In today's booming internet economy, various social and economic activities are increasingly reliant on the internet, and the traditional offline purchasing behavior based on physical experiences has shifted massively to online browsing. Displaying product services and interacting with visitors through official websites has become the first stop for various brands to initiate user experience journeys.
The value of website localization
The importance of website construction is self-evident, but the question that follows is: Isn't an English website enough if I want to reach customers globally? The answer is simple: No, far from it. Because:
- 72.1% of consumers prefer to buy products with information in their mother tongue.
- 60% of consumers consider obtaining information in their own language more important than price.
- After website localization in France, the average traffic growth is 176%, and this number reaches 183% in Germany.
There are as many as 27 languages worldwide with over 50 million native speakers, and 8 languages with over 100 million native speakers (excluding second language speakers):
- Mandarin Chinese: 939 million
- Spanish: 485 million
- English: 380 million
- Hindi: 345 million
- Portuguese: 236 million
- Bengali: 234 million
- Russian: 147 million
- Japanese: 123 million
Therefore, a multilingual website presented in the customer's mother tongue is one of the indispensable marketing methods for a product or service to succeed in a new target market.
Preparation and evaluation of website localization
As the scenarios and purposes differ from other types of content, the processes and technologies involved in website localization are also different from traditional document translation and software localization. In order to better achieve the goal of website localization and plan time and cost in advance, it is necessary to confirm and clarify some necessary technical and demand details before starting the project, such as:
- Website construction method and multi-language management support. For example, whether your website is generated based on static webpage files or managed using a CMS (content management system); if a CMS system is used, whether to integrate a plug-in with multilingual translation and management functions. This will affect how the content to be translated is provided in what way and format, and also determine whether the multilingual website can be properly managed. A mature and stable website infrastructure will make you twice as effective in the localization process.
- Localization of graphic and multimedia content. If images, audio, and video, etc. on the website also need to be localized, then a website localization solution may need to consider other professional services such as design layout, dubbing, and even video shooting and production.
- Multilingual SEO. If the website needs to maintain more exposure and higher rankings on search engines after localization, it is necessary to consider how to prepare for SEO for each target language during the website localization process, which requires the support of SEO experts and the early inclusion of multilingual SEO optimization in the localization process.
- Website localization testing. Similar to software localization, only through professional testing can a high-quality browsing experience be guaranteed after localization. Website testing can not only help you identify and optimize page layout issues caused by translation length but also confirm whether the multilingual website uses correct units, currency, time, number formats, contact information, etc.
Conclusion
As an important branch of language services, website localization has already surpassed translation itself in terms of technical requirements and commercial value. If you want to ensure that your multilingual website plays a more important role in the process of international marketing, you need to first find a reliable professional language service partner. By using professional tools, processes, systems, and rich website localization practice experience, you can obtain high-quality website localization results. This not only helps you save time and costs, but also optimizes the user experience of your multilingual website and even avoids content risks, allowing you to gain an advantage in the competitive target market.
