Your website is a digital version of your local store, so your site visitors need to feel just as welcome there as they were if they went to your store. How you design and whatever content you post on this site can make or break your online brand. For that reason, every successful brand has invested heavily in website localization.
If you’ve just launched a global product and you’re looking to attract an audience from across the globe, website localization should be part of your strategy. What is it, and how does it benefit your business? Read on to learn more.
What is website localization?
Website localization refers to the customization of your website to appeal to the users of a foreign market. Every section of your content is adapted to suit the local taste, from languages to currencies. For instance, when you use online tools to translate a website, the resulting output will reflect the cultural preferences of the target market. Your readers will find it easy to relate to your brand, which is one of the determining factors in the consumers’ shopping behaviour.
Why website localization matters for your business
For your brand to hit the desired heights in the global market, there are many factors you should consider. One of them is the localization of your product and services marketing. This can be achieved by customizing your website design. Are you wondering how exactly web localization will benefit your business? Here’s a rundown on some of the biggest benefits:
It improves user experience
User experience is key to the success of every business, and yours is no exception. Once you’ve decided to join the international market, you need to make sure that prospective customers from every region are accommodated. Unfortunately, many companies don’t consider the social and cultural aspects of their target market when introducing and marketing their products.
For instance, most upcoming brands use English to present their content, even in non-English speaking regions. While many people consider this language universal, many more people would rather visit a website that conveys its message in their local language. In fact, research shows that over 75% of online consumers prefer browsing through content written in their native dialect.
By localizing your website, you’ll be targeting this group and ensuring that they find it easy to navigate every corner of your site. If you do this, you’ll have significantly enhanced their user experience. It is something that many companies fail to achieve.
It increases your conversion rate
As stated earlier, most people prefer to purchase goods listed in their local language because they find navigating the seller’s website easier and can relate to whatever is posted. Translating your website to the target market’s local language and redesigning every other feature will persuade your web visitors to do more than just browse through your content. When prospective customers find a beautiful website with content written in the language they understand, there is a higher chance that they’ll want to try the marketed items.
It’s not only the language that can increase the conversion rate but also the units of measurements used. For instance, if consumers in a given region are used to the metric system, you ought to use it in your measurements. The same applies to currencies and other common units. Localization of your content in this sense will strengthen your relationship with international customers.
Enhances your SEO performance
Search engine optimization plays an important role in the digital world. Enhancing your SEO performance ensures that your website appears among the top search engine results. This way, you’ll be able to attract more traffic. This can translate to more sales depending on how you handle these prospective customers.
One of the best ways of optimizing your website for SEO ranking is through localization. It’s worth noting that giant search engines like Google are designed to prioritize the results that satisfy the user’s intent. Among the most important factors considered in this ranking are cultural practices, native language, and units of measurement used in that particular geographical region.
Offers a great marketing avenue
Are you looking for a proper international marketing avenue for your products? You have the option of hiring mainstream media, social media influencers, and other advertisement techniques. However, these can be very expensive, especially for those entering a foreign market.
On the other hand, marketing through your website gives you a more affordable alternative. You can effectively reach your target market through your site, provided you localize your content and design. In the long run, you’ll invest at least two-thirds less than you would if you used traditional marketing techniques.
Conclusion
Many successful brands have redesigned their websites to reflect the demands of their prospective global customers. Doing this improves the users’ experience as they browse through your content while enhancing your website’s SEO performance and making your marketing campaigns more effective. If you’re planning to launch your products in foreign countries, be sure to consider localizing your website to increase your chances of success.
Weglot is a no-code website translation software that allows anyone to launch a multilingual website instantly. It both translates and displays the content of your website removing the pain of having to manage multiple websites for multiple markets. Manage the translation of a website translation project in days not months with a first layer of machine translation for speed and automation, then use Weglot’s post-editing features to control the quality of your translations. Easily collaborate with teammates, order professional translators from the Weglot Dashboard or add your own translator. Complete the website translation process by translating more than just the words on your website, including images, metadata, and content coming from outside of your website (e.g. a review app). Weglot is powering 50,000+ multilingual websites around the world. Some of its customers include Microsoft, Spotify, Steve Madden, Murad, Crabtree & Evelyn, and Volcom.
