If you own a website, you may have heard of localization services. These types of services can help you reach a larger audience, and make your website understandable to a wider audience.
Throughout this article, we’re going to take a look at everything you need to know about website localization services.
What Are Website Localization Services?
Website localization services are essential for any website because they translate the webpage content to the reader’s local language. Research has shown that over 90 per cent of internet users prefer to browse the internet in their own language.
Moreover, almost half of internet users believe they missed out on interesting things because of the numerous websites that don’t offer effective translation into their language. The European Commission conducted a survey, which suggested that 55 per cent of websites are available only in English.
Although English is the most commonly used language in the European Union, one out of ten respondents suggested they didn’t understand English enough to follow broadcast news, communicate online, and read press articles.
Therefore, if a website wants to target people globally, website localization services are critical. If a company has a target market in a nation that doesn’t speak English as a native language, it should use website localization.
Furthermore, using website localization can boost your online profile massively. The world is becoming more global, and efficient website translation is a necessity.
Translation and Localization: What’s The Difference?
Translation services translate the website text, whereas website localization translates and adapts the content to a specific culture. Translation services can help readers read the website, understand the content, and get value from the content.
However, website localization will completely translate the entire webpage into their cultural norms, meaning better engagement and user-experience.
Coca Cola
A perfect example of localization is when Coca-Cola – a massively global company in 200 countries – used localization in China to adapt to Chinese culture. The company changed its slogan, “kekou kele,” meaning “delicious happiness“.
If Coca-Cola had merely used the same translation for every country, they would have struggled to breakthrough in many places.
Kit Kat
Moreover, when KitKat launched its services in Japan – which became one of its biggest markets – it used localization to change the slogan to “Kitto Katsu,” which translates to ‘surely win‘. If KitKat had used its traditional western translation of “have a break, have a KitKat,” it might have struggled to resonate with the Japanese cultural norms. These examples show how using website localization can really help your business smash through global markets in a manner that’s impossible with basic translation.
The key element of website localization is context because it takes into account informal and formal settings. If you want to target an international audience effectively, localization services will convey the right meaning and emotion to the target audience. On the other hand, translation will only consider proper syntax and grammar that makes sense to your international readers. Targetting the language specifically to hit the correct international tones is crucial when marketing a product or service in a target market. Using basic translation could mean your website fails to account for local formalities and therefore fails to resonate with the reader or potential customer.
Another difference is how translation services are excellent for technical subjects, but translation localization is perfect for highly emotional content. Translation services are excellent for technical subjects, including medicine, law, science, research, and finance.
Plus, if your website is standardized online training or e-learning, you can use translation services. On the other hand, because localization services are great for emotional content, it is an excellent marketing and website content option.
Furthermore, translation services focus more on the local language, whereas website localization will be regionally specific. For example, countries such as the U.S, U.K, and Australia all speak the English language.
But that doesn’t mean they always use the same words or adhere to the same slang. Most of the time, they use quite different words. Localization services will directly translate the language based on the specific region, not just the nation’s language. Another example in South America, where the continent mainly speaks Spanish. But not all countries within the region use the same grammar and syntax, so website localization will offer huge benefits in regions like this.
Another significant issue with basic translation is not accounting for different cultural meanings for words. Translating words to improve grammar and syntax is great for international markets, but words tend to mean different things in different countries. For example,colour has different meanings depending on where you are in the world. In many nations, the colour red means danger and is off-putting to local readers. Also, the colour white means death, and orange means loss and mourning. It is a long and arduous process to understand what colours mean in different cultures, so that’s why website localization services are so beneficial.
There are various other things that basic translation won’t cover; these include:
- Units of measurement – Not every country uses the same units of measurement. Famously, the United States is the only developed economy that doesn’t use the metric system. But the U.S. isn’t the only nation that uses other units of measurement, and your website will need to cater for this.
- Webpage layout – Many languages – especially non-Latin languages – require a lot of space on a webpage to effectively translate. If you use a basic translation service, it won’t take into account the webpage layout. Website localization will consider the web page layout and effectively provide a better user experience for readers in that target market. You can destroy your webpage if you don’t have enough space for the target language.
- Visuals – We all know how important fantastic webpage visuals are, but not every visual will be popular in different nations. For example, some cultures are more sensitive to certain images and visuals, so your website will need to translate photos and webpage visuals to cater to cultural differences.
In summary, if your business is trying to break into international markets, basic translation probably won’t be enough. Website localization will directly target the specific market’s internet users, meaning more connection on an emotional and personal level. Effective global marketing requires catering to different cultures, and basic translation often fails to do so.
Benefits of Website Localization
Reach more customers
If you translate your website, your website will automatically reach more customers. It is essential to have website translation if your product or service targets countries where English is not the native language. You will need your webpage to the target language if you want to reach more international customers.
Better SEO rankings
If you translate your website, you stand a considerably better chance of ranking higher on Google. All companies understand the importance of an effective SEO strategy, and if your website has a native-language version – Google are far more likely to index your website. Also, you can attempt to work on an SEO strategy (multilingual search engine optimization.) That can lead to a truly global audience if done effectively.
International audience feedback
We all know the importance of online marketing and how it enables businesses to achieve fast feedback on their products and services. However, can you imagine how beneficial it would be to have feedback from international audiences? If you have international feedback, you can gauge a lot more about your business flaws and where you can improve.
Brand recognition struggles to cross through language barriers
Market research always suggests that customers will pay more if the business uses their native language. For example, if you have a sales page with a product description – customers will pay more if they describe the product in a native speaking language. E-commerce websites must translate their product description into the customer’s target language. Effective copywriting means you need adequate translation to hit the emotions and build a sense of trust with the customer – a poorly translated website will fail to do that.
How To Manually Localize a Website:
There are multiple ways to translate a website. And the two main options are via machine translation and human translation. Many internet users will opt to use machine translation because it is cheap and straightforward. But have you tried to translate English to Chinese on Google?
Most of the time, Google gets the grammar and syntax completely wrong. Often the translation is something totally different from your intention. If you use Google to translate your webpage, you will leave some readers from around the world confused and baffled, especially countries in the Far East with very different languages.
On the other hand, human translation – although more expensive – is a much safer option. Your website will be far more accurate, much higher quality, and you’ll have far more conversions. Attempting to translate a product description from English to Japanese via machine translation is a recipe for disaster.
If you want to read more about the differences between human and machine translation – we have a useful blog post.
Our Website Localization Services: Word-perfect & timely
Espresso Translations offers a fantastic website translation service that will effectively cater to your desired target market. We have an experienced team of translators worldwide, and they have expertise in translating English to foreign languages with extreme precision and accuracy.
You will get a word-perfect translation that’s impossible if you use a machine to translate your words. Our team have 5+ years of linguistic experience that will meet your demands. Are you worried that there might be an occasional mistake in the translation? Don’t worry; all of our translations will go through two different translators to ensure we provide the ultimate customer service.
Moreover, you won’t have to wait around for weeks to get started. If you are in a rush and need to translate your website for business requirements rapidly, we will tailor it to your needs, and better still, we will always get back to you with a competitive quote within one hour.
Furthermore, Espresso Translations will offer transparent per-word pricing that will be competitive, fair, and affordable. You don’t have to worry about hidden costs because the per-word pricing will get you a great price.
We understand that many companies require a fast turnaround. After all, the business world can rapidly change, and we saw this in 2020. Therefore we offer all our clients a quick and effective turnaround. Do you need the turnaround in a couple of days? That is not an issue, and when you submit your quote, let us know of your time requirements. We will endeavour to work around it!
We understand that companies require the highest-quality of work. And we are an ISO compliment translation business, so you can rest assured that we will offer you the best quality solutions on the market. We have worked with multiple massive companies, including Forbes, Jaguar, and IMDb, so we know how to deliver for industry-leading clients and businesses of all sizes.
Suppose you’re looking to get a quote on our translation services; head over to our quote page, where you can tailor the quote to your needs. We will get back to you within 1 hour, and our project managers will hop on a call with you and find out exactly what you need. Our project managers have many years of experience in handling important translations, and they have the experience to guide you.
You can find out more about our comprehensive website translation services here.
Final Thoughts
The world has become more globalized. And with the continual rise in e-commerce and internet marketing – you need to translate your webpage for customers who don’t speak English as a native language. Furthermore, basic translation doesn’t always hit the mark when you’re trying to break into global markets. Website localization gives your webpages a comprehensive cultural transformation that caters to cultural norms and barriers.
Successful companies have always gone deeper regarding how they translate their product and services in foreign markets. If you want your web page, regardless of the content, to truly engage readers who aren’t native English speakers, you should check our localization services. We have experts that understand global cultures, cultural barriers, and language barriers all across the globe.
