• Skylark Team

The crowd on Internet continues to grow and is the busiest place which is frequently visited by users for shopping, browsing, etc. Though English has been the default language for the websites and it is easier to develop content in English, but it will surely be beneficial for your business to go multilingual. In this era of globalization, where people from around the world can buy whatever they want to buy and from wherever they wish to, it will be an advantage for a business to develop multilingual website. It will help increase client base and will help secure greater sales volume.

In order to enhance your business multilingual web development is one of the necessity. The information displayed in different language is often the same, but it may vary for different type of customer.

If you are planning to create a multilingual website and want to know what approach should be adopted what points should be kept in consideration and why you should go multilingual then, this article is for you. We have summarized some of the best practices to create a multilingual website.

Why Go Multilingual

 

  • Wider reach

    This is probably the most important aspect that should be considered before developing a website. If your website supports various languages then it will surely reach to more number of people as it would be easier to capture local audience. Also, it may become a parameter to determine ranking of your website.

  • Cost Effective Marketing Tool

    It is one of the most cost effective marketing tools as creating website in user friendly language and communicating in the local language will capture new users and will increase brand awareness of your products.

  • Sales

    With every new language you add to your website, there is a possibility that your sales increase drastically. Even if only a few major languages like German, Chinese, Japanese, etc.,are added to your site it will boost the sale by more than 100%.

  • Customer-Centric

    A multilingual website makes an impression in the mind of people that the website owners think about their customers. The little effort that you put in developing multilingual website will cater more business partners and more users which surely be fruitful for your business in long run.

  • Trust

    Developing trust among the customer over the language in which they are not proficient is bit tough job. The customers will feel secure and in ‘comfort zone’ when they know exactly what they are buying, and from whom, bypassing language barrier if the information is made available in their own language. It will help get those users also who do not have English as their language.

  • Culturally Sensitive

    A website designed in local language will overcome the barriers if any, as users will be able to understand the language and navigate with ease.

  • Beat Competitors

    Developing multilingual website is a new trend now. If your competitors are adapting to this approach or not, you should definitely adapt this technique to have an advantage over the others. You can enjoy better ranking with this.

  • Search Engines

    Trend for home grown search engine is increasing day by day in countries like China, Japan. To target those audiences and to be found in search results of those search engine, it is essential that your website must have their language included.

  • Improved SEO

    Multilingual websites will always be placed higher in the search results. The business will reach to a new high once it is designed to cater the need of different customers that are completely out of the reach of Internet due to language barriers.

 

Points to remember before starting multilingual website

 

1. Web content

Web content is one of the most important things to check when you create a website. Not only design but the products and services are also important. To target a wider traffic base, content must be relevant and authentic.

2. Domain name

The website domain is very important for search engines. If you are working towards up-gradation to multilingual website, then it is better to create a different domain for each language you choose. The best approach would be, having country specific domain for eg, if you are targeting customers from Singapore buy a domain that ends with “.sg”. From SEO point also it is very crucial to have a separate domain for every country’s language.

3. Website optimization

Optimization is also major feature that should be checked while developing multilingual website. It is very important to add synonyms, abbrevations of a particular language. Word to word translation of english phrase to another language may not work. You have to be very precise to optimise it for different clients.

4. Site navigation

Proper navigation is major aspect of web design. It will help the visitors to find the content easily. For example the menu bar may be shifted from right to left or vice versa according to the preferred language option, to make reading easier.

5. Select the right language partner

Before choosing the language support for your website, it is important to know how much experienced your translation partner is. To know how to deal with the code involved in translating a website is very essential which only a professional can complete.

6. Cultural Assessment and Pre Translation Assessment

Get a pre assessment translation done before you actually embed the website. This will help detect any content that can cause any problem or difficulty.

7. Do some research work

Before starting any development, make sure that you researched enough for choosing the languages that you are going to include in your options. Choose only those languages which are among top spoken languages around the world, so that it can provide more opportunities for your business to grow.

8. Link Language options

Make a list of languages that you have added and create a link on your website from which the users can choose their preferred language. You can also make it more convenient for users to find their language by adding them alphabetically. You can add a drop down list or a slider to add these. You can also use country’s flag along with the name of the language to make it more visible.

9. Invest in international SEO

You cannot get the overall benifit of multilingual website until you invest in international SEO. It is same as investing in any local SEO. To make your site visible to potential customers on local search engine investment in this is a must.

Tips

Before you make your website public make sure that you have checked the following
1. Team recruitment for making websites.
2. You have tested every aspect of the websites.
3. Check for the feedbacks, if any.

Conclusion

Multilingual websites are in early stages of development. Not every company is investing in these. But, some of the big giants are using this tool to secure an international position. Sooner or later the trickle down effect will occur and these website will become a parameter for presence on Internet. It is hence important for any business to invest in such tools before anyone else takes the step and secure a good and a better position.

 

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