It's so easy to add a translation service to website pages, with several free services to choose from.

Overseas visitors are scanning the web for recommendations on where to stay and eat. Young travellers are looking for places to work and can be a vital source of labour for tourist areas.

Locally, many potential job applicants may not have strong English and would welcome translation assistance, so make sure one of these buttons is on your Employment page.

How good is the translation? Quite good, but not perfect...good enough for someone who doesn't speak English to find out what they need to know. And they'll appreciate this thoughtful touch - it's rarely offered.

Try the Google translation services - choose a language below and see how it works with some typical 'tourist copy':

"Bondi is well known for its great sandy beach and its surf. Cafe Troppo is one of the most popular cafes in the area and looks out over the water - a great place for a coffee, a beer or a relaxing meal. The beach is backed by attractive parkland, where you can relax, play games or take a walk. It is also popular with rollerbladers, skaters and cyclists."

You can get this Google translator here - it's our recommended service.

There are also translation tools from Yahoo called Babelfish and from Microsoft (that only works well with Internet Explorer).

So how do I add a translation service onto a web page?

It's very easy for your web designer, or who ever updates your web pages. All you do is add a simple line of code to wherever you want the translation tool to appear. Here are typical instructions:

Automatic translation for your web pages is another great way to leap ahead of your sleepy competitors...