How To Do Best Localization for Your Business Website
If you are a business owner, your main goals are to make a profit and expand your market. It means you have to deploy several marketing systems to get ahead. However, there are times when marketing alone is not enough. Many clients want to have an experience that speaks to them. When clients visit your website, they want to be able to read your content without needing translation. Your answer to this need is website localization.
Website localization is the process of adopting a website to a particular audience. So, when you localize your website, you are translating the entire content of your website into another language. You will need to translate your website and its content considering the culture and traditions of your clients in a particular country or region. With the help of this article, you will be able to successfully localize your business website.
Create a Plan for Localization
There are about 5 billion internet users at the moment. Out of these figures, only a few understand English. Even if they do, research shows about 70% of people prefer to purchase from websites written in their native language. Therefore, you can see the importance of localizing your business website. Although you cannot localize your website to over 7,000 languages, you will need to localize to a few target languages. These target languages must be languages you see the potential of expanding your business to cover. Once you have your targets, you can use your plan as a guide.
Find a Competent Team
When you have a working plan, you will need to put together the right team for the job. Your team should consist of:
- Programmers,
- Content creators,
- SEO writers,
You will want to have an SEO copywriter that fluently speaks and writes your target language. Preferably, you will want to have a person who lives in your target location. Such a person should understand the vocabulary and slang of the country or city. So, they are better positioned to create content your target audience will want to engage with. Alternatively, you can get quality localization services, which make the localization process easier.
Keywords Research
If you decide to localize your website yourself, you will need to conduct thorough keywords research. In particular, this part should be conducted by your SEO copywriter. The writer will find the best keywords in the target language for the localized website. Therefore, you must ensure that your writer extensively understands your target language. If you want more than a single localized website, you should find writers proficient in each language. This way, each writer can conduct comprehensive keywords research.
Find the Best Translation Management Application
There are several translation management applications to choose from. Therefore, you need to find the software that works best for your project. You will need software that has the following features.
- Allows collaboration.
- Supports website translation.
- Supports translation memory.
- Supports mobile and app localization.
Internationalize the Website
Internationalization of a website means creating a website such that it can easily be translated. For you to internationalize your website, you will need your programmers to use the right coding. They will probably use Unicode when encoding. You should also ensure your coders work closely with your SEO writers. You and the team should double-check their entire website in different languages before going live.
Conclusion
Localization is an essential process if you want to have an international client base. To begin the process, you will need to develop a working plan. You will need to have a team that is proficient in every aspect of website creation. Also, your writers should conduct keywords research for target languages. Finally, you will need to internationalize your website and thoroughly test it.
About Author
Melony Hart’s day job involves writing and translation. She loves writing about languages. Her hobbies include running and traveling.
