Translating your website into your users’ native language is a smart move. But localising your website is even smarter… and especially more profitable. This strategy involves tailoring your whole online content to the culture, language and business practices of your target markets.
We take a close-up look at localisation, a key investment to gain the trust of your future customers and boost your bookings!
Reading time: 5 minutes
How can you localise your website for an international audience?
When you ask an agency for a “standard” translation of a website, which does not include localisation, a translator transposes the text into one or more foreign languages.
Website localisation is a far more ambitious project, which involves adapting the whole content to meet the expectations of an international audience. Based on the geographic region or nationality of your target audience, our team adapts:
- Navigation menu headings.
- Formats for dates, time and telephone numbers, etc.
- Units of measurement, currencies and payment methods.
- Slogans, etc.
Website localisation: an investment with fast returns
An international survey conducted in 2020 by the marketing research firm CSA Research showed that 65% of visitors prefer to read content and 76% prefer to purchase products described in their native language.
Worse! 40% of them never make a purchase or booking if they cannot think and act in their own language.
To develop your business and win new markets abroad, it’s in your best interest to opt for localisation of your website, which offers numerous benefits.
You optimise the natural referencing of your website
To attract the highest number of tourists, an important battle is being fought behind the scenes: the battle for multilingual SEO. In other words, some technical and semantic content on your website needs to be adjusted to gain higher search engine rankings.
When you opt for SEO localisation, a native translator strategically optimises many essential elements on your website for Google, Bing and other search engines:
- URL address or the full address for each page.
- Title and meta description tags. These snippets of computer code summarise the content of each page in just a few words for search engines.
- Alternative text for images (alt text), brief texts that describe the content of photos and images featuring on your website.
- Hreflang tags. They precisely indicate which version of your website should be shown to UK, US, German users, etc.
Our SEO translators also pay close attention to localising your strategic search terms, commonly referred to as keywords.
For example, if you offer holiday rentals, it’s better to offer bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation to an international audience rather than a guest room as this term is searched far less frequently.
You grab the attention of your future customers immediately
Imagine: you own a restaurant in Co. Louth and want to attract more French visitors. Our SEO translators might suggest that you change some sections of your website to highlight your beer and whiskey menus or local oyster platter.
Attracting foreign audiences to your website is a demanding task and you only get one chance to make a great impression!
You reassure users about the high quality of your services
Similarly, it’s beneficial for hotels wishing to attract a more international audience to reassure potential customers about service excellence.
For example, 500,000 French tourists visit Ireland each year, which represents 5% of all visitors. They love experiencing local experiences and exploring our country. Unfortunately, many of them (too many) complain about their online booking experience: not all Irish websites provide French versions, and not all French people speak English.
Nothing works better than a fully localised website to reassure your future guests about your team’s language abilities.
You can also highlight on your website that a courtesy tray (for a perfect cup of tea!) or travel adapters are available in your rooms. These guests also highly value having sweet options for breakfast: un croissant?
You enhance user experience on your website
When our translators localise a website, they carefully adapt all essential elements for seamless navigation, including:
- Main menu.
- Footer menu.
- Internal link anchors.
- Call-to-action buttons, etc.
As a result, your visitors can quickly and easily access the details they need, explore more pages, and spend longer on your website.
Since Google Leaks, the major data breach that rocked the SEO world in 2024, we understand that Google closely analyses user behaviour to tailor its search results to individual preferences.
You increase your conversion rate (and your revenue too!)
To simplify the visitor experience and encourage them to contact your business or make a booking, it’s also important to localise all practical details.
For instance, if you run a distillery, our translators will display visiting and tasting times in your visitors’ time zone and convert bottle volumes, keg sizes, etc.
Similarly, to drive online bookings and purchases, our translators show all prices in the local currency and accepted payment methods:
- Visa
- Mastercard
- PayPal
- American Express
- Diners Club, etc.
Are you looking for support to reach more international customers? Our Project Manager, Philippine, will be happy to answer your questions!