The workflow and architecture of your business website can accommodate the needs of the global market with accurate internationalization of your website. Website owners use various techniques to boost their web traffic during the internationalization process like SEO boosting, finding effective keywords, and more. But the best way to increase your website traffic in the process of internationalization is by translating your site.
Though English is the most-used language in the world, it is still used by nearly 25% of people on the internet across the world. Businesses catering to international audiences need to think about translating their websites. If their potential customers do not even understand what is written on the site, they will not be interested in the site or the products it is selling. Companies can expand their customer base by creating a multilingual website.
What are internationalization and localization of a website?
Website internationalization is the process that makes your site operational to accommodate multiple languages. It is a complex process as many languages are read from right to left unlike English and the user interface must have enough space to contain the number of letters required for complex languages like Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and more.
On the other hand, localization is the process of catering to a specific target market. It helps the site accommodate the needs and requirements of the consumers in a specific area.
The benefits of internationalization and localization
There are billions of people who don’t speak English. As an online merchant, if you want to widen your reach and engage non-English speakers, develop a multilingual website. Here are the benefits of internationalization and localization of your website:
- You can stay ahead of your competitors with an internationalized website.
- Both internationalization and localization can expand your business to various countries across the globe, making it easier for various groups of target audiences to find your website by searching in their native language.
- Internationalization brings more visitors to your website. It leads to better sales in the long run.
- An internationalized website costs a lot less than other digital marketing techniques.
How to execute internationalization and localization?
Here are some of the best strategies to establish a successful internationalization process:
1. Research your specific market
The words or phrases or ways people search for a product or service in different countries vary from country to country. Research your target market and competitors to identify these aspects before internationalizing your website.
2. Translate the SEO elements
When your target audiences search for something they check out the titles and meta descriptions in the SERPs before they click on the landing page. So make sure SEO titles, meta descriptions, URLs, image alt tags, and more attract more audiences.
3. Make sure the translated pages can be indexed
The translated pages should also have accessible web addresses so that Google can index them. It also helps Google rank international versions of your site more accurately.
4. Hreflang attributes
Hreflang attributes are the key that helps search engines understand and settle on the language of the translated page. It helps search engines to direct the consumers to the right page based on their location.
5. Multilingual sitemap
Your website will be highly functional if you gather all the site information in one place. This can be achieved by creating a multilingual sitemap.
6. Find appropriate keywords
Keywords are different in different languages. You need to find the most effective keywords in various languages to obtain their full benefit.
7. Use tools and plugins for internationalization
There are various tools and plugins available in the market to help in the internationalization of your website. Internationalization can be made easier with these tools.
8. Employ human translators
Nothing can replace human translation service when it comes to accuracy. Machine translation is fast but it doesn’t always do the job right because of cultural relevancy.
There are various ways of internationalizing your business website. Use the above-mentioned tips and research your own for your website internationalization.
