Website Localization: How to do it Right?
At present, digitalization has made the world more globalized. People that once thought of expanding the business can now make it possible now. First, they have to develop their business website. Websites are the first interaction of customers with your company. This interaction will be fruitful if you try to communicate with the people in a language that they understand. Apart from translation, you need to localize the content so that it resonates with the target market. Worry not. The best solution to do translation and localization is to hire a professional translation agency. The professional translation agencies will provide you with a localization platform to make your business expansion dream come true. In this era of fierce competition, website localization is the best way to stay ahead. Let’s have a look at the ultimate guide to website localization in 8 steps.
Understanding Your Target Market
Before going for a website localization endeavor, you must plan first. Planning will channelize your efforts, time, and money. The rational decision is to localize your website for small economies first and ask yourself the following questions.
- Which target market, you want to hit?
- Who is your target audience?
- Which languages do they speak?
- What is the consumer behavior of the target market?
Localizing your website in one or two languages will let you know the results of website translation.
Don’t Go for Free Translation
Developing a website takes time and energy. You should think of ways that can make your website more professional. For this, you don’t have to do translation with the free applications that are available on the internet. The rational way is to hire a professional translation agency. They employ a native translator and use a localization platform to provide clients with impeccable website translation services.
Put all Stakeholders Together
Website development and localization is not a work of a single man. There is a team of stakeholders. These stakeholders should be on one page regarding which country to target and for which language to go. If you have time and resources then you can also go for the local consultant. Moreover, you can also check Google Analytics.
Do Your Research on Keyword
After deciding the target market and languages, you must prepare the lists of keywords. This is important for global search engine optimization. You must be wondering; how can you optimize your website for search engines? One important thing to keep in mind is that Google is not a search engine used globally. People of Russia use Yandex whereas people of China use Baidu. For search engine optimization, you must know for which terms your potential customers are looking for and which search engine they are using.
Localize the Web Design
Apart from altering the content, you must change the graphics of the website according to the target market. Graphic designs vary in different cultures. Moreover, mobile browsing is also prevalent in many markets. Therefore, You can research the browsing habits of the target audience for the proper localization of the website. Moreover, you should make such a design that can help people to navigate the website easily. Additionally, they can change the language without any hassle.
Localize Your Messaging
You must have spent a lot of time developing the website in English. To get leverage from the website, you must focus on localizing the messaging. Here you need to keep cultural nuances in mind because something that is considered good in one market can be considered offensive in another. The best way is to keep your messaging consistent. Moreover, you should make sure that your messaging content has the same emotional influence on the target audience. Additionally, sometimes you also need to rewrite the content to get desired results. This process is called transcreation.
Quality Checks
The stringent quality control measures can make your website successful. Before launching your website in the global market, you must check the technicalities and errors on the website and rectify them on time. A flawless localized website will do wonders for your business. On the other hand, the localization and functional bugs on the website will damage your business reputation.
Consider Multilingual SEO
Your website localization effort can’t be successful until the internet traffic is high on your site. For instance, you can’t rely on Google in English to rank your site high in other markets. Therefore, for local markets, you must take into account other search engines. The successful multilingual SEO will start with market and keywords research. Therefore, you must know how people search for your products in different countries, even if they are speaking a similar language.
Wrapping Up
So, this was the ultimate guide to website localization in 8 steps. Are you ready for website localization? Thus, for the proper utilization of your money, efforts and time, it is recommended to hire a professional translation agency because they can provide you with a robust localization platform to execute website localization.