Nowadays, it is crucial for small businesses to expand to new international markets. The website localization process is something that can help you meet this goal.
It sounds complicated, but we’re here to give you some tips that you can use in your journey to a better web page!
What is the Website Localization Process?
You might be wondering what website localization even is. It’s actually quite simple! The website localization process is when you adapt your page to fit other markets, specifically international ones. This often includes translating your pages to a variety of other languages.
This has grown to be increasingly important over the years. Now, more than 50% of search results aren’t in English. Also, 72% of potential consumers like going on websites that are in the language that they’re most fluent in.
All of this means that you’d want to look towards website localization so that your pages are in the languages that these people are most comfortable with!
Benefits of Website Localization
There are many benefits to adopting this technique in your web design. Let’s quickly go over some of the most important ones.
Enhanced SEO
Translating your website will dramatically increase its Search Engine Optimization. The Google algorithm will favor this variety of versions of your page, and it will be more likely to come up in someone’s search results!
Larger Market
If your website is in other languages, it is much more likely that you will be able to reach a larger target audience. For example, an American business offering Spanish translations could allow it to expand across all of Latin America.
Better Accessibility
This one goes along with the previous benefit. Utilizing website localization will make your page much more accessible to potential consumers. This is because everything will be much more understandable to them and they will be able to read everything in their native language.
How to Improve Your Website Localization Process
There are many steps that you can take for website localization that can help you expand your business to new markets. You should try to get through all these steps, as they will significantly help you better your business!
Find Your Target Audience
The first and most important part of this process is knowing who you are going to target. This will help you narrow down the languages that you want to translate your page to!
Though you should try to expand as much as possible in the long-run, it is still helpful to know where you want to start. For example, a small business owner wanting to target Latin American markets should primarily focus on Spanish and Portuguese web localization.
Identify Your Keywords
This is always going to be a key step, regardless of whether you are in the website localization process or not!
You should make sure that whoever you put in charge of this process, whether it be translators, programmers, or yourself, has knowledge of the language that you are translating to and can find the best keywords to use throughout the page.
Though these might end up being direct translations of the words or phrases, you should always check them for clarity. Make sure that they are as good keywords in the language that you are translating to as in the original!
This might require some tweaking, but it’ll be worth it.
Use the Right Programs
Luckily, programs like WordPress have a lot of plugins that will really help you with your translations so you don’t have to do them manually!
- Polyland
- Offers hundreds of languages
- Translates directly on WordPress
- Weglot
- Changes entire site to over 50 languages
- Helps translate even the smallest parts of your website
- WPML
- Facilitates manual translations
- Has paid versions that come with more perks
However, if translating manually, make sure to keep these in mind:
- Use APIs
- This makes it easier for programmers to access all of your data and complete projects
- Incorporate direct website translations
- Allows you to see exactly what your translators are doing on your page
- Makes it easier for people to work simultaneously on a website
Utilize Compatible Coding Software
The coding technology that all programmers should be using is Unicode! This is a software that supports almost every language and dialect and will not interfere with any translations made on your website.
Check Before You Release
Before you release any changes to your website, you want to make sure that all the translations you made were as accurate as possible.
The website localization process is tricky, so you want to make sure that you’ve mastered it and managed to make everything run smoothly. Don’t forget, it will make consumers see your page as more accessible and want to visit again!
Speaking the Localization Language
By now, you hopefully got the gist of the website localization process. Nevertheless, it’s completely normal for you to have more questions!
At Colibri Content, we’re here to help. If you need help with improving localization for your website, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
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