As we get closer to the end of the year, and 2019 is almost within sight, it’s a great time for New Year resolutions to maximize your performance as a freelance Translator, as well as a business owner looking for freelance translator services.

If you are a freelance translator, in this post, you will find out what language pairs are breaking out in the translation and localization industry, what areas of expertise are in high demand, etc.

If you are a business owner, looking for freelance translation services, you will learn what most popular languages your competitors want to translate their business into to reach new customers and increase sales, as well as the most popular platforms to search for freelance translators.

Be ready to capture the data and follow-up thank you comments below this post!

According to Google trends, the keyword  “translator” was the highest searched keyword in the period between 2010-2011. The search for “translator” has dropped twicely during this year if to compare with 2010-2011.

I think, most of my colleagues have noticed this in their workflow within this period of time. This could be great if you could share your experience below in the comments.

As indicated in Google Trends, during 2018 most of the searches for “translator” are coming from Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Estonia and Philippines. This could be explained by the fact that most of the biggest translation and localization companies in EU are located in Slovakia, Poland and Czechia.

The popularity of “translator” in Philippines might be caused by the fact that many Chinese factories are shifting out of the country to Philippines because of the United States trade war.

I decided to make some deeper research into the keyword “translator” that most users put into while searching the web and discovered very interesting information.

It turns out that the intent of the keyword “translator” has come through drastic changes within the last decades. Around 7 years ago users searched for a human being translator.

Today, with the advanced technology development, people are looking for “translator” intending to find automated machine translation service by a computer, or applications that will help them translate, or special devices (pocket translator voice) – an instant electronic translator device for live conversation.

As a rule these searches are done by private individuals for personal purposes – to translate an e-commerce website, or find the way to a destination while traveling outside their native countries.

In conclusion, the searches with the intent of machine translation services will increase. People like to do shopping online. Air fares are dropping down. All these factors encourage people to cross the borders and cultures. Therefore, “translator” with the “automated” intent will be in demand. And in the nearest future, we will be presented with the newest electronic solutions for private use.

The data of top searches in 2018 reveal that users mostly use Google Translate to translate from Spanish to English, from German to English, as well as French.

What does it mean to website owners? Website owners should focus on Spanish speaking, German speaking and French speaking countries. It is quite possible that these countries might bring a lot of organic traffic, new customers to websites, and as the result, boost online business.

As for translators, if you are on the way to decide which language pair to choose, you should think about the following:

Online presence and speaking the language of your customers is very important for every online business. When your business speaks the language of your target audience, it means you can reach more new audiences, engage with people from different countries. The records below will show you the way in 2019, because in 2018 there are still big potentials with these language pairs.

Therefore, I decided to go further and discovered top searched freelance translators in 2018.

The data below will be helpful for potential customers and freelance translators as well. These are the sources which help translators create their online presence on the one hand, and on the other hand, potential customers will be able to find freelance translator without paying additional fees to any intermediary company.

So, what are the most popular places to register as a freelance translator and find freelance translator?

The quote of all translation and localization projects is based on the total number of words and a translator’s rate. Today there are a lot of word count tools in the market. Check my post about the popular tools used to count words on website.

My further research showed that the most popular tools to calculate words in 2018 are:

The last research carried out by me unveils to freelance translators which niche market to focus in the upcoming years. It’s no secret, that the competition in translation and localization business is very high. To compete, a freelance translator has to choose an area of expertise so that it will be possible to reach the target audience and get visible online.

Here is a list of specialization in the top search in 2018: