When the translation subject comes up, most people tend to think it’s all about text translation. And while this is a primary aspect of the process and an important one to focus on, there are many other crucial components you need to work on to ensure your website gains international success. If you do not know about these aspects, then you have come to the right place. Let us delve further and show you how you can further enhance your business beyond your country.
- Translated Text
Text translation is without a doubt one of the most arduous tasks on website localization, but it is also the most crucial one. The words on your site offer the most direct form of communication with people who visit your pages. This is why you should use professional translation services. Text is the best way to connect with your prospects, be it potential customers or partners. On the basic level, the language of your site needs to be the language your visitors speak. On a more advanced basis, ideal translation will utilize colloquial language that people will both comprehend and identify with.
- Pictures that are Culturally Relevant
Visual content has become a major aspect in the past several years and this makes cultural relevance even more important. In order to keep a professional image, it is important to review your site’s photos and GIFs for offensive content. What’s acceptable in your country may be inappropriate in another region. However, using culturally appropriate pictures go beyond avoiding offensive ones.
Pictures are a secondary level of connecting with your target audience. Pictures that relate to the audience’s culture give them confidence and trust in your website. Images from their country and local area will go a long way in attracting leads, particularly if the individuals in the photos look similar to the visitors. Similar to how your primary website language needs to be translated when localizing, so should the pictures in your pages.
- Content Management System Support for Target Languages
In some cases, a site’s CMS doesn’t support the target languages. This is uncommon, but it’s a technical problem that you may have to deal with. If support for the target languages isn’t built into the content management system, you’ll need to come with a workaround. This is where an ideal web developer comes into the picture.
- Local Language Selection
A localized site is a part of a bigger entity and it’s important to let your visitors know. Somewhere easily visible on every localized website should show your company’s primary site, even if it is in a different language. Some people will be familiar with English and want to see the primary website. Simply ensure you include a link that redirects them to the source site, regardless of the primary language.
- Have Proper Symbols
Different nations display times, dates, currency and other things using symbols in a different manner. This is clearly visible even in English speaking nations. Both Australia and the United States use English are their national language, but write dates using varying formats. The United States uses a format that starts with the month, date and then the year ( for example; Sep 16, 2021). In Australia, the format is the date, month followed by the year (for example; 16 Sep. 2021). If these items are not hard-coded on your site, they are relatively easy to tweak using Marcos.
- Local SEO
Without a search engine optimization campaign, your site will never reach its full potential. If you intend to localize your site for a specific audience, it won’t do much good if you do not promote it using multilingual SEO. Every localized site should have its own search engine optimization campaign. This will help rank in those regions search engine results pages or SERPS, while also helping Google identify your website’s local target audience. Also, keep in mind that you may have to tailor these SEO efforts for other search engines, especially if the audience does not primarily use Google.
- Local Social Media
First, it’s important to realize that social media is, well; social! As such, it will certainly vary from country to country or in different cultures. In the United States, for example, Facebook outshines other platforms like Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. In other nations, expect different social media platforms to dominate. So, in order to create an organic way for people to share your website’s content with their friends and colleagues, you need to localize social media for your site. Depending on the nature of the localized website, this may be as simple as including various sharing icons or going as far as creating new pages and campaigns for the dominating social media platforms.
