What Is Website Localization?

Before delving into the technical aspect of how to localize your website effectively, let’s first take a quick look at what does website localization exactly mean.

Website localization refers to the process of adapting a website’s content, design, and functionality to suit the linguistic, cultural, and technical preferences of a specific target audience in different regions or countries. It involves more than just translating text; it includes adjusting elements such as date and time formats, currency symbols, images, colors, and even navigation layouts to make the website feel natural and relevant to users in the target locale.

Localization ensures that users from diverse linguistic backgrounds can understand and engage with the website effectively.

This process is crucial for businesses or organizations aiming to expand their reach into international markets.

Why? Because it helps build trust and connection with local audiences, ultimately leading to better user experience and higher conversion rates.

Website Localization: Best Practices

1. Internationalization

Internationalization (often abbreviated as i18n) serves as a foundational best practice for effective website localization. At its core, internationalization involves designing and developing your website in a way that anticipates and accommodates future localization efforts for different languages, regions, and cultures.

But how, exactly?

a) Preparation for Global Expansion

Internationalization is like laying the groundwork for global expansion. By internationalizing your website early in the development process, you set the stage for seamless localization in the future. This approach saves time and resources down the line as your website grows and targets new markets.

b) Language-Neutral Coding Practices

Internationalization involves adopting coding practices that are language-neutral and culturally sensitive. For instance, using Unicode encoding ensures that your website can display a wide range of characters used in different languages, scripts, and writing systems. By adhering to standard encoding practices, you prevent text rendering issues and support multilingual content effortlessly.

c) Modular Architecture and Content Separation

A key aspect of internationalization is designing a modular architecture that separates core functionality from language-specific content. By decoupling text from code, you make it easier to manage and update translations independently of the underlying software. This modular approach streamlines the localization process and allows for greater flexibility and scalability as your website expands into new markets.

2. Design for Multiple Languages

Designing for multiple languages requires careful consideration of how content will be displayed across different locales. Text expansion and contraction can significantly affect the layout and design of your website.

For example, while English text may be concise, other languages like German or Russian tend to have longer words or phrases, which can lead to layout issues if not accounted for in advance.

Designing with scalability in mind ensures that your website can gracefully accommodate translations without compromising usability or aesthetics.

And isn’t that exactly what you’re looking for?

3. Separate Text from Images

Text embedded within images poses challenges for localization. When text is part of an image, it cannot be easily translated without modifying the image itself. This can be time-consuming and may result in inconsistencies across different language versions of your website.

By keeping text separate from images and using HTML/CSS for text elements, you enable easier translation and ensure that text can be dynamically adjusted based on the user’s language preference or device screen size.

You can, then, save time, money, and effort!

4. Use Tokens for Date, Time, Currencies, and Units of Measurement

Tokens provide a flexible way to handle dynamic content such as dates, times, currencies, and units of measurement. Instead of hardcoding specific values directly into your website’s code, you can use placeholders or variables (tokens) that are replaced with the appropriate localized values at runtime.

This approach allows you to maintain consistency and accuracy across different language versions of your website, as well as adapt to regional formatting preferences without needing to rewrite code for each locale.

Without this step, it might be too difficult to integrate local symbols, which doesn’t provide your customer with a very good user experience, and can increase bounce rate.

5. Support Local Payment Methods

Offering local payment methods can significantly improve the user experience and increase conversion rates in international markets. 

Different regions have their preferred payment methods, and supporting these options can help you better serve your customers’ needs and build trust. Research the most popular payment methods in your target markets and integrate them into your website checkout process.

This may include credit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, or alternative payment methods specific to certain regions.

Providing a seamless and familiar payment experience can enhance user satisfaction and drive sales in global markets.

Conclusion

Because localizing a website can often be a tedious task, you need to build your website around localization from the start, or at least start your localization journey by preparing the website for it.

If you’re looking for a language solutions partner to guide you through the journey of website localization, Gripon Global has the experience and tools to help you. 

Worry no more, we’ve got you covered.