How to localise your website
Emily Greenfield Having a global online presence is crucial for businesses seeking to reach new markets and connect with diverse audiences. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through website localisation. But how do you localise your website and ensure a successful outcome?
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the intricacies of website localisation and provide you with eight crucial steps on the best way to localise your website.
What is website localisation?
Website localisation is the process of adapting website content and design in a way that provides a new target market with a linguistic and cultural experience that is relevant to them. And with around 65% of consumers worldwide preferring to buy from websites in their own language over ones that are not, it’s therefore invaluable to any business wanting to grow on a global scale to localise their website and do it correctly.
What are the benefits of website localisation?
By localising your website, you can enhance the user experience, increase engagement, and drive conversions. This is done by entering new markets and addressing the unique needs and preferences of local consumers. This, in turn, fosters trust and credibility, leading to improved brand perception and loyalty.
Localised websites also tend to rank higher in search engine results, which boosts organic traffic and visibility which in itself is beneficial to your business. Ultimately website localisation will help expand your global footprint and gain a competitive edge digitally – which in today’s world is fundamental to worldwide business success.
8 key steps to learn how to localise your website
- Define your localisation strategy
Defining clear objectives and a strategy is an essential part of how to localise your website. You want to determine which markets you want to target, identify your target audience, and outline specific goals for each locale.
You might also want to consider language preferences, different cultures and legal requirements and go from there – this will at least narrow down which markets you want to target and which ones you do not.
- Research your new markets
Next up is market research. For successful website localisation, you want to focus on the who and the why. Gaining insights like socio-cultural norms and consumer behaviour will help you understand your target market, setting you up for success when moving to localise your website.
Tip: Analyse local trends, preferences, and purchasing habits to tailor your content and design effectively.
- Build a team to localise your website
To ensure the best team for the job, you want to consider choosing freelancers to localise your website. Assembling a multi-disciplinary team of professionals such as translators, designers, developers and consultants will mean that your localised website has the best chance of being high quality and performing well.
Tip: Check out PeoplePerHour for experienced freelancers who’ll be able to help with how to localise your website.
- Keyword research
Keyword research is a crucial aspect of website localisation, as it determines how your site ranks in local search results.
For optimum success, make sure you identify relevant keywords and phrases in the target language and incorporate them strategically into your content, meta tags, and URLs.
Tip: Using keyword research tools such as Semrush and Google Keyword Planner will help refine your approach and maximise your site visibility!
- Internationalise your website
Internationalisation lays the groundwork for effective website localisation by making your site adaptable to different languages and regions. Implement best practices such as Unicode encoding, language tags, and locale-specific formatting to facilitate seamless translation and cultural adaptation.
- Localise the UI and UX of your website
User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) play an important part in how to localise your website. You want to make sure that you tailor the design, layout, navigation, and functionalities of your website to align with local preferences and expectations.
Including elements like colour symbolism and imagery will help enhance the user experience and drive engagement and usability.
Tip: If you know what features you’re looking for, it would be beneficial to hire a UX designer who you can find on PeoplePerHour!
- Translate your website:
You should translate your website, not just the words on the pages but the code as well. This can be done in a couple of different ways – machine translation and human translation. Machine translation is a software process where content is translated from one language to another without human help. On the other hand, human translation requires hiring a native speaker who will professionally convert your content to the local language.
Ultimately, translation is at the core of how to localise your website and it’s recommended that you partner up with professionals who are fluent in the target language as well as being well-versed in your industry domain.
Tip: You can find expert translators and linguists on freelance platforms like PeoplePerHour who will make sure that the localisation of your website is accurate and relevant to local audiences!
- Track your website localisation quality
Using web analytic tools like Google Analytics to track key performance metrics including traffic, engagement and conversion rates will help gauge the effectiveness of your website localisation efforts.
Tip: You can also get feedback from website users and stakeholders to help identify areas for improvement and refine your localisation strategy.
Website localisation is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning, meticulous execution, and ongoing optimisation. By following the eight steps outlined in this guide, you can learn how to localise your website effectively and unlock new opportunities globally for your business.
