Website Translation and Localisation
Everybody knows how important is, for a business, to be online. What some people forget is that more than having a website or social media pages, you need to have a strategy and speak in your customers’ language – if they don’t understand your content, they will leave right after they arrive. If your website is only available in one language, you may well be losing business opportunities online.
Recent studies show that when someone visits a website that’s in their mother tongue…
… THE PROBABILITY OF READING THE PAGE ALL THE WAY THE END INCREASES BY 500%.
… THE PROBABILITY OF THEM MAKING A PURCHASE INCREASES BY 300%.
If you want to maximise the return on your investment into internationalisation, website localisation is the first and most important step.
Stages of the website localisation process:
1
Analysis of the received content and evaluation of the tools and resources required for its localisation;
2
Cultural, technical and linguistic evaluation and consulting;
3
Creating and maintaining terminology glossaries;
4
Translating content into the target language(s);
5
Adapting the user interface, including the size of your forms and dialogue boxes, as needed;
6
Localising graphics, images and other non-editable formats with visible text, icons, symbols, etc.;
7
Compiling and organising the localised files to begin testing;
8
Linguistic and functional quality control;
9
Final delivery.
Do you have an online shop?
Localise it to increase your sales!
Description
Writing product descriptions in your consumers’ native language helps them find the exact product they’re looking for, speeding up the decision-making process. By speaking to your target audience in their own language, you also help avoid complaints and returns, as your customers are much more aware of what they’re buying.
Currency
Displaying the price of your products in the local currency is essential. It avoids ambiguity when it comes to product prices and keeps potential customers on your website, since they don’t need to look up conversion rates or compare prices. Remember: when consumers leave an online shop, they are very unlikely to return.
Prices
If most of your business is conducted in a strong currency, sterling for example, you should consider reducing prices in markets with a weaker currency in order to ensure competitiveness. If you don’t, you may be charging far more than people in those countries can afford.
PAYMENT METHODS
To encourage your visitors to buy your products, make sure your store accepts their preferred payment methods (and make it as easy as possible!). In the US, for example, consumers prefer to pay online with a credit card. In Portugal, payments via Multibanco, MB Way or Paypal are the most popular.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQS)
Providing information and online support in your customer’s native language saves them time, effort and frustration. Localised content means users don’t have to wait for an email reply to understand how the store works (e.g. how deliveries are made), so they can proceed with their purchase quickly and easily.