How to Localize Your Website
Localization is necessary if you are keep on customizing your website to appeal to an international market. And while the term localization might be new to you, the concept has been implemented for as long as commerce has been in existence. See, even in the medieval times, traders were adapting their products to make them appealing to foreign markets.
So, what is localization exactly? It refers to the adaptation of applications, products, document contents, or websites to match the locale. The term locale here refers to a set of cultural and language aspects unique to a particular target market. Some of the facets that make each locale different from another include language (the UK or US English), date format, number format, time format (12- or 24-hour), and data format.
How can you localize your website effectively? Excellent site localization goes beyond merely providing multiple language versions of your website. Instead, you have to ensure that all information on your site is translated naturally. Posting up robotic/ mechanical translations of your site info is a sure way of severing ties with prospects for good. So how about some excellent ideas of localizing your site in the right way? Here we go:
Optimize Your Meta-Data Due to Target Keywords
Localization is all about targeting of your primary audience with phrases and terms that appeal to them. Thus, it is necessary that you research the best keywords in the languages you want to translate your website info to and ensure that you put these results in the SEO meta descriptions. Each webpage should contain a specific targeted keyword that it should rank for.
Why is it vital to conduct multi-language keywords research? It will help you learn the right language you should use and also how you can tag your web pages properly to ensure that your site gains significant ranking on various international search engines. Keywords researching can become way easier if you implement the same approach you used when setting up the original site. However, this time you will tweak a bit by paying particular attention to the search tactics and search engines that your prospects are using.
It is also essential that you respond to the common search terms/ queries of the people in that region. To do this effectively, consider creating a glossary containing the highly searched phrases and terminology in the language you want to translate to.
Use Hreflang Tags
When you have multiple versions of a webpage for different regions or languages, hreflang tags tell Google the particular language that the page is written in from the pages URL. Providing these tags is vital in boosting the visibility of your site as it ensures that Google Search takes your target audience to the appropriate versions of your web pages by region or language. In turn, they can interact with your site in a better way since it is customized just for them.
Worth knowing is that, even if you do not take any such action, Google might still get different language versions of your webpage. Nonetheless, it is advisable that you indicate your region- or language-specific webpages.
There are three ways of localizing versions of your webpage to Google. These are HTML tags, HTTP Headers, and Sitemap. Feel free to learn more about localizing versions of your webpage on Google.
Use Translation Service to Translate Website Content
There is no localization if you do not use the language of your target audience. See for every customer who speaks say, English, there is another who speaks German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, and so forth. Thus, it is necessary to translate all information on your website to the various native language of the users if you want to localize your site and thus earn international business.
Translating ensures that you are effective in both explaining and selling your products. Studies have shown that using the language of your prospects significantly boosts engagement and sales conversions. However, you should never translate your site info just for the sake of it. Rather, it is critical that you do it naturally to eliminate any friction with customers. A service such as Translate.com can come in handy when you need to translate your website content with the highest accuracy. Some advantages of working with this service include:
- It offers a human translation API that integrates all human translations into your specific digital service.
- Moreover, it allows you to translate your site information in over 90 language pairs thus making sure that you globalize your customer base and also thrive in new markets.
- And lest we forget, this service has over 17, 000 highly capable translators ready to pick up on your task 24/7.
Register on Translate.com to localize your entire website fast!
Right Timing and Currency
You need to be crafty with your timing. Localizing your website too fast can see you incur some loses if the markets you are trying to penetrate are not ready for your products. On the other hand, being too slow to implement localization can see you lose the customer race to your competitors. So, what is the right pace? The excellent speed is one which is informed by market research and dynamics. You need to tweak to the global trends in your business to stay ahead of the curve. Moreover, make a point of accepting payments in various currencies.
With proper timing and the right currency, your sales conversion rates are sure to soar.
Site Speed
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to ensure that your website loads quickly no matter the location on the planet. Now, although CDNs are quite expensive, they are worth each dime, especially for e-commerce. These networks make the purchasing experience smooth for the customer thus encouraging them to purchase from your site whenever they need your products.
With these tips, you will undoubtedly localize your website effectively enough to see significant leaps in the race for the international cake. Start localizing your site in the right way!
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