Your website is missing out on visitors and revenue streams if you haven’t invested in digital content localization.
Companies that are solely focused on English-speaking searchers are missing out on millions, if not billions of potential visitors and customers.
Failing to see the need to for digital content localization can cost you some serious revenue each year.
Read on to discover why your business needs to make sure your website is easily accessible around the globe.
1. Ensure Cultural Relevance
There are many differences from one culture to the other. For example, a saying may be innocent and easy to understand in one country, but it could be very offensive in another.
When your content is localized, you can avoid confusing and embarrassing situations.
Potential customers need to feel like you understand them and their needs. If so, they are more likely to become long-term patrons. If your company doesn’t localize its content, a disconnect is likely to happen even if the content doesn’t offend anyone.
Some companies have experienced major issues after a miscommunication. Don’t let that be your company.
2. Build Trust
When you take the time to localize content, the reader understands your commitment to ensure the message to them is clear.
Digital content localization allows visitors from different geographic regions to feel like your website was designed with them in mind and not as an afterthought.
As humans, we all want to buy from people and companies that we know, like and trust.
Localizing your website will build the trust needed to get the international business results you seek.
3. Make Genuine Connections
A major part of doing business is the relationships you create through the process. Creating genuine online connections via your website and social media platforms is difficult when you aren’t speaking the same language.
If your website isn’t in the potential client’s native language, that puts up an immediate roadblock that may cause them to think twice about doing business with your company.
Taking the time and the budget to translate the content is important. This is particularly useful when you want to create connections with people that speak another language.
Also, social media views will disappear if people can’t understand the content that you post there.
Digital content localization of your social media posts, videos, podcasts and viral content is crucial to building a strong and loyal international following that generates significant engagements.
4. Understand Your International Markets
If you want to be most effective, you need to segment your audience. You can do that based on geographical locations or on language.
For instance, your Spanish speaking audience may be present in the Americas and in Spain. You can target them all with Spanish digital content. Or you can even segment them into smaller groups based on countries.
Sharing the same content all over the world may not generate the results you’re looking for.
When you segment your markets, you can control and keep track of what you’re doing in and for each market.
5. Increase Support for In-Market Team Members
Even if you aren’t in the location you’re marketing to, you likely have representatives that are supporting your company on the ground level.
After hiring a website localization service provider, you can then get approvals from your local representatives on the final digital content.
You will continue to control the ownership, quality and timing of your content delivery, but also deepen your relationship with the team you have set up in that market.
6. Rank on International Search Engines
Everyone wants to sell to people in the United States. While there is a lot of opportunity here, there are many other areas that companies aren’t serving. Chief among them is the China.
If your company hasn’t optimized its digital content for other languages on the Google search engine, then you’re missing out. But in addition to Google, there are search engines like Baidu that serve the Chinese market.
44.5 percent of searches from China are generated through the Baidu search engine. Don’t let your business miss out on the massive Chinese market by not being optimized properly in Baidu.
Having your content localized and optimized for Baidu and the Chinese market is essential if you want to rank well in China.
7. Improve On-Page SEO for Other Languages
When you translate your company’s digital content into the languages of all its target markets, you open up your doors to brand new opportunities.
While search engines are getting smarter on a daily basis, they often can’t understand what your website means in other languages. Give Google, Baidu and other search engines the information they need to rank your website on their first page.
Just like you need optimized meta tags and keywords within your content in your native language, the same is true when your content is in other languages. Without that, international web users that search with keywords in their own languages will never find you.
If you want to market to any country in the world, you should attempt to have all of your important digital content available in their language.
The beauty of digital content is that it enables you to easily measure your return on investment based on the traffic, leads and business that it directly generates.
Make Your Website Effective for All Markets
No one wants to miss out on thousands of potential customers.
If you have a product or a service that can be used worldwide, don’t limit your company to your local clients. With today’s digital platforms and reach, you can target all lucrative markets. To ensure you’re getting the results you want, digital content localization isn’t a luxury — it is a necessity.
Contact us today to see how we can help your business grow.
