The web offers internet marketers the perfect opportunity to expand into foreign language markets – but if you want your website to be a success overseas, you need to make sure it’s properly localized, to take into account language and cultural differences. Here are a few tips we’ve developed over the years at Lingo24 for successful localisation.

Overcoming the language barrier

The biggest issue you will face when trying to break into foreign markets is language. 78% of global web users do not speak English as their first language, and research by the Common Sense Advisory shows that people who don’t speak English as their first language are six times less likely to purchase from an English-only website. These two facts combined mean that you really need to translate your content if you want your website to succeed in foreign markets.

To get the best results, your best bet is to employ a professional translator to ensure that your copy is translated as accurately as possible. If your budget doesn’t stretch to employing a professional, you can always use a machine translation (MT) tool like Google Translate – however, while MT is getting better all the time, it still lacks the subtlety and awareness of human translator. Machines don’t understand metaphors, slang or inventive grammar, so while MT can be fine for getting the gist of a piece of text, when it comes to consistency in your branding and marketing message, it’s worth getting a native speaker to translate or proofread your copy.

Translating keywords

Even if you do go with machine translation for the majority of your web copy, it’s absolutely crucial to ensure that your keywords are not just direct translations, but are exhaustively researched for each language you intend to operate in. Your optimum keywords could be the direct translation, or they could be an appropriation from English, a slang term, an abbreviation – anything at all (for instance, for the English market ‘weekend holiday’ could also be ‘city break’, etc). By working with an in-country linguist, you can work out a comprehensive list of possible keywords, and then check their popularity using Google’s keyword tool.

Specific country domains

If you can afford it, invest in country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD) for each localised website (for example, www.yourdomain.fr or www.yourdomain.de), as Google takes regional relevance into account for local searches. Otherwise, creating language specific subdomains or subfolders off your main site is fine, but be sure to set the location of each using the Google Webmaster geotargeting tool.

Link-building

Besides your keywords and site locations, link-building is probably the next most important element of multilingual SEO. Building links back to your own site by providing content to your industry peers not only helps to build an image for Google of your site as a respected and relevant provider of content and services, but it also organically spreads the word about what you’re offering.

When it comes to multilingual link-building, the most important thing to remember is that location is relevant. So if you’ve got 2000 US sites linking to your US page, that’s great, but it’s not going to help your German site – you need to put some effort into building links with .de sites in order to boost your German site’s rankings. Your online marketing efforts for the English market need to be repeated for every other language market in order to be truly successful – but the one major advantage of the non-English internet is that there’s less competition for rankings, purely by virtue of there being less total pages.

Cultural differences

Lastly, when it comes to your website’s design and aesthetic, it helps to be aware that different cultures have different aesthetic preferences. Researching the cultures of the regions you are targeting is invaluable in ensuring that your content is properly understood and does not cause offence, and understanding these cultural differences plays an important part in localising your website.

These differences can be as mundane as the way numerical data is displayed. For example, dates and times, weights and measures and currencies are often displayed differently in different parts of the world. For example, in the USA, the Imperial system for weights and measures (pounds, ounces, pints, etc.) is the standard, but in Europe, the metric system (kilograms, grams, litres, etc.) is more common.

The use of colour can also fall foul of cultural differences. Colours have different meanings and significance in different parts of the world, for instance red often symbolises power or passion in Western cultures, but in India it is usually linked to purity, and in China it often relates to celebration or good luck. In many Eastern cultures, white is the colour of death and mourning, but in the West it is usually black. You need to consider the colour scheme of your website to make sure it is appropriate for the culture you are targeting.

These are just a few tips to get you thinking about the various elements required for website localisation – it’s not a simple process, but if you can manage to successfully expand and export overseas purely using the internet, you’ll find the costs are incomparably cheaper to establishing on the ground, and the rewards can be infinite.

About the author

Christian Arno is the founder and Managing Director of global translation and localization agency Lingo24. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 4000 specialist translators worldwide, operations spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries.

Contact Lingo24 with a translation request mentioning www.markflavinblog.com before 30 October 2010 and you’ll receive a 10% discount on your first order.