Website localization is the only way to make use of using a multilingual website.
This happens because only by taking aboard your target region’s culture, habits, and expectations-as well as the word what they speak-will you really be able to enter a new market effectively.
Brands and businesses all over the world are beginning to understand this.
For instance, in 2023, US companies alone spent $38 billion on localizing their websites.
However, you can’t just quickly translate the text on your website into a new language and hope it will do the job.
Therefore, before you begin localizing your site for different regions and cultures, you need to take into account the what, the why, and also the how of your website localization strategy.
What Is Website Localization?
Website localization means adapting every element of your website so that someone from a different culture is going to be completely at home using it.
Of course, localizing the word what you’ve used is important. Additionally, you need to ensure that you both retain your brand voice and use local language, terms, regionalisms, and cultural references which make sense.
However, for truly effective website localization, you have to consider every element of the design:
Formats and Transactional Elements
- Time, date, and currency
- Payment options
- Transaction handling methods
- On-site currency conversions
- Local addresses
Localized Layout and Navigation
For languages which are read from to left such as Arabic or Hebrew, you will have to make significant alterations to your layout and navigation functions.
Also, you’ll probably have to do the same for logographic languages like Chinese, Japanese, or Korean.
Images and Video Content
The images you’ve used might not be relevant to your new target culture. They might even be inappropriate or contain gestures which some cultures find offensive.
Localized Icons
Icons aren't
universal either.
For instance, most American and European websites make use of a small “gear” icon to indicate settings. However, that’s not common practice across Asia.
Why Is Website Localization Becoming So Important?
Companies of
every size, around the globe, are waking up to the advantages of website localization:
- Adding popular languages like French, German, or Spanish can add as much as 100% each to the revenue a website generates.
- On average, businesses in the UK, US, France, and Germany have target markets in 7 different languages and 7 different regions.
- Africa and Asia are incredibly popular (and populous!) markets which a lot of companies are now targeting.
Why Does Localization Matter for you?
There’s more than one reason localizing a website is more effective than simply translating the words onto it. For example, you'll:
- Build
a powerful brand, known for its global respect for different cultures - Grow
trust in your brand - Improve
customer happiness - Gain
an aggressive edge
Access a worldwide Market by Localizing Your Website
Everything about the language and the images you utilize to convey your message to your domestic audience needs to be localized for your new foreign market.
The same task will also apply to your articles. For instance, one cultural group or demographic might not respond to the same content in the same manner.
This means you’ll need to:
Use Different SEO Tactics
for Different Audiences
- Get familiar with the very best multilingual SEO practices in the region you’re targeting.
- Research and use local keywords (not direct translations of your English keywords).
- Edit your domain names and URLs.
- Start a nearby link-building strategy.
- Make sure you research best practices for the right search engines. (Google and Yahoo’s dominance in Europe and also the US isn't global.)
Don’t Your investment Legal Side
Your terms
and types of conditions and the other legal aspects of operating an internet site are unlikely
to cross cultural and legal jurisdictional boundaries intact.
Most Important of: Do Your Research
You will need to know your new market intimately-or call in pros who do.
It’s vital that you comprehend the habits of the new audience, the social networking platforms they use, what they expect when it comes to website functionality, and the kind of content that interests them.
Think About How the experts Would Localize Your Website
Language providers exist for a reason.
This happens because the kind of in-depth research necessary to effectively localize your site for a new target market is extensive.
It encompasses all of the cultural knowledge and technical understanding of the region you’re trying to enter, in addition to mastery from the carefully chosen dialect of the local language you’re targeting.
Truly
effective website localization can’t exist without it.
