Website translation and localisation are the latest issues confronting businesses today. Anyone who is seeking to buy a product now has the opportunity to surf the web and find a competitive price for the product which wasn’t simply possible before as there was no way of knowing what’s available from other countries except what is found in local stores.
The move into online shopping has meant that businesses have to move with the trend if they want to stay in business. Even if they are a local business based in a locality they still have to be competitive with the quality of their goods and their pricing. This is where website translation and localisation have grown in importance and the demand for website translation services and website localisation services has experienced a growth spurt in recent years.
There has been a long held view that customers always prefer to read about products in their own language before going ahead and making a purchase. Many businesses have seized the opportunity to make their websites more enticing by providing a website language translator that allows viewers to switch to whatever language they choose. They also get web translation services to include voice-overs and subtitles so that their advertising can reach a wider audience in the targeted languages.
Website localisation services and website translation services as growing industries are likely to stay this way well into the future.
Why you should translate your website
Why translate your website? is a question you may be asking yourself. There is a simple answer to this and that is it’s a good way to introduce your business to potential new markets and hopefully gain new customers. Your website these days is the best tool you have available to communicate with customers online. So along with the above-mentioned reasons for translating and localising your website there are other more minor reasons, such as:
- Your business is easier to find if you provide it in the languages of your potential customers.
- By being multilingual your website gains the most because you have become more visible by using what’s called a multilingual search engine optimization (MSEO) tactic.
- Your customers want multilingual websites and they are easy to read when on mobile devices.
- Online multilingual websites show a business wants to become more personally engaged with potential customers and that’s what customers want to feel.
- Your business is on the way to getting a greater market share the more languages it adds to its website larger market share. One extra language it’s been said leads to 100 percent growth in sales.
- You are in a better competitive position because your language rich website will stand out from the rest and make your brand more visible.
- Translation and localisation of your website have meant your product has crossed frontiers and if your product is what people really want to buy they will know they can understand your products because the descriptions are in their language.
These answers should now address your question as to why translate your website.
Website translation and localization process
When it comes down to the nitty-gritty as to what website localization or website translation really is. It is the process of altering a current website so that it is more accessible, easier to use and more culturally suitable to the targeted audience. Overall, more than 33 percent of all those that use the internet do not speak English and research has revealed that a visitor to a website stays twice as long if the website is written in their own language. So this clearly shows the benefits of website localization.
Website localization analysis
There are certain key steps that need to take place to localise a website and this starts with hiring website localisation services to conduct website localisation analysis. This involves firstly defining the potential client and where that client can be found. This is more an analysis of purchasing trends so that the right markets can be targeted and the right languages in the right countries. A website localisation analysis can be conducted by a website localization service which has the expertise to understand what’s best for your type of product.
Translation of website content
The next step is website content translation. Once the first step has been achieved then the translation has to be both culturally and linguistically relevant to the targeted audience. This means selecting the right vocabulary, grammar and level of language that will suit the targeted audience. An experienced translator who understands your culture and the targeted language and culture will be able to achieve an appropriate website content translation.
There are other processes that need to be completed before your website is thoroughly localized to match your targeted audience’s needs. These are outlined in the paragraphs below.
Localising your website layout and navigating your site
When you translate a website into another language the number of words may differ from those used in English so the pages may need to be redesigned to match the new language. Also, you may find that it’s not necessary to translate all the pages but only those that are most relevant to your targeted audience and the ones they will stay longer on.
Adapting images to be culturally relevant to your new audience
Not all images on your main website will go down well with your new audience so you have to substitute images if necessary that won’t offend your new audience or even better fit in well to your new audience.
Symbols may need to be localised
Quickly adapting and feeling comfortable with a business’s websites isn’t just it appearing in the targeted audience’s language but the use of familiar symbols in the right way will increase the comfort level even more. So if you were to put in pictures of the country’s capital city this will add to the acceptance level of the website. There will be other things like prices appearing in the targeted audience’s own currency and the way dates are displayed. If measurements are used like weight and length they should meet the targeted audience’s expectations, even though most countries are metric, so mistakes shouldn’t be made.
Cultures favor different colors
Colors don’t seem to have a lot of influence on buying potential in western countries but there are some countries and cultures that take colors quite seriously. It will need a little research so that you don’t use colors on your localised website that may offend potential audiences. For example, if you are targeting Koreans in your localisation programme it would be useful to know that pink is a symbol of trust so it’s definitely worth using pink on your Korean pages. Similarly, China views the color yellow as being “nourishing,” while India sees the color red as linked with purity.
Localisation testing is important
Once the translated and localised website has been fully prepared it will need to be tested so that it works as well as your English website. Localisation services that you hire to help you will have an engineer available to test your website. The first step is ensuring all the links in the website function well and the customer will be able to navigate freely through the pages that you have designed specially to suit his or her cultural and linguistic preferences.
Benefits of translating websites
The benefits of translating your website will clearly be seen when you start to see your customer base and sales grow. At long last, you may find that all that hard work of localising and translating your website has paid off and you have gained a competitive advantage over rival businesses. There can’t be any better benefits of web translation than that outcome. The true benefits of translating your website means you can transfer that well-earned profit into more leisure time for you and your family.
Website translation services manage global branding and boost audience engagement
The website translation service that is responsible for localising your website will boost your brand and so increase your audience by translating the text of your marketing content so that it suits the culture of your audience. The translator will need to have a high degree of knowledge of the cultural features of your targeted audience so appropriate language can be used in the translation. This means using well-translated idioms and metaphors that correctly represent the features of your business’s products.
Your website translation service will ensure the graphics and methods used in your desktop publishing fit the requirements of the culture of your new audience. This may mean using different graphics or even different fonts than those found on your English website. When the desktop publishing is complete it should be a perfect match of words, graphics, and presentation so that your targeted audience feels comfortable surfing through your web pages and is encouraged to make a purchase. This will include localisation of any video content that you have on your main website.
You may find that your website translation service has been able to put your brand firmly on the global map.
Conclusion
In the end, website localization and the translation isn’t that difficult after all. As long as the right steps have been followed and you have engaged a competent website translation and localisation services to undertake the job. There’s little doubt that your decision to localise will have been a good one and it will have been a good move to get your brand globally recognized and sought after,