebook videos are watched in silence, it becomes a no-brainer that subtitles will expand your audience enormously. Multilingual subtitles will increase your viewership even more and make your video so much more likely to go viral, as it is accessible to all. This is of course true for other media platforms too, such as YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram and Twitter (to name a few).
We hope this answers the question of why you should translate subtitles. If you would like more information about our transcription services, translation services, subtitling services or voice over services, please get in touch. We are available all week and happy to help you.
For further reading on different methods of learning and how to educate effectively using video, visit this useful website.
