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"We need to increase our sales."

"We want to be more visible on the Internet."

"Our company wants to target new markets."

Over the years of our busy existence in the translation industry, we have heard such statements countless times when approached about website localization.

We have localized an abundance of websites from different branches, industries, and countries. Each translated website was a new lesson in terms of gaining experience as well as learning that a service that is ordered by a client is actually not just about translation, localization, testing, etc. It is about creating the perfect tool for their global expansion.

This article will list and describe the most common aspects and questions related to creating a multilingual website that really serves its purpose: driving your international business growth.

Every Business Has Its Own Website

Not everyone. You just don't see the companies that don't have Internet websites. You only see the websites of companies that chose to have one.

Modern websites are nothing like websites from 20 years ago. Their resolution is higher, graphic design is more attractive, there are different language versions, fancy buttons, etc.

Also, the fact that the website displays well on cell phones and tablets doesn't surprise anybody these days. Actually, it is something that we expect – all in all, we have Internet browsers in our portable devices. And if a webpage or a website doesn't open on a desired device, you will just look for the one that does.

Related content: Are You Making These 4 Mistakes in Your Business Growth?

Although the technological advancement of modern websites is not the topic of this article, it should be stressed that they are in fact very advanced.

You have a website? Good for you!

Having a website means that your company has identified the potential of Internet in terms of marketing or sales. Let it be said, nobody invests in a website just to spend money or just for fun. There is always a specific goal behind it.

How Does My Website Affect My Business Growth?

As stated above, you know best. Otherwise, you would not have created your website. However, it may be assumed that the ultimate goal of any website is to show its content to users.

The reasons for this are as numerous as the number of websites themselves – information, sales-related, marketing, etc. Not to mention the whole range of blogs and forums.

A website is simply a reflection of its owner’s need to.:

• attract new customers,
• increase awareness,
• increase sales,
• sell products or services,
• discuss specific topics, etc.

It is important to prepare your website to serve your goal – both in terms of technology and content.

Related content: 6 Tips on Preparing Your Content for Translation

How to Make My Website Do Its Job?

The answer to this question is far more complicated, although, again, it depends on your ultimate goal. When it comes to creating a website, the goal is usually to attract more customers.

When creating a multilingual website, the goal is to attract more international customers. It is helpful to know the aspects of making your website work for you in order to fulfill your goals.

Website Visibility

In order for the audience to find your website, it needs to be visible.

For this you need to apply a rather sophisticated mechanism called SEO, or pay for online advertising. This is where the technological advancement mentioned before comes in to play.

If you want your website to be visible to users, it needs to be really well designed. Or at least better than other websites. This is where the competition begins.

In terms of Internet, visibility can be explained as a rank in Search Results for a given keyword or phrase. It is rather obvious that there is a multiplicity of websites that want to be optimally visible on Internet. But how do you determine which one is the most effective?

These days, you have numerous paid and free tools that analyze your website, as well as those of your competitors, in order to establish what needs to be done to make your website perform better. Everything you can do to enhance your website results can be stated in three (not so simple) words:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization – is a set of mechanisms developed with one goal in mind – ranking websites in terms of relevance, technological advancement, and quality of content.

To make a long story short, the aim of SEO is to prepare a website that is so good that the search engines will say Wow!.

The World Wide Web is constantly combed by search engine bots that scan website after website, remembering its contents and structure, ranking them in terms of relevance and quality of content.

Search Results do not appear out of thin air, it is a carefully prepared list.
There is a certain way of constructing a website that convinces the crawlers to prioritize it over the countless other websites.

Quality of Website Content Before Quantity

As mentioned above, the highest places in the search results are reserved for websites offering the best quality content. They need to be created using the newest technologies, be responsive (i.e. correct display on all kinds of screens, including portable devices), offer accessibility features, and so on.

In terms of content, the website has to be as relevant as possible to a given search phrase or keyword.

And there is also the structure. To make your website visible, it has to:

• Have a properly structured content. The structure of the website has to follow a predetermined standard allowing crawlers to properly interpret its content;
  
  
• Use titles. As a rule, Google, for example, heavily prioritizes the value of a title in determining content relevance. Apart from a title tag (technical part of the structure rule), make sure the title itself is also relevant and describes the actual contents of the page. Also, it should include relevant keywords and be properly matched by a URL;
  
  
• Use descriptions. Description is a short text that is displayed below the title in Search Engine Results Page, (SERP). A good description makes user click your link, and the click rate is the huge ranking factor;
  
  
• Label images. Images are labeled using so called alt attributes which basically explain the content of an image to the internet crawlers. Here, they decide if your image is worth showing to the users.
  
  Labeling images is also governed by some rules. For example, it has to be accurate in terms of the content and function of the image and be as short as reasonably possible. Of course this is not all, but who is counting?
  
  
• Keep internal links well organized. The number and quality of internal links within a website is to crawlers like honey is to Winnie the Pooh. Let’s just say they like it.
  
  A well-interlinked website means that its content is neatly organized and does not include redundant content. Instead of explaining a term or concept in a text using a lengthy description, you can simply link a relevant page of your website and let the user decide if they want to click it and know more. Modular website, crawlers dig that;
  
  
• Speak the native language of the audience. While native language part is kind of obvious, you need to know that search engines are very strict. You need to be very careful not to mix, for example British English and American English on your website.
  
  
• Use relevant keywords. SEO works closely with keywords. A keyword is a carefully picked term that optimally resonates in a language locale of a web page.
  
  For example, a local automotive company from the USA will be selling trucks (American English, AmE) rather than lorries (British English, BrE). Should it want to expand and aim for British market and be optimally visible for British Internet users, a BrE version of the website needs to be created (be patient, we will get to that later on).
  
  An SEO specialist extracts keywords and verifies them in a dedicated software to see how they resonate on the Internet. If there is a better term, it will be used instead.
  
  
• Maintain consistency in your website design. It is a great benefit in terms of SEO to maintain the graphical consistency of web pages that make up a website. Its purpose is to increase User Experience (UX), which is part of the whole "high-quality website" concept.
  
  A good design means consistency in terms of spacing, margins, fonts, etc. Depending on the website system, maintaining this level of consistency may be more or less demanding.
  
  
• Quick loading. A fast website loading time is a very important aspect to consider. Usually, users wait up to 8 seconds for the page to load. After that, they tend to cancel loading and go to another website (your competitor’s?).

To sum it up, to be successful, your website has to be well structured, cutting edge, fast, locale-oriented, full of well-organized high-quality content, and pretty. Is it? If not, it is best to leave it to the pros. Remember that your competition does (or have already done!) the same with their websites.

What's Localization Got to Do With SEO?

Why would a localization company write an article about SEO?

This is because, as with everything that originates with a source content, the quality of the source (original) determines the quality of the target (translation/interpretation).

The first thing you can do with your website is to thoroughly prepare it. Then, it will become a good foundation for your next step.

Of course, SEO is not a must for everyone. Depending upon your needs, the only thing you may require is a localized (translated) version of the website, for example, to simply show it to clients. In this case, being on the first page of search results is not an imperative for you.

However, if you decide that as in your original website version, it is important to optimize your website for search engines in the languages you translate into, it is good to know how to handle that.

Steps Towards Your Website's Global Expansion

It may be safe to assume that at some point, thinking about expanding your services abroad at least crossed your mind. Translating your website seems to be the most logical thing to do, right?

After all, you will start targeting clients that do not speak your website's language.

Website Localization

Localization is what many people mean when saying that they want to translate their website, software, documentation, etc. The difference between translation and localization is fundamental.

Unlike translation, which is simply a process of rendering text from one language into another while keeping the equivalent meaning, localization is far more comprehensive.

Related content: A Guide to Understanding Translation and Localization Terminology

It can be described as translation while addressing cultural, non-cultural, and linguistic factors. Basically, localization means preparing a product for a target market, as if it had been created in the target language.

Localization itself is a part of a bigger concept called internationalization, which means that an original product is prepared with localization in mind.

Website localization is a demanding task requiring experienced resources and at least two localization steps: translation and revision.

The translator conveys the source (i.e. original) text into the target text (translation) while adapting it to the needs of the target audience. Once that is done, the translated text is revised, which means that it is checked by a second language professional for any possible errors, in form or linguistic.

Related content: 5 Ways That Translation Revisors Affect Your Business Growth

Preferably, a third step – proofreading – is recommended. Proofreading focuses mainly on the coherence of the target text as well as its language and style.

When selecting a localization service provider, it is recommended to ask for a Quality Certificate, such as ISO 17100-2005. A certified quality management requires your vendor to apply reasonable quality control measures.

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The minimal Quality Assurance (QA) requirements cover mandatory manual and automatic QA checks to be performed after each step of the process (translation, revision, proofreading (if applicable)), as well as when a project manager receives the revised/proofread version of the product.

Some language service providers (LSP) go beyond that and fine tune the built-in QA modules of their translation software (Computer-Assisted Translation, CAT tools) by writing their own verifications, or even create verifications meeting the specific needs of particular clients. This is the kind of a localization company that you want to work with.

Related content: How to Measure the Quality of Translation

Of course, depending on the situation there may be a need to prepare the files first, so some file engineering may be needed to extract the content from the code. The best thing you can do is to provide your translation agency with a sample file to be checked and tested. They will know what to do with it.

Related content: 10 Best Practices in Website Localization

Once your website is localized, it will be useful for your target audience. A localized version of a website may be pretty visible on Internet as long as its quality is good and there are no better, optimized websites in the target locale.

SEO Localization

This is the place where the fun begins – SEO localization requires a good initial SEO. That means that without an SEO-optimized original website, the localized version, even when it's SEO-optimized, may be useless. And SEO localization is not a cheap service. As with SEO, it has to be a well-analyzed and well-prepared investment.

From the process perspective, SEO localization may resemble localization, but with more steps involved.

First of all, you need to furnish a list of keywords to your SEO localization provider. Assuming that your base website has been SEO-optimized, you already have those. If it was not optimized, well, start with SEO.

Related content: A Quick Introduction to SEO Localization

Keywords will need to be SEO-optimized for a target locale. Should you happen to have already completed that step using other resources (creative agency, your own SEO specialists), that's great.

Secondly, both translation and localization steps are to be performed by SEO-experienced language professionals, preferably target language (even dialect) native speakers. They will stick to the keywords at 100% and not stray from the provided list.

SEO localization is very creative work. It requires a lot of wordplay as well as perfect knowledge of the target locale. If proofreading is to be done, it has to be performed by an experienced target-language native SEO specialist.

Thirdly, an SEO audit has to be performed after the last localization step (revision or proofreading). An SEO audit means that the SEO specialist checks the website using dedicated tools to detect all areas that may require fine tuning in terms of boosting the visibility of a website in the new target locale. As soon as the SEO audit results are satisfactory, the SEO localized website may be launched.

And then you wait.

As explained above, in order for the website to be ranked on the first page of search results, it has to be crawled and indexed. Usually, it takes at least 3 months for a website to start showing results.

Ask Your Website Localization Pros, They Know Best

Your website is a reflection of your business needs, of course. However, bear in mind that in terms of expanding your business overseas, it is recommended that you seek professional advice. For SEO or website creation, you may hire a creative agency or an internal team (that you may already have).

Once your website is ready to conquer the world, discuss your needs with your localization partner. It may turn out that your website does not need SEO, nor SEO localization, to be useful for you. Many companies invest in localization only, which is a good investment as well.

Define your needs, check whether your localization company can meet those needs, and leave it to the pros. Create a multilingual website that will help you get ahead of your competition on the global market before it's too late.

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