Sometimes, when we visit a website for a multinational corporation or a foreign government, we discover that we are unable to understand anything about it because it is written in a language we are not familiar with. In some cases, we are unable to even recognize the letters.
Although this is the website we want and the information we need, it is not as accessible as we had thought, and its words and characters cannot be understood.
Here, we need a website localization specialist translator to step in and make it possible for you to access the website and fully comprehend its content.
What is the meaning of website localization?
Website localization is the process of adapting a website to the needs and cultures of certain target audiences. All material on the website must be localized into the target language of the audience that the website owner wants to see. In the process of localizing a website, many cultural aspects that are exclusive to this group of people are also taken into consideration, from how the content is presented to how it interacts with the content.
What is the difference between website localization and website translation?
The difference between website localization and website translation is that website translation is part of the website localization process, but sometimes it can be done by itself, and other times it can be dispensed.
website localization:
Website localization is the process of customizing a website’s content to a certain audience’s culture so that they feel at ease and familiar with it. While working on the language, audible, visual, or interactive material of the website, this procedure involves fitting into their culture.
When the target audience’s language differs from the original website’s language, translating the website’s content may be part of the localization process.
website translation:
The website can be translated as one of the steps of its localization, which is an important step as it allows your website to reach a new area and helps it increase the number of its visitors.
However, we must pay attention to the fact that simply translating the website will not have the same success as localizing the site, as different cultural factors, which are noted by the difference in language, will prevent you from accessing them.
What are the benefits of website localization?
For every website you visit, website localization has the following advantages:
1-Improve your website’s ranking:
Localization of websites will improve the ranking of the website in search engines; a reasonable intensification of the use of words and terms that future potential visitors often use will lead to an effective increase in the number of website visits, which will raise its ranking in search engines by extension.
2-improve the brand image:
By giving visitors further trust in the website and its brand and even telling them that the website has been specially designed for them, represents them, and satisfies their needs, website localization strengthens the mental image of the brand.
3-Reach a larger audience
By localizing your website, you may expand your audience and reach people from the culture you are trying to attract. These people will be able to view, comprehend, and engage with your site. Gaining a new customer base will expand your market, help your items become more widely known, and boost your brand’s reputation. All of these factors will eventually translate into financial gains for you.
4-increasing the credibility of the website among its visitors:
Localizing your website will help it gain more credibility with prospective customers. They will feel more comfortable since they believe the website represents, expresses, and may even have been created by their culture; they no longer trust an unknown foreigner but rather a member of their society. They will experience similar emotions throughout their visit, even if they realize that it’s usually just a matter of website localization.
Furthermore, websites that adapt to every user and country are more trustworthy and reputable than those that restrict their content adaptation to a single culture.
5- increasing the percentage of purchases from the website:
Due to its capacity to enhance search engine ranking, open up new worlds for the website, facilitate communication with other cultures, enhance the overall appearance of your website’s brand, and ultimately boost the percentage of visitors’ trust in the website, website localization plays a significant role in increasing the percentage of sales on the website.
Read more: 11 Golden Steps for Website Localization
How does website localization work?
Website localization works through a set of important steps, each of which performs a basic task to finally reach the localization of websites and fully adapt it to the culture of the target audience:
1- Figure out and analyze your target audience:
The process of localizing a website begins with identifying and researching the target audience, taking into account their language, culture, and customs. Along with studying how businesses like you sell their products, you should also research the local market conditions for the product in question and how they encourage suitable consumer engagement with their brands and products.
Attempt to research the new market you are entering to make sure everything is going well, that you are prepared to enter it, and that it is ready to accept you, rather than selecting a language at random and starting to translate the content into it.
2- creating a detailed plan for the localization process:
After researching your target market, the next stage in localizing your website is to create a detailed plan for the process. This involves converting the data you have gathered into actionable, clear steps that will ultimately help you reach your goal.
You should now decide which steps to take in the localization process for your website, in what order to complete them, and how to assess each step’s effectiveness.
3- Choosing the right experts to complete the project:
One of the key elements in the localization of a website and a crucial component of its success is choosing the right experts to complete the work.
Selecting qualified professionals is crucial for several reasons. These include having highly skilled technical developers who can handle all technical aspects of the project as well as prepare the website for localization; technical designers who put in a lot of effort to ensure a beautiful and consistent technical image for visitors; satisfied users; or website content translators who can act as a communication link between you and potential customers.
4- content translation:
The third step to localizing a website is to translate the content of the site from its native language into the language of its future customers. At this stage, you not only translate sentences and phrases linguistically but also perform cultural translation from the original cultural elements of the site to the cultural elements of your future visitors to help them feel familiar with our website.
You should assign this task to a translator specialized in translating the content of websites, preferably choosing a translator specialized in the market you decided to join; this step will greatly facilitate your future work in this market.
5- Adjusting the work strategy to enhance the website’s search engine ranking:
Lastly, you need to adjust the business plan based on the website’s search engine evaluation. Since this is a new market and your website serves a different audience, you should change the approach you use to politely embrace this new audience.
Select keywords that are more appropriate for the new market, and research your client’s interests and the strategies that will convince them to come back again and again to your website.
read more: what is Software internationalization
What are the basics of website content localization?
The idea of a localization process will not exist at all without website content localization, which is the base on which the entire process is built. Localizing content for websites is an extended procedure with several stages and procedures that are created and transformed by the website’s evolving needs:
1- Make original content:
It is important to maintain the uniqueness of the overall content related to your brand identity, as it should express you, so choose your phrases to describe your identity and goals.
Ask your translators to localize these texts and show them to a native speaker of the targeted language so that you are sure that they are suitable for your customers who speak that language. Repeat these steps with all the languages whose speakers you target in your potential customer list.
2- Adjusting the promotional materials:
One of the most crucial aspects of promoting the localization of your website is adapting its marketing material to the target audience’s culture. Hiring a web content localization specialist from the people who own that language and culture is one of the things that can help you in this localization process since he’s the most qualified person to express the spirit of his culture in the text.
During this phase, the text is translated into the target language and modified to fit the cultural norms of the intended audience. A creative designer can include aspects of this culture in the films and images utilized to create visual content.
3- Localizing legal content:
Because laws differ between countries and occasionally even between cities within the same country, you need to manage localizing the legal content on your website. It is unacceptable to customize your website’s policies to one country; doing so can harm your website’s credibility and perhaps damage your brand.
At this point, you should consider hiring a legal expert from every country you join to advise you on legal matters affecting your clients from that country.
What should be localized on websites?
Localization of websites means adapting all their content to the culture to attract their customers, and many different types of content must be localized on websites:
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Written material:
You must localize your website’s written content, such as its articles, marketing offers, product landing pages, and company profile pages. It is important to make each visitor or customer feel as though the content was created just for them.
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audio content:
A particular type of content that needs to be localized when localizing your website is audio; if it is not in his language, he will not understand it, or if it is in his language and you do not express it, the client will not accept it as you want. As a result, make sure that any audio content you include matches the favorable impression of your online presence that visitors get.
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Visual content:
The visual content on your website, including images and videos, should also be localized. If the images and videos just represent one person or a certain region, you won’t get genuine engagement from all audience segments. To attract customers from each region, you should therefore include regional elements in your photographs and videos.
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Interactive content:
Interactive content such as purchase buttons, booking services, finding out more about a particular offer, or even contacting buttons should be specially designed to match your localization process.
Invest in the best website localization service:
We at Fast Trans for Certified Translation, using a website localization team, studied all aspects of the website localization process and gained insight by analyzing many other website experiences because we always want the best for you and we know the importance of the process for the success and growth of your small business.
As a result, Fast-trans certified translation has established itself as a leader in the website localization industry and has the most skilled and knowledgeable team in this sector. Don’t accept less than fast-trans; get in touch with us right now!
According to website localization, traders and companies may now easily distribute their ideas beyond a large geographic area with just a few clicks, compared to the days when doing so required a great deal of work, time, and money.
