4 Great Reasons to Translate and Localize Your Website

You want to provide your customers with a world-class experience when they arrive at your website. To do so, it is increasingly important that you truly consider worldwide consumers.

The internet community is growing more linguistically diverse. In 2015, it took 25 languages to reach 90 percent of the online community in their native tongue. By 2020, a website required localization into 48 languages to reach the same percentage of the world’s internet population.

While English was the most used language on the Internet, it is used by only 25 percent of all online customers.

According to research from Common Sense Advisory titled “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy,” 65 percent of online customers prefer content in their own language. More than 70 percent want product reviews in their native tongue. Most critically, a full 40 percent said they would not buy a product unless it was being sold in their primary language. More than 90 percent said they would purchase products from foreign countries if the sales information was communicated clearly and the business appeared reputable.

Below Are Four Primary Reasons Why Translating and Localizing Your Website Is So Essential.

Thanks to all of the reasons mentioned above, translating your website increases the likelihood that you will reach your largest potential audience. Doing so alerts new customers to your brand, supports the solutions that you already deliver, and elevates your ability to go to market beyond your competitors.

More than 300 languages are spoken across North America alone. One in five U.S. households speaks a language other than English.

LEARN MORE: What is Localization? And When Do You Need It?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) brings new customers to your site. Search engines like Google, Explorer, and Bing use metadata and keywords to rank websites in search results. This in turn increases organic traffic to your site. Multilingual websites amplify these benefits.

Website translation – as well as translating all meta information – elevates your ability to be ranked, as it allows you to target a wider range of keywords. Translated content is full of SEO-rich keywords in multiple languages. This significantly helps discovery when users search in their preferred languages.

According to research done by Amazon Web Services, user-experience statistics indicate that 88 percent of online shoppers will not return to a website after having a bad user experience.

WATCH: How Rocket Mortgage Uses LanguageLine to Expand Its Audience

Translation and localization adapt a website to local languages and cultures, which makes for a more intuitive user experience. This is essential to building trust in an online world.

Adding to the data above from Common Sense Advisory, “Can’t Read, Won’t Buy” also found that 60 percent of online customers rarely or never buy from English-only websites, and 74 percent of customers are more likely to purchase a second time if support is provided in their primary language.

Businesses are far more likely to convert visitors into customers when they provide an excellent user experience, which begins by delivering information in a language in which the customer is comfortable interacting.

A multilingual website allows you to separate your brand from the competition. It enables you to enter into a new market before your competitors, which allows you to gain market share faster. You can set the bar for quality and solutions, leaving your competition scrambling to keep up.

The keys are a strong first impression and user experience. Translating and localizing your website to local cultural and linguistic preferences will lead to a better perception of your brand. Dollars spent on translation and localization are an investment in building relationships with customers you likely would not have reached otherwise.

Providing an authentic online experience to multilingual and global customers is the best reason to translate your website.

Where to Begin

Most websites use a tracking or back-end analytics tools. These provide you with informative data and show the geographic regions from which your website visitors are coming.

Websites typically also state which languages your visitors use to browse your website. This data can give you a clear indication of which languages you should first think about supporting as you consider a multilingual website.

Once you have determined the languages needed, you’ll want to assess your available resources. Will you have a team dedicated to each website or do you need to take a more hands-off approach?

A conversation with your LanguageLine Solutions^® representative will help you scope your project needs and understand your options.

LanguageLine Can Help

LanguageLine has several solutions that can help with website translation and localization so that you can start reaching new markets right away.

Our traditional website translation and localization solutions give you full control of the English and translated versions of your website. You send us your files and we return translated ones back to you.

LanguageLine Connect^SM offers similar control, but a faster, more efficient workflow. By integrating with your content management system (CMS), LanguageLine Connect allows for automated change detection, which means that content will be sent to LanguageLine for translation any time the source text changes.

LanguageLine Website Proxy^SM is even easier and faster, as you only need to host and maintain your English-language website. Automated change detection eliminates the need to identify new content or send files for translation. This solution is ideal for eCommerce sites and organizations that need their translated websites to always be in sync with their English website.

Are you interested in learning more about LanguageLine website translation and localization? Current clients should contact their LanguageLine representative. Non-clients may reach us through our website or by phone at 800-752-6096.