Do you want your products and services to be recognized everywhere in the world? For this purpose, apart from opening subsidiaries of the business in different parts of the world, you have to develop a company website. In this era of digitization, the development of websites is very important for showcasing your business. People will opt to buy products and services from the website that is provided to them in a language that they understand. Statistics show that 65% of customers still shop in their language even if the quality is not up to the mark. Therefore, to grow your business, you must go for website translation services.
Why You Need Website Localization Services
Only website translation is not enough. The consumer behavior of people in each market is different. Therefore, if you go for website translation services, you cannot persuade people to buy products and services until you go for website localization services. It is the translation of the website while taking the cultural and regional nuances into view. Otherwise content on the website can fire back.
Website Localization Best Practices
Let’s have a look that website localization best practices that can make this task easy.
Before going for website localization services, you have to do complete planning. In the planning phase, you will decide which country will you target and do complete marketing research on marketing dynamics and the varieties of languages spoken in these countries. It will make you understand whether you have to tap into a new market or market your products in the same region.
Designing
Check your software if it is powerful enough to support content management systems and workflows. Design the graphics and content of the website and give them to the professional translation agency that you have hired for this task.
Determine how the consumers will switch between the languages on the website. They are directed automatically by the locations or consumers can select them from the menu. You must also check different domains will handle multiple languages.
Localization is a continuous process, you can add or subtract languages from your website localization strategy according to your business requirements. After website localization, you should track the performance of the pages through searched keywords to further improve the website localization process.
Internationalize and Automate the Workflows
Internationalize means going for a multilingual website. For this, you need to check the content for each target market. If the content resonates with each target market then make the proper workflows for the localization process. Global companies should know whether the punchline is appropriate according to the local market or not.
If your brand message is in the English language, you should translate it into other languages too. You need to work on the translated website along with the required terminologies and style guide. It will help you in deciding the formal and informal tones.
The important point to note is that you don’t have to localize the images on the website for each country. However, you need to take into consideration the ethnicity of the people.
Some languages contract while others expand after the translation process on websites. It can have a massive impact on the page layout and website design. To check the changes in the layout you have to do testing. It is called pseudo-testing.
The other best practices for localization are to take into consideration different time zones, address formats, and currencies. As the content on the website grows you should use cutting-edge technology to fasten the process
- Find an automated way to send data for translation and import it back into the system.
- Use a content management system to check and update the content
- Go to online portals to check the translation.
- Use digital platforms to check and approve the quotes
Localization Should be Kept in Mind From the Start
The assets that you build for the website should support the localization process. Therefore, you should keep the localization process in mind in the development phase of the website. Sometimes, for different icons and colors, native marketers are also reviewing. For instance, in China, the red color is considered obnoxious and if you are going for video game translation services and localization then you have to check that no blood and political content should be included in the game.
Wrapping Up
You must plan your website design and content while keeping localization services in view. After that, you must be clear about which markets you want to cater to and for these markets which languages you should use. Make content resonate with the target market. Check the user interface of the website after the translation. If you use cutting-edge technology then the website location process will become easy.
