A multilingual website is an important marketing tool for all companies, regardless of industry, especially if your company caters to users in other countries and wants to speak their languages.
Whether you run a B2B or B2C business, creating a translated version of your site helps you enter new markets, attract top talent from across the world, and increase your potential customer base.
Learning about your website reach, potential target languages that can be interesting, and what website translation services can do for your business is an excellent place to start.
The Importance of Website Translation Services
As of April 2022, there were more than five billion internet users worldwide, a staggering 63% of the population. Understanding your customer profile on a national and international level aids you in tailoring your digital content and concentrating on the relevant languages pertinent to your business.
There is no need for companies in today’s market to limit their reach to a single country or language when the entire world is available at their fingertips. Products and services with translations appeal to international markets and allow your business to grow and succeed.
A study by Nimdzi found that 90% of global internet users will ignore a product or business if its content is only available in their native language. This study reinforces the role of language access and translation services in user behavior and how language affects their choice.
Understanding Website Localization efforts
Of course, in a website translation project, a simple translation won’t go nearly as far as a localized one. The difference lies not just in the language but in the nuances and sensitives of each culture and country. A localized Spanish translation understands that Spanish and its speakers are not all equal. Canadian French Website needs a different French translation team than a French Website that will be used in France. These differences range from specific phrases and slang terms to the different meanings of colors, currency, and measurement systems, among many other factors.
Website localization services( link to – website translation services) involve the website copy, images, colors, graphic elements, and even the software used for your website. It goes beyond translation to speak directly to each of your target audiences. Localization understands that people want to work with businesses that prioritize proper communication, understand their culture, and make them feel individual and important.
If you need to add a foreign language to your marketing mix, website localization is a necessary business expense; it’s the cost of doing business in modern times. It is the cost of the opportunity to reach new potential buyers and will impact the perception of your brand. So,
Even companies focused on doing business in one country are not exempt from the need for translated versions of your website. French and English are both official languages in Canada, and there are legal requirements around bilingual websites, among other materials.
Your website is often the first-place people will go to explore who your company is and how relevant it is to their interests. You can immediately lose people who are your ideal customer by not having the site available in their language. And if you don’t offer that, there’s a good chance one of your competitors does.
Benefits of Having a Translated Website:
- Increased reach and potential customers. Making existing copy available in multiple languages is the fastest way to expand your business reach and increase your potential revenue growth. The more languages available, the more people will visit and stay on your website.
- Increased conversion. As stated above, most customers won’t interact with or buy from a business that doesn’t speak their language. By making your website available in other languages you increase your reach and the potential for people to buy from you.
- Better connection with customers. Customers feel respected by businesses that offer content in their language. It improves their opinion of you and gives you credibility as a global brand.
When is The Right Time to Invest in Website Translation Services?
For a company with global reach or trying to get it, there are multiple documents and digital content to translate. From the customer-facing website, apps, social media content, and video training to their intranet and marketing materials. So having that multilingual content is an investment. So, when is the right time to translate them?
Documents and videos are easier tasks, but your website localization is a more involved endeavor since it has a technical component and a linguistics aspect. A website localization project must be analyzed and planned to guarantee success.
The ideal time to create a multilingual website is during the website creation process, while it is being designed. At that time, it is easiest to plan the design and copy for challenges that come with its translation.
Other benchmarks signal a good moment in the life of your website to invest in translation services:
- A website redesign, and changes in the website content
- Forming a partnership in another country
- Identifying a new market for your product or services
- Launching a new product or service with a target market located in another country.
- Keeping current in the market when your competitors have multi-lingual websites.
- Expansion of your businesses into a new country
- Creating a franchise model that can expand your business beyond current country borders.
- A change in compliance requirements in countries you do business in
- Changing a piece of your supply chain, such as the supply, manufacturing, or other logistics.
The Website Translation Process
Translating your website is more than just substituting words in one language for a new language. Unless you select an option to automatically translate your website, a lot of work needs to happen on the backend to create a website that runs smoothly across languages. From creating the site’s multilingual structure to adding the language selector to guide the clients to move from one language to the other.
Below is a simplified list of the activities required during the website translation process:
- Planning and conceptualization of the bet workflow for the website translation and localization.
- Extraction and translation of the website content.
- Importing the translated content into the structure of the multilingual site.
- Testing and adjustments of all the functionality of the new foreign language emulating the behavior of the original website in English.
- Language Localization of the forms, navigation, and footer of the site
- Final linguistic review to ensure proper display of the language versions.
- Client approval.
Internationalization: Your website may require new programming or changes to support new languages, depending on the software you used to build it. This is called internationalization, phase to prepare your website for an international audience and new target language. Confirming that all the content can be reached to be translated for your visitors.
Translation Process: After internationalization comes the translation phase, where the local or first language is substituted for the target language. Working with a professional translation company will allow you to automate pieces of this process and use a Translation Management System (TMS) and use the best workflow to avoid manual and error-prone activities. Using a translation management system ensures that professional translators work with the best tools to support high-quality translations in the different languages on the entire website. An experienced translation agency will help ensure that your TMS is integrated with your customer management system for a smooth workflow whenever you add new pages, products, or services.
Localization Phase: After the translated content is completed, the localization’s final validation comes in. This step goes beyond a general translation and ensures your website speaks to your customers in every language needed and for every location selected, considering dialectal and cultural preferences.
In Conclusion
Website localization increases your ability to connect with customers who speak other languages, facilitates communication, and increases their likelihood of purchasing your products or services.
Translating websites can feel like a massive undertaking, but the right translation agency makes the process easy. Working with a language service provider who is experienced and knowledgeable in website translation services means you have expert guidance from professionals every step of the way. At JR Language, we go the extra mile to deliver high-quality website translations that exceed your expectations at affordable prices with a delivery time that follows your needs. Contact us for a quote today— we’d love to hear from you.
