Developing a Successful Multilingual Website
Multilingual websites are a hot topic for businesses that are competing in the global marketplace. Sadly, a lot of business owners and managers are misled into thinking that multilingual marketing is merely a translation of their current website/marketing message into a new language. This is a very costly mistake.
Here are some points for you consider in order to prevent your multilingual website from going down the international disaster alley.
Analytics Before Action
Selecting a new language based on a gut feeling is always a bad idea. It is crucial to analyze the data from your website and specifically look at your international visitors: break it down by languages, countries, cities and bounce rates. These should be good indicators of what international audiences are interested in your product or service.
Test the Waters
Launching a product or service in a new country is very exciting. But before you jump into an international market, there are ways of testing your messaging. Using a few multilingual landing pages in conjunction with a pay per click campaign is a good way to test the waters. It’s best to conduct a small test and be wrong quickly, rather than bet the house on costly translation and marketing that might not work out for your business in the long term.
Kill the Translation Software
Using word-for-word translators, automatic translators or translation software simply kills your multilingual campaign. Not only that, it will also damage your brand image. Your content might even end up on a blunder list like this one.
In fact, if your multilingual messaging, content and tone are not being provided by a native speaker of the language, you will never win. It’s simply impossible to translate content without keeping in mind the context in which it is going to be delivered. Native speakers are the backbone of a well-executed multilingual marketing campaign. You need to make sure that someone who “sorta” knows the language is not delivering your multilingual services.
Look Beyond Content
Translating just the content on your website (worst case, just translating one page on your website) does not welcome international users. Look at the broader picture. Translate the navigation, as well as all functionalities and features multilingual users will want to use. Make them feel at home on your site.
Understand the Culture
Many businesses just do a full translation of their English website and call it a day. The true winners in the multilingual game always do research to understand cultural considerations for their target audience. Developing an online experience (images, colors, lingo, etc.) that is culturally relevant to your target audience is going to deliver the best return on your website investment.
Provide Easy Access
All the effort put into multilingual marketing can be lost if the target users cannot access the website you made for them. Always provide prominent access by having either a text link (in the native language) or a flag in the top right corner of your website.
Implement a Dedicated URL Strategy
Once the top languages have been hand picked, native translation has been done, and your foreign language websites are ready to go live, you’ll have to make some choices about domain selection and URL structure.
Example: You translated www.snoopy.com into German. You can go with one of the following options:
Create a subdirectory: www.snoopy.com/german
Create a subdomain: german.snoopy.com
Buy a New Top-Level Domain: www.snoopy.de
Any of the above will work. If search engine optimization is a top priority for you, then having a country-specific Top Level Domain is the way to go. If you pick any of the other options, just remember to be consistent. Consistency in URL structure goes a long way.
Bring Your Checkbook
If you are embarking on a multilingual campaign, please be aware that a substantial investment is required. Anyone hawking you “cheap multilingual services” is a fraud. There is no cheap way to do this right. The only way for people to bring the costs down is to use word translators, which are the cancer of the multilingual marketing business.
Don’t Wait
Expanding your business into multilingual markets is a great idea. We live in a globalized economy, where it’s very safe to assume that non-English speakers are willing and able to buy products and services in the international marketplace. Following the points above will help you do things the right way and spend your investment wisely.
