Many business owners dream of a successful international expansion – but not everyone realises that to fulfil that dream one needs something more than just a brilliant sales strategy. One of the keys to foreign markets is a multilingual website which will introduce the brand to new audiences and, ideally, encourage them to avail themselves of the offered services or products. Although creating such a portal in the age of automatisation and templates might seem like a piece of cake, it is actually quite tricky and fraught with dangerous pitfalls. If you’re curious as to what these are and how to avoid them, read our article.
The importance of a multilingual website in international expansion
“If you don’t say it, they won’t know it” – that is particularly true when it comes to international expansion. To really benefit from entering new markets, first and foremost, we need to communicate our brand to new target groups.
Using the language of our new potential customers and anchoring it in their cultural reality not only serves informational purposes, but also:
- shortens the distance between the company and the recipients,
- helps build trust and loyalty,
- is pivotal to driving traffic and generating profits.
Creating a multilingual website is, therefore, an absolute must – but merely translating the original version is hardly enough. The range of aspects we need to take into account while localising our content is extremely wide, and it encompasses not only language, but also such elements as technical specification, KWR and SEO, as well as UI- and UX-related expectations.
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Technical mistakes
Let’s start with the most basic errors, namely the technical ones – after all, no matter how superbly localised, a website is doomed to fail if the technicalities don’t meet the required standards. So, what to pay attention to?
| Domains – using the same domain for all website versions might seem temptingly hassle-free, but in reality, without an apt SEO team you may fall into trouble if a search engine has a hard time telling them apart and assigning them to their intended locales. One of the best solutions would be to employ country-specific domains, such as .es for Spain or .au for Australia, as it would help with local positioning too. Another good option would be to use a generic domain, such as .net, .org or .com. |
| Hreflang attributes – they are HTML tags that help search engines decide as to which version of a website should be shown to a given user. If we fail to employ them, our content may be deemed a duplicate and become virtually inaccessible to users – and this, in turn, may lead to lower positioning, decreased website traffic, and smaller profits. |
| URL addresses – localising URLs helps visitors navigate the website and actually remember its name; this, in consequence, boosts the portal’s positioning and increases the retention rate. |
| Search engines – it’s worth remembering that Google may not be equally popular in all markets, and hence the algorithms can vary. Before launching a website, therefore, we need to make sure it is compatibile with the most prevalent search engine in a given locale and meets all the relevant standards. |
| Link building – to increase website visibility, we should build links from websites in a given locale (and the more trusted the portals, the better). Other tried-and-tested strategies include content marketing and email outreach. Neglecting this aspect may substantially impact our online visibility and positioning. |
KWR- and SEO-related mistakes
SEO – or search engine optimisation – is a set of processes and strategies aimed at increasing a website’s online visibility and improving its rank in search results (more information about multilingual SEO can be found here). One of SEO-related elements is KWR (keyword research) that consists in identifying the most popular phrases used by people to search for products or services (so that they can be then included in the website content). Unfortunately, one of the most common – and gravest – mistakes is not performing KWR for each market separately but doing it only for the domestic one and then translating the list literally. Since the way we express our thoughts and needs is shaped not only by language, but also by culture, the phrases we type also vary not only in terms of language, but also in terms of our collective customs, mindsets, perspectives, and habits. A keyword that enjoys a tremendous popularity in Spain might be not used at all in Mexico – for this reason, performing a separate KWR for each market is an absolute must, and forgoing it may lead to a huge drop in website traffic. At the same time, it’s worth keeping in mind that inserting phrases – even the properly verified ones – haphazardly in our content might not do the trick, as the way we structure our texts should be natural and not in your face.
Language mistakes
Language mistakes in our content can be more devastating than we think. Even a mere typo may put us in a very bad light, especially if we’re dealing with a highly discerning and demanding audience. Linguistic errors usually stem from poor-quality translation or resorting to machine translation and forgoing post-edition and LQA (language quality assurance). While machine translation as such is sometimes an acceptable or even preferable option (for example in the case of exceptionally large volumes of product descriptions), the outcome should always be verified by a human specialist – although a machine translation may seem pretty decent at first glance, a deeper analysis may reveal dangerously misleading errors or discrepancies, which, in turn, may result in decreased satisfaction, lower ratings, or even higher return rate.
Culture-related mistakes (UI and UX)
So many countries, so many customs – we should definitely remember this while setting up a multilingual website. A solution can work wonders in one region, but be completely useless in another, and the other way around. Before we sit down to preparing a strategy, we need to consider all the cultural aspects – and in the most minute detail, as everything we know (or don’t know) about the culture will be mirrored in the UI and UX we create.
| Payment and delivery options – various regions have their deeply ingrained payment and delivery patterns; therefore, it’s worth delving into the matter and including the most popular options so that the new recipients don’t get discouraged and abandon their carts. |
| Price points – it’s important to consider the subjective worth of our services or products in a given region. Something may be considered commonplace in one market, and luxurious in another – be it due to the general financial situation of the people or to the level of supply of what we have to offer (for example, pizza might be seen as a rarity in regions that produce little or no wheat). Subsequently, we should consider adjusting our content to the perceived value of our products or services. |
| Website navigation and CTA buttons – it is important to carry out a reconnaissance of competition and learn what portals enjoy the greatest popularity and how they are designed. The power of habit is not to be underestimated – if our new target audience has been using this layout or that button for years, it might be well-nigh impossible to revolutionise their culturally shaped preferences overnight. Of course, this is not to say that we should plagiarise other companies’ designs – rather, we need to brainstorm and come up with a new solution that might cater to the needs of the group in question. |
| Graphic design – everything matters: the symbolism of used colours, the shape of buttons, the size and type of fonts, text orientation, or any additional embellishments or patterns that might carry cultural associations. A wrong choice of any such element may result, at best, in a lacklustre response from the new audience and, at worst, in a severe blow to a company’s image. |
| Visuals involving people – although in the era of globalisation this might not be a huge issue in many regions or cultures, brands often change their people-related visuals to ones depicting representatives of a given locale. This might help shorten the distance between recipients and a company and build a stronger relationship, but, again, this requires a thorough research on the local people’s views and perspectives. |
Multilingual website by Digibutsu
As has been shown, launching a multilingual website is an extremely tricky task, laden with numerous potential pitfalls. For this reason, it is crucial to approach this task with a full understanding of its complexity and to employ expert guidance wherever possible. Digibutsu, with our extensive experience and expertise in SEO and multilingual website creation, is perfectly equipped to guide businesses through this process.
If you are ready to embark on the journey of international expansion, Digibutsu is prepared to assist you every step of the way. Don’t leave your business’ future to chance – let Digibutsu guide your multilingual website creation to avoid common mistakes and maximise your potential.
