Common Mistakes to Avoid During Website Localization

 Website localization is, without a doubt, one of the most important steps for businesses that want to grow internationally. You can only get these benefits if you choose the right ways to localize your content and SEO-related parts. If your website is localized well, it will increase your chances of getting new leads in international markets. To avoid this, you should know about the 5 most common mistakes people make when localizing a website.

Using Machine Translation Only

Free machine translations are used more often because they are fast and easy to understand. Even though neural machine translation is improving daily, it should only be used privately. This is because machines can't determine the context or use the same terms throughout the document.

When it comes to multilingual websites, you should use something other than machine translation to make sure that your content is correct and that your brand voice and professionalism come through. The best way to handle your website localization projects is to have professional human linguists do them. 

Using Images with Text

Website localization means translating and changing the text to fit the audience's tastes and the graphics to fit the new language. Putting text in images could make localizing a website more complex and take more time: First, the texts are translated. Then, they must find images that say the same things but are appropriate for the target markets, edit those images, and add the translation.

So, if you want to save money and time on website localization, use images with text sparingly. You can instead use captions, which are easier to work with and better for SEO.

 Never update your translations.

Website localization is a one-time job. When you are done localizing all of the content, it is done. You are mistaken. Today, a new email address or office address has been added to your website. You add a few more lines to the product description the next day. Before you even notice, your websites in different languages have many problems. This makes it hard for buyers to know what to do. Which facts should they believe?

Localizing a website is an ongoing process that needs to be updated often. If there are few changes, you can update once a month or every three months.

Start translation before doing keyword research.

Some people think that all it takes to improve SEO rankings is translating keywords from one language to another. But it's important to remember that a word or phrase can have more than one meaning and translation. Taking keywords at face value might not give the best results.

Before translating, your company should do keyword research to determine which terms are searched for in the target markets. These terms should be added to the translation glossary. If you use these terms when translating, you can be sure that the content on your website will be better for SEO. 

These are the 5 most common mistakes people make in website localization. The list keeps going. So, to avoid making the most common mistakes when localizing your website, it's best to work with a professional localization agency and your technical resources. This will help you save time and money and improve the quality of your website.