Accessibility is
a fundamental part of any website, and maximising it is key if you wish to maximise your traffic. Regardless of whether you are offering a service, product, or merely discussing your endless fascination with the life cycle of crane flies, opening your website up to as wide a market as possible is always beneficial.
The internet is a global marketplace; a universal exchange of commodities, thoughts, and ideas. It is a worldwide revelation, and it is spreading like wildfire to each and every nook and cranny on our planet. New emerging businesses and established companies are increasingly seeing the internet as their main resource in marketing and communications, and as globalisation connects us humans together like never before, the world is our workplace.
What is Website Localisation?
Simply, website localisation is the linguistic and cultural adaptation of your website from its source country. It localises your site in multiple locations, and thus enhances its popularity and impact on a global scale. It is far more than professional website translation services as it actually adapts the style and content of the text for specific cultures and locations.
Why Localise my Website?
Global communications tool
First and foremost you should localise your website because the Internet is a global communications tool, and is increasingly accessible to a higher percentage of the world’s population. Latest statistics suggest that 32.7% of the world’s population are now internet users, which is an incredible 528% rise in 11 years, between 2000 and 2011.
Multi-lingual
Not every individual who visits your site will read it in English. Many people around the world will use an automated translation service to convert your text into their local tongue.
According to internetworldstats.com (2010), English is still the language most often used when viewing major web pages. This doesn’t, however, mean that you can consider English as the only necessary language for your website, as in doing so you are closing your site off to numerous other potential visitors.
Other prominent internet languages
The two most prominent languages in use on the internet after English are Chinese and Spanish. Whereas Spanish and English are both spread throughout multiple locations, Chinese language users are predominantly in China itself.
Cultural sensitivities
As mentioned earlier, there are numerous internet users who will already be viewing your website in a number of languages via automated website translation services. Although this means that your site is already, to a certain extent, available globally, you may not be putting out the message exactly how you want it. Indeed you may even be promoting yourself in a way that completely contradicts your initial intentions.
Translating a website word for word, as an automated service will do, does not take into account cultural tastes and sensitivities, and thus doesn’t maximise the global impact your site could have. By using a professional website localisation service, you ensure that the content of your site is designed specifically for individual cultures as well as languages.
Design
Another reason for localising your website is as a consequence of the negative impact automated translation services can have on the design of your website. When text is translated into different languages, it may not fill the same space and thus the design can be negatively affected.
So, in conclusion
It is hugely beneficial for any website to be professionally localised, and the positive impact the process will have your flow of traffic more than pays for the service. Although you can choose to simply localise the core text of your website, it is more beneficial to consider localising everything from titles, logos, and menu bars. In this way you truly make your website local on a global level, and thus maximise the popularity and impact of your site worldwide.