The Top Translator Skills Every Good Translator Needs

I. Why a Good Translator Needs Epic Translation Skills

Professional translation can spell the difference between conversions…and a target audience that finds your listing clunky, awkward, and just plain weird. That’s why it’s crucial to find a good translator with key translator skills.

Put it this way: Chatlingual reports that almost 80% of shoppers prefer to buy products where information is written in their native tongue, and 75% of customers are likely to become repeat buyers if a brand offers multilingual support. Well-translated listings help you build a relationship with your customer, and increase sales on a worldwide scale, which is why investing in translations and localization are crucial for any business.

On that note, keep an eye out for professional translation skills – because if the target language is not your native language, knowing what skills to prioritize in a translator will help you distinguish the difference between good output – and converting, engaging output. If your Amazon product page sounds like it was written by machine translation, it’s pretty likely that they’ll bounce over to your competitor.

Read on to see what to look for when searching for translation services for your Amazon listing. Expansion, when done right, will be a massive boon for your business – so let’s get started.

Are you a translator? Our team has some great practical advice for translators to help you level up your translator skills.

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II. The Non-Negotiables: Translator Skills That Impact Sales

Most Amazon sellers turn to two methods when getting their listings translated from one language to another. They may go for the most affordable freelance translator they can find online, or use machine translations like Google Translate. Now, what if you don’t speak the target language? How can you tell if the output is exact or not?

The benefit of employing a professional translator is you don’t need in-depth understanding of the target language. Good translators don’t limit their translator skills to just linguistic abilities; they make sure they hone other skills at the same time.

1. Fluency and Language Skills

To state the obvious, a good translator needs to be fluent in both the source and target language.

But more than that, a translator also needs “diligence, flexibility, and imagination,” according YLT Translations’ Sabine Keiser. Many people think that in order to develop a career in translation, you need to speak a bunch of different languages. This actually isn’t true (although it helps!).

Here at YLT Translations, all of our translators are native speakers of both the source language and the target language. Since our translators are all – at the very least – bilingual, our output flows; it sounds natural. It’s not enough to have excellent grammar and syntax; oftentimes, quality work has slang, idioms, pop culture references, and so on. This helps the output sound more authentic.

Now, if you’re having medical or legal documents translated, that’s a different story; you need meticulous word-for-word translations. But for work that requires a touch of localization, like in the world of eCommerce, your translator needs to do more than transpose words from one language to the other. The translator needs to communicate just like the target culture.

2. Cultural Awareness are Crucial Translation Skills

Continuing on from good communication skills – every translator that touches your listing needs to be familiar with the cultural nuances that matter to the target market. Aida El-Attar, our Spanish translator, says that “good translators keep up with their own culture and what’s happening around (them).”

The sentiment is echoed by Silke Maddox, who’s part of our German translations team. She notes that language doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s shaped by culture. That’s why one of the top translator skills is in-depth cultural knowledge. A great translator doesn’t just swap words from one language to another; she reads between the lines, catches subtle cultural cues, and adapts the message so it resonates with the target market while staying true to the original intent of the content.

In short, no matter how good the output is, if it has zero cultural context, the translated text just will not resonate with your customers.

Read this article on cultural sensitivity and why it matters for eCommerce sellers.

3. SEO Proficiency & Marketplace Optimization Savvy

The trouble with novice or computer-assisted translation is that the source text is translated word for word – which isn’t always a bad thing – but for certain fields like eCommerce where keywords are crucial to your success, translating your keywords just is not enough.

Anyone can bring a list of keywords through a dictionary and stick them into a machine-translated listing and hope for the best, but we’ve seen it time and time again – it just does not convert. One seller copy-pasted her entire listing from the USA to the UK marketplace – thinking that there was no need for localization or translation because both cultures spoke English. It sounds about right. Imagine her surprise when she started to rank for a completely different product – and sales dropped in a massive way.

Keyword localization is a vital translator skill. New keywords need to be generated for every specific language to ensure accuracy in search. Our translators use a slew of different tools to make sure that they input the correct keywords into each listing, to avoid confusion and maximize visibility.

Jana’s rather particular about this; in the YLT workflow, new keyword research is one of the standards that we uphold to the letter. That way, we don’t just improve your translation through pretty words; those words are data-driven and scientifically sourced.

4. Excellent Writing Skills 

Silke’s really clear about this – a good translator must have good writing skills so the translation reads like an original text in the target language. The output might be technically accurate, but if it sounds awkward or clunky, it just won’t resonate with your customers. Furthermore, she states, a good translation needs to be precise. This is where syntax, grammar, punctuation, and the like really matter. Consistency in terminology and tone are crucial translator skills.

In a word – a good translator needs thoroughness, to quote Sabine.

5. Research Skills Go Beyond Language Proficiency

In the field of translation, research skills are absolutely vital to the success of your product listing. A good translator should understand your product, your competitors, and your target marketplace intimately to ensure every single word is accurate, optimized, and conversion-ready.

This level of detail is especially crucial in the most difficult categories to translate for – they need to be sure that the output doesn’t have the trigger words that may result in a loss of consumer trust and search visibility. Furthermore, a good translator will work with you to ensure regulatory compliance. That’s why another one of the vital translator skills is professionalism – your translator needs to be able to collaborate with you to deliver the best possible output.

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III. Translation Skills You’ll Find Only in Top Translators

Time Management and Process Mastery

Translation work is still a business. A professional translator goes beyond a degree in translation or languages. They’re deadline-driven, efficient, and tech-savvy. They follow structured workflows without sacrificing quality.

Why does this matter to you? Because efficiency means your listings go live faster, and you can rest assured that the output is above average. Faster listings mean quicker entry into new markets, whereas translation delays may bottleneck your global growth.

Find out more about YLT Translations’ workflows here!

Professionalism, Business Ethics, and Communication Skills

There are many types of individuals that enter the translation profession; finding one is like finding the perfect pediatrician for your child. It boils down to chemistry – and a certain amount of collaboration.

A professional translator is a partner who communicates clearly, meets deadlines,  respects confidentiality, and responds without chasing. They should be adept in client-first professionalism, especially in eCommerce, where things change at the drop of a pin, and pivoting is the name of the game. One of the most important translator skills, we’ll wager, is the ability to move with you, not against you.

Fluency in the Subject Areas

This is why translation software and AI will never be as good as human translators – because the best output comes from someone who’s fluent in your category. It helps to work with a translation professional that possesses in-depth knowledge about Amazon selling, conversion and engagement, and who understands the ins and outs of even the most difficult categories. There will be less back and forth in that scenario.

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IV. Questions to Identify If a Translator Has the Translator Skills You Need

So, how do you figure out if your preferred translator has the prerequisite translator skills? Remember, it’s not about them knowing two or more languages; there’s much more than goes into adapting translations as a successful career, from the skills like cultural mastery and grammatical fluency, to professionalism and subject matter awareness.

Here are some questions you can ask your translator to see if you and they are a good match:

• How do you handle keyword research per marketplace?

• Can you localize images, A+ Content, and brand story too?

• Do you understand compliance and regulatory phrasing?

• Do you provide post-delivery support and revisions?

• What’s your process like?
• What’s your preferred communication channel, and how often can I expect to hear from you?
• How familiar are you with how Amazon works? Have you translated Amazon product listings before?

You can start with these questions – then continue to add on questions that deal specifically with the job at hand, for example how familiar they are with the category, if they’ve translated similar products before, and if they’re a native speaker in the target language.

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V. YLT Translations Has the Adaptability, Specialization, and Business Skills to Help You Grow

We have something called the localization triumvirate. We know, it’s quite the mouthful, but essentially it means that every person on the YLT Translations team is:

1. A native speaker
2. A capable copywriter that understands Amazon listings
3. An Amazon expert: SEO, conversion, engagement, and even restricted words

The combination of these three characteristics ensures top-notch quality for every listing that passes our way. Not to mention, we cover more than 20 languages, including marketplaces with growing demand like Brazil, Japan, and Poland.

Jana herself is a thought leader in the Amazon space. Her LinkedIn is full of case studies, updates on the eCommerce world, and tips and hacks to help you scale better. You’ll see her on many podcasts, at many seminars and conferences, and speaking at tons of webinars.

Thanks to a leader like that, you’re guaranteed of incredible quality from each and every one of our translators.

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VI. Check Our Output Through the Client Portal

Last October, we launched the YLT Client Portal. Thanks to this brand new online service, our clients can:

• Track the status of their projects in real time
• Receive notifications once projects are complete
• Download files directly from the portal—no more back-and-forth emails!

We developed the client portal in order to deliver transparency, efficiency, and professionalism through every step in the workflow. Clients can check which step their translation is on, in real time, without waiting for email replies. It’s all part of our plan of bringing our clients nothing but the very best.

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VII. When Translations Are a Sales Lever, Invest in Someone With the Right Translations Skills

If there’s anything we want you to take away from this week’s blog, it’s that translation isn’t a checkbox – it’s a growth strategy.

Correct translations mean putting the right foot forward in a foreign, often-crowded marketplace. It’s your brand voice, but in a new language – one you may not even speak. It’s the bridge to revenue across borders. Now, just because you plan to expand globally doesn’t mean you have to learn another language – especially not if you work with a translator that you can trust.

A team that understands how language impacts conversion, ranking, and trust on Amazon – this is your key to global success. Don’t rely on the freelancer with the lowest salary, or even on Google Translate or ChatGPT – you need someone who understands the nuances of culture, the ins and outs of Amazon, and how to phrase your listing so it resonates with the target culture – without losing its essence.

If you’ve reached this far in the blog, then you’ve found that exact team. If it’s your first time to discover YLT Translations, don’t worry – we’re happy to start small. Book a free listing analysis and see where we can help you grow.

We’ve got the translator skills – you’ve got the product listing – together, we can make it happen, on a global scale!