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10 Tips for Website Localization

Guest post by: Martin Spethman

Article Overview: Localization(L10N) involves translating and localizing your website content and layout into different languages to target specific markets ensuring all content (text and graphics) is translated in an accurate and culturally correct manner. Website localization involves website translation that is appropriate to the specific locale of your target audience.

10 Tips for Website Localization

This Article focuses on the top 10 tips for ensuring that you and your languagetranslation servicesagency achieve success with your website localization project.

For quick review, let's start with a few basic definitions and ingredients that are essential to any such project. A major step in website localization is to provide what is known as a "localization kit" thereby making sure that you, the client, can provide your partner, the translation agency, with the essential files to do a good job.

Website Localization (L10N) Localization (L10N) involves translating and localizing your website content and layout into different languages to target specific markets ensuring all content (text and graphics) is translated in an accurateandculturally correct manner. Website localization involveswebsite translationthat is appropriate to the specific locale of your target audience.

Website Localization Kit You will be asked to provide your translation company with a complete set of source files, also known as a "Localization Kit."

Website localization kit should include:

• Your website URL
• Your website source files and access to your web content management and data base.
• Summary of the website architecture

These files are analyzed for:

• Number of words to be translated
• Source and target languages
• Localization Subject matter
• Graphic localization requirements
• Client workflow requirements

A comprehensive quotation packet is generated, including all tasks, costs and timelines required to complete the project. Clients are given the opportunity to review and approve every quote.

Top 10 tips for website localization: 1. Local market research An important step is identifying the specific locale where your potential customers are located. Then, market research must be conducted in that locale to confirm your business opportunities and need for a localized website are valid. Consumer habits may vary widely within regions that have shared languages. Thus, local market research is essential.

2. Local Glossary Development Glossaries are developed to ensure accuracy and consistency in thetranslation/localizationprocess. You will want your translation team to not only leverage the latest industry-specific dictionaries, but to also ensure that the glossary is locale-specific as well.

3. SEO Localization Plan Early planning for website search engine optimization (SEO) is a key step in the website localization process. A lot of companies usually localize their website and later on they start to think about SEO and PPC campaigns. This sometimes requires more effort and is less effective than including your SEO localization in the website localization process.

Some of the most efficient tactics to use in yourSEO localization planinclude:

• Local domain name:A localdomain name(.ae, .au, .se, .br, .ar, .ru, etc) is very effective for local search engine results more than global domains.
• Keywords Localization:Create your initial keywords list which will help you optimize your content andMeta tagswith the most effective keywords for the local markets.
• Local Landing Pages:Landing pages are the most visited pages on your website. While you are creating your localized website you should focus on the content that pertains to your target the local market. This will require more research on your provided content. For example, if you provide services based on location, you will need to focus your SEO efforts on the local services pages and packages. This will vary from a country to another.

4. Cultural Correctness Assessment and copywriting Before the actual translation begins, the source web content, website design and feature set are reviewed for basic cultural correctness and customizations that may be required. To achieve maximum success in targeted local markets you need to fully grasp the locale-specific cultural values.

5. CMS language support A common oversight in website localization is for clients to check to make sure their content management system has the required language support. This is not a feature to be taken for granted. For more complete information on this topic, consult our previous blog,Website Localization and CMS.

6. Using Unicode and UTF-8 Make sure that your website will be able to display any language. TheUnicodeStandard is the universal character encoding standard for written characters and text. It defines a consistent way of encoding multilingual text.UTF-8has been designed for ease of use with existingASCII-based systems and it is usually the default encoding that you should be using on any webpage. Setting up the right encoding will ensure that your website's contents will be correctly displayed. Most Content Management Systems (CMS) already handle all content as UTF-8 encoded text.

7. Website Graphic and UI Localization If possible, use a highly flexible or "fluid" design that allows pages to scale based on dynamic content. If we take an English word as a base, the same word in Russian could be up to 60% longer, while in many Asian languages, the same word could be less than a half the source language width. Based on the complexity of Asian languages, you may need to scale fonts by about a 120% so they are legible. So, as a rule of thumb, you should avoid using fixed-sized containers with text in them. Space should be allowed to expand or contract in accordance with the text character count.

A related issue is that icons, containers and website layout should be culturally acceptable to the intended customer locale.

8. Location and Language selector Visitors to your website need to be able to swiftly indicate theirlocation and language. Special icons in website design should indicate these choices. A variety of layouts and formats are available. Previous research in your project discovery phase should indicate which type oflanguage indicator(e.g. names, icons) will be most appropriate.

9. Test your website locally A competent language translation services agency will test your website in the actual locale for which your website is intended. It is critical to ensure that your website design, as well as localization, suits the preferences and sensibilities of your primary global audience.

10.Local Social Media Optimization (SMO) The last step we recommend is to optimize your website with the local social media. You will always need to add the social media share buttons that are commonly used in your intended local market in order to guarantee traffic from the local social networks. Some countries have specific social networks like China, Japan, and it's highly important to make your localized website optimized for those networks to help users to spread your message, content and offers via their profiles and online activities.

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Article Tags: online marketing, translation, website, website localization, website translation



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Business Tips - How about: Tips for managers to handle employees more effectively? Tips on how to deal with difficult customers? Tips on how to deal more effectively with suppliers? The only three I have in mind right now, but will try to come up with something else. Chris
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