In today’s digital landscape, having a website is essential. While translating your website into your target audience’s languages is a crucial step, true connection goes beyond mere translation. Brands must delve deeper, understanding the culture and nuances of their audience to create a website experience that resonates and fosters meaningful engagement.This thoughtful customization of websites to adapt to the cultural and local preferences of your customers is referred to as website localization. Personalization plays a key role in differentiating a brand from competition and ensuring customer loyalty in an age of endless choices.
Don’t believe us, let’s look at these numbers:
- 80% of customers will complete a transaction with a business that offers a personalized experience.
- 76% of customers get frustrated when companies fail to deliver personalized experiences.
- 86% of customers believe that personalized experiences motivate them to be loyal to a brand.
In this blog we take a deep dive into what website localization is, its significance for a business, advantages, and how to implement website localization.
Understanding Website Localization
Website localization goes beyond simply translating your website in a different language. Localization entails adapting your website’s content to the cultural, linguistic, and technical needs of your local audience. It is contextual and takes into account finer details like slang and idioms, date and currency formats, regional customs and traditions, and visual representation.
Netflix, Airbnb, McDonald’s, HDFC Bank are a few notable examples of website localization that made an impact and empowered these brands’ enhanced market reach.
You must have often come across terms like L10n (localization), i18n (internationalization), and g11n (globalization). Before we delve deeper into localization it is important to understand the difference between each of these terms.
Localization vs Globalization vs Internationalization
By now we have a fair idea of what localization means, let’s understand globalization and internationalization.
Internationalization: The technical preparation ahead of website localization is referred to as internationalization. Aspects like the ease with which your website and app can host and switch between languages, seamlessly display different currencies and date formats without disrupting the UI, accommodate large text etc falls under the purview of internationalization. Simply put, the process of making your website “localization-ready” is internationalization.
Globalization: The high-level strategy of entering new markets, understanding legal compliances, and the brand image you wish to build globally is referred to as globalization.
Now that we’ve a clear understanding lets get back to localization.
Why is Website Localization a Necessity?
Website language localization and localizing other elements helps you connect with your target audience, it gives you an edge over competitors who haven’t yet made the extra effort to localize, and helps you tap into newer markets. As per a CSA survey 87% customers will not make a purchase from a website that’s available in English only. The same survey suggests 73% of customers want to read product reviews in their language. Amazon, one of the largest ecommerce marketplace globally is a testament to how localization can enable a brand to expand into newer markets and also retain them. Their India and US website looks remarkably different. But they haven’t stopped there. Amazon has been sensitive towards the linguistic diversity of India which is why they have further localized Amazon India’s website to support a plethora of Indian languages.
Amazon US website
Amazon India Website with language change dropdown
Amazon India Website in Hindi
Benefits of localization
- Fosters trust: Localization empowers brands to build trust and deliver personalized experiences by enabling them to engage with their customers in their preferred language. This is essential for brands expanding into new markets. It also helps them to build a reliable and positive brand image.
- Meeting KPIs: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) enable companies to quantify and measure their performance in a certain area over a period of time. Customer retention, new account acquisition, percentage growth in sales and revenue are some of the key KPI metrics on which businesses evaluate their performance. Localizing a website enables brands to easily meet these KPIs.
- Enhanced visibility: SEO for localization is an essential part of the website localization process and makes your website easy to discover in newer markets which means better business opportunities.
By localizing your website you not only multiply your business opportunities but also make your customers feel important and heard. But successful implementation of website localization can be a daunting task. Lets walk you through website localization steps.
How to localize your website
Step 1: Planning and preparing for localization
- Identify customer pockets: Website localization is a time-consuming and costly process. Before you take the leap identify the geographies where your product or service will do well.
For example if you are a homegrown business selling curated handcrafted garments with Lucknow Chikan embroidery, expanding your offering in southern states of India will be a good idea. One, there is a huge influx of people from different parts of the country to developing cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Coimbatore, Kochi and many more. Second, the weather is favourable throughout the year for soothing cotton and muslin fabric on which Chikan work is done. Third, the craft does not belong to the region and hence it’s not available so competition is less and people will be willing to pay for the uniqueness. - Technical readiness: The technical audit of your website for localization readiness also referred to as internationalisation is an important step. Key steps in internationalization:
- Extracting hard-coded text from the codebase and storing it in resource files.
- Creating placeholder texts for translated content.
- Designing UI elements that can be resized or repositioned to accommodate different languages.
- Setting up a translation management system with all the necessary features for an efficient localization workflow.
- Localization strategy: While end-to-end localization is the way to go, prioritising which parts of a website to localize first is essential to ensure effective implementation. Also, localizing for multiple geographies at one go is not required. Identify your top selling markets and localize for those. Taking cue from the above example, to begin with localizing in Hindi, Kannada, and Telegu – 3 languages will be a smart strategy. More language options can be added later. A good strategy is to begin with content and visual elements localization of high-impact pages like the home-page, product page, any specific campaign banners, landing pages that drive conversions, product descriptions and reviews of fast-selling and high in demand products.
Step 2 : Market research
Many brands fail to realize the importance of research when it comes to website localization. Understanding the culture, modes of payment your target audience would prefer, specific terminologies that resonate with them, and local players/competitors is important. Research though time-consuming is essential to avoid instances of using tonality or terminologies that may be culturally insensitive.
- Language and dialects: When venturing into local markets getting a fair understanding of the dialects in which the local language is spoken is essential. For example, for a brand planning to extend its services in Maharashtra, one needs to understand that Marathi the local language has 12 dialects. Marathi spoken in Mumbai is different from the Marathi spoken in say Pune or Nagpur. Though grammar, terms, and word meanings remain the same when localizing textual content, the difference in dialect will become important when integrating voicebots for customer support. This level of research and detailing is more important in industries such as BFSI and Healthcare who cater to many tier 2 and tier 3 cities where the next growth opportunity lies.
- Cultural nuances: A thorough understanding of symbols, greetings, festivities, religious sentiments, celebrity influence is extremely important when localizing your website. For example, a picture of or endorsement by Amitabh Bachan may work very well in Uttar-pradesh and parts of North India but Rajnikanth will be a more suitable candidate to draw traction on your website in the southern states like Tamil Nadu. See how McDonald’s has kept its messaging and visual elements remarkably different for its India and US audience.
McDonald’s India Homepage
McDonald’s US Homepage
- Visual elements: Religious symbols, shapes, colours etc all have a different significance in different cultures. While colours like Red are associated with celebration and joy in Indian culture, in most other cultures it is associated with danger and caution. Similarly, a bride in white clothes is the norm in Indian states like Kerala and Christian weddings but white and dull colours are associated with mourning in most North Indian states.
- Purchase patterns: When localizing for a specific region/city/country do research on the ecommerce website browsing behaviour of your new audience. Are they more comfortable with text search or voice search commands? What kind of product/service do they spend on? How accessible or inaccessible is your product to them in their local area? How much premium are they willing to pay? Are they comfortable placing a prepaid order on a new website or is cash on delivery their preferred payment mode? This comprehensive research will allow you to evaluate the feasibility of localizing for that market, establish your pricing strategy, and identify the key elements of your website that require localization. For example, despite the significant increase in the use of digital payments in India over the last few years, many consumers remain hesitant to place a prepaid order on a website when ordering for the first time.
Step 3 : Content Localization Approach
There are two main approaches to localization – machine and hybrid. Machine translation works well for localization projects with large content volume but often lacks accuracy and context is lost in translation. Machine translation works well for quick translations and large scale projects but is devoid of the linguistic expertise human translators bring to localization projects.
Hybrid translation combines the speed of machine translation and human expertise for content localization ensuring accuracy, context, and cultural relevance. Anuvadak, Reverie’s AI-led localization platform offers machine translation for speed with an option to review and edit the translated content by translation experts ensuring content that is accurate and culturally appropriate. Anuvadak is a comprehensive localization and translation management platform. Its distinguishing feature is an NMT engine built in-house, which supports all 23 official Indian languages.
Step 4 : User interface localization (UI/UX)
You might have often heard the phrase – “an image speaks a thousand words”. Well, this is especially true in the context of localizing your website. A well-thought out approach to optimize the user experience and user interface so that it strongly resonates with your audience is an essential part of the website localization process. McDonald’s has a completely different approach to its UI/UX for its India and US website.
User experience optimization
A website’s imagery, content flow, and structure must align with the local culture. For example, when localizing for the UAE market the entire text orientation has to be changed as the Urdu script is written left to right. Keeping this in mind, every element like placement of images, text holder size etc has to be meticulously planned to ensure a seamless user experience. A few key considerations for user experience optimization:
- Videos, graphics, emojis, and even images of people should align with the local culture.
- Promotional and campaign planning should be considerate of local festivities. For instance, while special festive sales around Diwali may be successful in North Indian states, a similar campaign preceding Ganesh Chaturthi would be more appropriate in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Likewise, special discounts and campaigns around Christmas will be well-received in the UK, Europe, and America. However, a campaign planned ahead of Ramadan would be more fitting for the Middle East and surrounding Muslim countries.
- A color scheme that may work well in one culture may not work well in another.
- Payment options: Integrating UPI and Cash on Delivery (COD) in addition to debit/credit cards will work well for most regions in India.
User interface optimization
The technical aspects of your website must also be carefully considered for different target markets. Right from navigation to the space holder for text (different scripts take different space), dates, numbers etc. have to be customised for each location to ensure the UI does not break. A few key considerations for user interface option:
- Space taken by different language scripts: Hindi, for example, occupies more vertical space than English words. Hindi characters are taller than English characters and often include upper and lower diacritical marks. Text space holders and menu dropdowns should be designed with the flexibility to accommodate these changes.
- Font style: Select a font style that supports multiple language scripts and preserves legibility across all scripts.
- Date formats: When adapting your website for a foreign language, it is essential to consider date and currency formats. The standard date format for most European countries is DD/MM/YY, while in the US, it is MM/DD/YY.
- Navigation for right-to-left languages: Urdu and Arabic script is written from right to left unlike other languages. The user interface design needs to accommodate for this.
For instance, on the Noon homepage displayed above, the shopping cart and wishlist icons are positioned on the left, in contrast to English-language websites where they are typically located on the right.
- Name writing format: In different cultures, names are written in varying formats. For example, individuals from Gujarat, India, often include their middle name, whereas those from North India typically write only their first and last name. When designing forms on your website that require users to enter their personal details, it is essential to maintain flexibility to accommodate these different name formats.
Step 5 : Identification of localization platform
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A robust localization platform is essential for a successful website localization project. Anuvadak, Reverie’s localization platform with an in-house NMT engine built for Indian languages, is an ideal choice for localizing a website that involves large volumes of text and requires frequent real-time content updates. Below is a step-by-step process to localize with Anuvadak:
- Integration : Add a single JS (Javascript) code snippet or connect Anuvadak through its plug-and-play integrations with leading CMS platforms. The platform automatically detects content for translation.
- Translation Management : The dashboard offers tools for real-time translation, editing, and proofreading. For more nuanced content, it also allows businesses to apply manual translation machine-translated output to ensure content is culturally relevant.
- Real-time Updates : Once integrated, Anuvadak automatically updates translations as new content is added, ensuring your platform remains consistent and up-to-date.
- Real-Time Deployment : With API-based translation, Anuvadak processes your content in real time, allowing users to experience a fully localized version of your website without any lag or delay.
Anuvadak integrates human expertise with AI ensuring high-quality, accurate, and consistent translated output across channels which is especially critical for industries such as BFSI, Healthcare, and eCommerce.
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Step 6 : SEO for localization
SEO for localization is beyond mere translation of content. It is essential to ensure the success of your website localization. So what does SEO localization entail? It involves adapting your website content to the culture and search behaviour of your target market taking into consideration the different demographics that make-up your target audience. The intent is to enhance your online search visibility, improve user experience,and reduce bounce rates. The below diagram depicts key components for SEO localization:
SEO LOCALIZATION COMPONENTS
- Content (keyword)
- Title tags and meta descriptions
- Image alt text
- Regionally relevant visuals (Images and videos)
- Local idioms and metaphors
- Keyword research and local behaviour analysis: Search for keywords using tools like Semrush to identify top-trending keywords in your target market and create content around those keywords for your website’s easy discovery in those markets. Also, conduct a local search behaviour analysis with tools like Google to verify search volume and identify market-specific terms. Now what does this mean?
You are a website chronicling Indian food history and culinary nuances. Spicy Indian Mutton may be the most searched keyword in English, but for someone searching about mutton recipe and history in Rajasthan the most searched keyword could be Laal Maas. In Bihar and UP it could be Champaran Mutton.
- URL structure optimization: Localizing your URL is important as it allows both search engines and users to identify the language and intended location of the page. The choice of URL structure should be based on your specific business case and requirements.
- Hreflang attributes: These are HTML elements that help search engines understand a webpage’s language and intended region. The version of a page to be shown in a particular region is communicated by Hreflang attributes to search engines and browsers. These tags have to be added to the HTML code of every page on your website.
Besides these technical aspects also check for any duplicate content as it can impact your websites SEO ranking, visibility and user experience.
Step 7 : Testing your Localized Website
Testing your localized website is perhaps the most important step in the website localization process. What aspects of your website should you test?
Content: All versions of your localized websites should be proofread by linguistic experts to check language quality, appropriate use of terms and idioms, cultural context, brand voice and tone, and the regional requirements of the target market.
Functional aspects: This involves checking the website loading time, navigation links in all languages, the flow from start to finish, search function, payment gateway integration, performance on mobile for all languages, and latency issues when switching languages.
Following the launch of the website in multiple languages, ongoing performance monitoring is essential. Key metrics such as search ranking, bounce rate, engagement rate, and conversions should be tracked. User feedback should be gathered regularly. By identifying and proactively addressing issues, one can maximize the return on investment for localization.
Anuvadak : Simplifying Localization
We hope our website localization guide has answered many of your questions and inspired you to start your localization journey. Website localization can be easier than you think with the right localization platform, such as Reverie’s Anuvadak. The ability to integrate with your existing tech stack through JS code or API integration and platform specific connectors for platforms like Shopify and Strappi Anuvadak brings agility to the website localization process. By combining artificial intelligence and human expertise our platform ensures accurate and context aware translations. The continuous localization feature makes our platform a perfect fit for dynamic industries like eCommerce, BFSI, and Healthcare.
To learn more about how we can assist you with your localization requirements and facilitate your expansion into new markets, please contact us here.
Faqs
What is the difference between localization and internationalization?
Localization entails adapting your website’s content to the cultural, linguistic, and technical needs of your local audience. The process of making your website “localization-ready” is internationalization which includes checking aspects like ease with which your website and app can host and switch between languages, seamlessly display different currencies and date formats without disrupting the UI, accommodate large text etc.
What is the difference between localization and translation?
Translation involves translating the content word to word from one language to another. Localization is adapting your content and other elements of the website like images, navigation flows, currency, payment options etc to the cultural, functional, and technical needs of the local market.
How many languages does Anuvadak - Reverie’s localization platform support?
Anuvadak supports all 23 official Indian languages and international languages. It combines artificial intelligence and expertise of human linguistic experts for context aware translations.
Which CMS and tech platforms are compatible with Anuvadak?
Anuvadak is compatible with any CMS and can be seamlessly integrated using a Javascript code snippet. It offers a ready to use plug-in for Shopify and Strappi.
Is it possible to localize only parts of your website and not the entire website in one go?
Yes, but from a customer experience standpoint and for maximizing the ROI on localization we recommend localizing the end to end user experience.
