Why You Need an International Website

In an increasingly globalized world, we want to address the largest possible audience segment. You need to conduct thorough research about your potential international markets. You may discover things in other markets that can bring you benefits. In this digital age, the local economy has slowly lost its place to the larger giants who have set their foot at the international stage. To open ourselves to these markets, we need two-way communication, to understand others and be understood by others.

Many times, we think that a translation, although not entirely professional, can help us get away when it comes to opening up to international markets. But if what you want is to build a solid presence in certain countries, instead of helping your business, this subpar translation will most likely harm you. Errors in grammar, vocabulary or structure will do your reputation a serious disservice.

A good translation of your website should be part of your marketing strategy. Google Translator is fine if you need a quick translation of a text, it can help you get an idea, but if it’s about translating your company website to attract new customers, don’t do it. The language usage of cultural differences often proves problematic when delivering a good translation. That is why having a translator who masters the language is crucial.

The First Step

Analyze your web traffic with Google Analytics. It allows you to know the country of origin and the language or languages your audiences use. They may be in the same country as you are but use the browser in a different language. Therefore, the first step before considering translating your website is to analyze thoroughly who are those people that visit your website frequently. Then, draw the relevant conclusions: is it worth it to translate my website? What languages would be profitable for me?

You might think that the translation of a website is manageable with a free translator such as Google Translate. A translation that is done by free translators are not all that bad, but they are very basic when it comes to practical features, and many important details will remain hidden are will not be translated properly.

There are many aspects where a free or automatic translator falls short: it uses words that do not have the same meaning in languages, incorrect translations, lost major details. Your website may be wonderful, but everything you work hard on will be in vain if the translation of your website is a disaster.

Having the browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge to translate the texts automatically is definitely a tempting move, but apart from providing inaccurate translation, in many circumstances, the extension does not work for certain mobile devices and websites. This is a severe disadvantageous you’re your business as about 88.3% of all Internet users actually use a mobile phone to access the Internet.

Improve Your International SEO

We don’t need to remind you again that content is king in this inbound marketing game, right? Your website content nourishes your page and makes it Google-friendly, improving your Google ranking and searchability. So, if you have localized your website to Chinese, English, Korean or other languages, why don’t you localize your content as well? By having content on your website in different languages, you will start seeing your website visits, leads and conversions increase. Here’s the rule of thumb: more keywords, more indexed pages, and ultimately greater presence on Google.

You can choose to create a website for each language or a multilingual website. The key is to create content correctly adapted to each language. In addition to the SEO benefit, it will improve your branding and your audience will see you as a helpful source — as your website builds a cultural link with them and they can understand your business entirely.

As for the keywords, it is also necessary to take into account the same language used in different geographical areas. For example, the Chinese language used in China is not entirely the same as the ones used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and other Southeast Asian countries; just like the Spanish of Spain is not the same as that of Mexico and Uruguay. Many terms could vary completely from one country to another and this will affect your keyword selection and brand positioning. That is why it is important to know exactly which location you are going to focus on.

Your Brand Image

The fundamental of inbound marketing is to attract audiences and potential customers to know more about your business voluntarily. You will start doing the attraction when you create links with your audience, and one of these links is through an international website. The personalization of the contents is crucial in this step.

How you customize your messages in regards to your content is important, but your content can be even more personalized through the language used. Through localization and translation of your website, you build a much stronger connection with your audiences — they will feel that you care about them and understand their needs — thus boosting your brand image tremendously.

Besides all those mentioned, your website content is constantly changing: new posts, latest resources, updated information, etc. Therefore, it is crucial to build a long-term relationship with your website localization and translation company so that all your content can be translated simultaneously without any delay.

Important Notes for Website Translation

You need to consider the factors below for your website localization and translation:

1. Analyze the Cultural Context (Cultural Audit)

The content is not adjusted in the same way in different markets. While some contents are more successful in certain cultures and regions, other contents, even though they are very relevant, may not be rewarding for other cultures. A cultural audit or analysis take expressions, metaphors, humor, and local slangs into account for website translation.

2. Style Guide

There are times when it is not sufficient to literally translate the content. Sometimes, you will have to rewrite it, and other times, you may want to eliminate some words or sentences because they do not directly adapt to the culture to which it is addressed. To do this, a style guide would be very useful for translators to have a reference to rely on.

In Conclusion

The international presence of your company is one of the key factors to make sure your business will survive today’s fierce competition and be sustainable. If you think that you have a niche market outside your current territory after market research, why wait then? Leverage on your website and enhance your communication strategy through localization and translation with the lowest risks possible.

Word Philocaly Website Translation Service

Word Philocaly has received more and more demands from clients who want to translate their website to English or other languages particularly Malay, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic. Our localization translators can translate your website directly in MS Word (.docx) or text file (.txt), in the CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Magento, PrestaShop, etc.) or in the source code (.htm (l), .php, .asp, .xml, java, etc.) if you want to publish the latest version of your website as quickly as possible.

We are specialized in the translation of web content, e-commerce sites, mobile applications, commercial platforms, product sheets, or other personal or business documents in many diverse sectors such as tourism, healthcare, fashion, beauty, sports, economics, finance, food and beverages, medical and pharmaceutical. As a complement to the translation of websites, we will also propose a website writing service / copywriting service optimized with keywords for SEO.

Find out more how Word Philocaly can help you with your content marketing and company branding.