Website LOCALIZATION
Making your website local for any market
Do you need your website in a foreign language? We Make Website Localization Easy.
What is Website Localization?
Website localization is the process of adapting the content of your website for your specific target audience linguistically, graphically, and culturally.
Professional website localization goes beyond mere translation. It takes into account other factors such as local rules, cultural variations, and the specific dialect of the language to which it is translated.
“People don’t buy from you because they understand what you do… they buy from you because you understand what they do.” — Lincoln Murphy
Why Your Business Needs Website Localization?
In order to enter international markets today, all businesses, large and small, must embrace the adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
If you have a hunch that a multilingual, multi-cultural web presence can bring your company additional exposure and income, it probably will.
Localization is necessary for the website to be accessible to people who speak a language other than English. Businesses that want their website to be present in foreign markets should not underestimate the value of website localization for their international growth.
For successful website localization and to make sure the website reads and feels natural and local to your customers in a foreign country, it is crucial to adjust to the local language, culture, and legislation.
In addition to translating content for a new location, website localization may include, for example, replacing images and visuals with those that are culturally relevant and appropriate to the target audience, development of the SEO strategy, reformatting dates, numbers, etc.
Is It the Right Time to Localize Your Website?
Website localization readiness is, of course, the question of your company’s plans of international expansion, as well as multiple other factors.
To decide if your company is ready for website localization, below are some of the questions you should ask yourself:
- Are you planning to introduce a new product that is anticipated to spark interest in other countries?
- Does your business model have the potential to expand beyond national
boundaries? - Do you plan substantial international expansion?
- Does your company plan to have its offices in other locations?
- Does your competitor have a multilingual website, and you don’t want to be left behind?
- Do your site’s traffic analytics show that a significant proportion of users come from countries where English is not the first language?
- Has there been a change in regulations in a specific country requiring website content to be available in a certain language?
Positive answers to any of these questions would be your indications that your business most likely will benefit from professional website localization tailored to the specifics of your target market.
Website Localization Process
The process of website localization can be overwhelming without proper planning. So, what will the process of localizing your website look like exactly?
1. Extraction of UI Content
Content extraction is the first step in global website localization. That entails generating a glossary of terms for text strings and data points for translation, a complete content inventory, and process mapping.
2. Functionality Quality Check
Quality Assurance (QA) is an important part of website localization as it ensures the quality of the website’s functionality and user experience.
3. Project Management
Website localization project can be difficult and overwhelming but when significant amounts of information are involved, it becomes even more challenging. This necessitates efficient project management.
A professional project manager will oversee the website localization process to ensure that everything runs smoothly. To achieve great results with website localization the project manager will tie everything together.
4. Localization Engineering
This component of the website localization process deals with anything from appropriately integrating files into the code stack to verifying that all placeholders are located and formatted before the language and data inputs are entered. The intricacy of your site’s functioning in the original language will have an influence on what you require from the localization engineering process.
5. Source Validation
This stage in the website localization process involves ensuring that the localized website functions as expected.
6. Testing and Quality Assurance
The QA process guarantees that all of the client’s needs have been satisfied and that the website assures a great user experience. To achieve this, extensive testing should be carried out.
7. Linguistic QA
Linguistic quality assurance refers to the testing of the language used on the localized website. It takes into account proper and natural wording, domain-specific terminology, language appropriateness in localized material, and more.
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All these steps are important aspects of the website localization process which should be given careful consideration. You may decide to take care of some of them on your end or outsource them to your website localization provider.
Why Choose Art One for Your Website Localization Project?
We offer a wide variety of website localization services, including:
On-Site Review for Flawless Website Localization
Website Localization Options
There are many plugins and tools available today that offer onsite and almost instant website translation. While such tools might be useful in some cases for some businesses, the huge disadvantage of them is that they cannot be integrated with CAT tools.
What does it mean for your business?
Disadvantages of website translation using translation plugins | Advantages of website localization done by professionals |
Your translated website will miss on consistency with terminology (which might also be your keywords) | Using CAT tools for consistency with terminology and efficiency with the translation of future updates. |
Your SEO will be affected negatively. | Your localization provider will assist you in developing an effective keyword strategy and ensuring the consistency of localized keywords. |
Your translated website will not be localized for a specific market. | Proper website localization with attention to details such as localizing formats of dates and time, currency signs and positions, etc. |
Specific regional dialect of the language might not be taken into consideration, and consequently the text will sound “foreign” to your audience. | Translation to specific dialect of the language by native speakers of that particular dialect so that the text will sound "local" to your audience. |
Images might be left unlocalized and therefore linguistically and culturally inappropriate. | Proper professional localization of images, graphs, etc. |
When planning website localization, partner with our expert localization team for exceptional user experience.
Our team is a recognized leader named a “Top-Performing Translation Firm in 2020”, “Top Translation Services in Canada in 2021”, and “2021 Leading Global Translation Company” by Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews platform.
