Thanks to its global popularity, there are few easier ways to reach out to consumers than through the internet. The World Wide Web has caused a revolution in international business, allowing entrepreneurs from every walk of life, big and small, to successfully engage with overseas audiences. Simply put, the opportunities to reach out on the internet know no bounds, but there are many challenges to be faced if one is to successfully penetrate a foreign market.
Website localization is key to everything – or translating your website and making its content culturally and linguistically appropriate for the target audience.
Who to Target?
First things first, we need to know which markets to focus on. It may be that you already have a specific target language in mind, if for example, you’re in the business of selling Chinese joss sticks, then it would make sense to target Chinese-speaking nations.
For those without a specific target market in mind however, it’s often better to play the numbers game. Taking a look at the latest figures from Internet World Stats, we can clearly see that there are ten languages which dominate the internet by a clear margin:
|
Language |
Percentage of Internet Users |
No. of Speakers Worldwide |
|
English |
26.8% |
1,302,275,670 |
|
Chinese |
24.2% |
1,372,226,042 |
|
Spanish |
7.8% |
423,085,806 |
|
Japanese |
4.7% |
126,475,664 |
|
Portuguese |
3.9% |
253,947,594 |
|
German |
3.6% |
94,842,656 |
|
Arabic |
3.3% |
347,002,991 |
|
French |
3.0% |
347,932,305 |
|
Russian |
3.0% |
139,390,205 |
|
Korean |
2.0% |
71,393,343 |
Looking at the table above it’s apparent that anyone looking to establish a global presence simply has to take a proactive approach in localizing their website for multiple markets.
The above markets are important, for the simple reason that together they encompass almost 82% of all internet users online today. Translate your English language site into the next nine most common languages and suddenly you’ll be visible to three times as many users.
Even more compelling – several surveys have shown that as many as 90% of users, when they search for something online, do so using their native language. A growing number of businesses are already catching on to this, so much so that website localization has become one of the trends to watch this year.
The Art of Website Localization
Never make the mistake of thinking that localization is easy. There’s more to it than simply translating the text into the target language and hoping for the best. Content doesn’t just have to be translated, but it also needs to be made relevant to the target market, which means using colloquial terms and, where possible, a context that local readers will be able to relate to, to achieve maximum impact.
The website has to be localized from a visual aspect too. This is where many businesses make fatal errors, failing to realize that an image or ‘look and feel’ that is fine in their own country, is inappropriate or possibly even offensive in another culture. For example, an image of a scantily clad woman might go down pretty well in the UK or the US, but the majority of Saudi Arabian viewers probably wouldn’t appreciate this approach.
More than just images, the style of a website must also fit. We need to consider local tastes. An obvious example is the Japanese, who tend to prefer cluttered websites with multiple colors, while UK and US audiences prefer a cleaner, simpler look.
Finally there are technical aspects, such as using a country-specific domain name. Users in Japan are much more likely to visit (and trust) a website that has a .jp domain.
The Importance of SEO Translation
One of the most overlooked aspects of website translation is search engine optimization. Many webmasters seem to think that localization and SEO translation are one and the same thing, but in fact, they couldn’t be more different.
Whilst localization is done to make a website appeal to humans, SEO translation is done to make the site visible to search engines. Let’s not forget, over 90% of internet users will be searching in their own language, and to be found, the fundamentals of your website’s SEO structure needs to be accurately translated – something that goes beyond just translating keyword, but also key attributes such as meta tags, script messages, anchor texts, image captions, file names and so on.
The benefits of SEO translation are the same as the benefits of localization. Quite simply, one cannot live without the other. Your website needs to be visible, and it must appeal the target audience.
As Willy Brandt put it:
“If I am selling to you, I speak your language. If I am buying, dann müssen sie Deutsch sprechen”
