Do you need to
translate your website? It’s a great big world out there, and the internet makes it easier than ever before to do business with it. There’s no one universal language in use out there, though, which inevitably means that there are some markets you’re not reaching with a single-language website. If you’re looking for a reason to branch out and go multilingual, here are 10 great ones. Bear in mind that this list is by no means comprehensive; the advantages of website translation are virtually endless!
1) More Languages = More Customers
This is such a huge reason that it deserves to be first on any list. The internet truly is a global phenomenon. If you’re a UK-based business, consider the fact that an overwhelming 90 percent of internet users are located outside of the United Kingdom. Most of them don’t speak English. (And plenty of potential customers in areas of the UK itself don’t speak it, either!) Customers are easier to reach and to persuade if you address them in their own language, this is a clear reason to localize and
translate. The same is true for any
business anywhere in the world. Your local customers are just the tip of a much larger iceberg. When you decide to
translate your website, you are stepping into their world and looking to grow your business beyond your borders.
2) You’re Easier To Find When You Translate Your Website
If you’ve already invested in
digital marketing efforts like SEO, you know that it is seriously important to make your website easy to find via search engines. Well, consider how many web searches are run in languages other than your own! It is a lot easier to rank high in those search results when your site has a native-language version for Google to index. If you are serving results in the native language then there is an absolute need to translate the content.
3) MSEO – Multilingual SEO
To expand a little on that last point, once you go seriously multilingual, you’ll want to adjust your online marketing strategies to fit. That means engaging in multilingual search engine optimization. Once you’re looking at analytic data reflecting a truly global audience, you may discover that the most useful search terms to target are in a language other than your own. So yes, there is a definite need to pan out a strategy to
translate your website into the target languages.
Other core reasons to Translate Your Website:
4) It May Be Necessary To Reach The Right Customers
Even if you’re not actively engaged in a multilingual marketing effort, you’re already collecting some information that can tell you whether you should be. Take a look at the often-neglected geography and language preference data that’s collected through Google Analytics. Your site visitors and customers may actually be crying out for a translated website. If a significant portion of your user base is accustomed to browsing in another language, it’s time to
translate!
5) International Customer Engagement
You’re probably already aware that online marketing gives you an unprecedented opportunity to connect with your customers and get immediate feedback on the impression your products and services are making. What about feedback from users who don’t speak your language? A multilingual effort will tap this potentially rich source of information. This can make the process of beginning to translate an easy win for your business.
6) Continued Growth
Why not be optimistic about your company’s potential for growth? Look at it this way: barring a disaster, you’re eventually going to saturate the market for potential customers who speak your native language. Going multilingual is an effective way to pursue further growth without engaging in head-to-head competition. The first stage of that is planning the target markets and what is needed in terms of what language(s) to translate first.
Business Growth As Simple As Deciding To Translate Your Website
7) Competitive Advantage
Of course, in contrast to that last point, you might not be averse to competing directly with other businesses in your niche. If this is the case, you can get a serious leg up on your competition if you translate your site and enter a new language market before they do. By blazing the trail, you’ll be establishing a strong international brand and setting the benchmark they have to live up to.
8) Brand Recognition Does NOT Cross Language Barriers
According to thorough market research, customers will pay a premium to work with businesses who speak their native language. Consumers will buy a more expensive product if it’s fully described in a language they understand, rather than a cheaper product that’s clearly intended for foreign markets. Unless you’re speaking to customers in their own languages, it’s extremely difficult to cultivate the trust that is the bedrock of a positive brand relationship. You need to literally translate your brand to make vital in roads into your new markets.
9) You May Need To Catch Up With Your Product
If you take pride in putting out the best possible product, it may be able to go out into the wider world and define its own market regardless of language barriers. If this is the case, you had better send your website out after the product, to ensure that you establish a strong, positive brand as well as good market share. Translate the products, its features and benefits and capture new audiences.
10) It’s The Standard In Your Niche, Market, Or Industry
Sometimes there’s simply no way to turn a profit in a given business without selling to people who speak a certain language. If the obvious market for your product speaks a different language to you, then a properly translated website is an absolute necessity. This is why, for instance, that for every article similar to this one that you’ll find written in English, you’ll find ten times as many on the same topic, written in Mandarin.
Source: Top 10 Reasons To Translate Your Website - CPSL
