Hoe u uw website lokaliseert voor een internationaal publiek

Any company looking to reach international, multilingual audiences need more than translated content—they need website localization. Localization helps businesses go beyond language to deliver culturally relevant, personalized information to customers.

In this article, we'll explain what website localization entails, explore its key benefits for global brands, and provide actionable steps to streamline your localization strategy.

Wat is websitelokalisatie?

Website localization is the process of adapting website content and flow to meet the specific needs and expectations of customers in a target market. Localization involves translating content, adjusting date and time formats, and meeting global compliance regulations to deliver seamless experiences for each audience.

Website localization vs. website translation

While website translation and localization are often used interchangeably, website translation is only one element of a comprehensive website localization strategy. Website translation involves converting text from one language to another. Website localization involves adapting all aspects of the website—from design and layout to payment methods and cultural references—to feel native to a specific audience. 

Website localization: 5 key benefits for international brands

With the right website localization techniques, brands can access new opportunities to drive engagement and revenue. The most significant benefits of website localization include:

1. Expanded market reach: By making content relevant to diverse audiences, companies can enter new markets and reach more potential customers.
2. Increased trust and credibility: Research from 2020 found that 76% of online shoppers prefer buying products that have information in their own language. Localized websites demonstrate respect for local culture and languages, which can foster trust and engagement.
3. Better user experiences: Localization ensures that the entire user journey—including visuals and navigation—meets customers’ needs, creating a more satisfying user experience.
4. More conversions and sales: By breaking down cultural and linguistic barriers, businesses make it easier for customers to learn about products, complete purchases, and become repeat buyers.

Website localization strategy: How to streamline the process in 6 easy steps

It’s important to understand how to localize a website for each target audience. While every business will have its own tools and workflows for adapting content, there are certain ways to streamline your process.

Follow these website localization best practices to make the process even easier:

1. Define your localization goals

First, identify what you hope to accomplish from your localization efforts. Are you launching a product in a new market? Are you looking to increase website engagement and sales in a given region? Or are you trying to build broader brand loyalty?

Consider collaborating with internal teams like marketing, sales, and customer support to pinpoint your localization needs. Your goals might include:

• Modifying your site’s underlying code to enable internationalization 
• Making sure content isn’t just translated word-for-word but culturally relevant for global audiences
• Updating payment options and currencies for customers in different regions
• Creating a localization style guide template to keep your brand voice consistent in every language
• Modifying the site’s interface to make sure it can adapt to languages that take up more or less space than your source language 
• Changing the formatting of dates, addresses, and phone numbers so they’re easily readable
  
  

2. Research your target market

Conduct thorough research to understand the local landscape before launching in a new region. Identify which countries or regions show the most demand for your offerings by analyzing website traffic and customer data. For example, you might want to translate your website into Spanish or Portuguese to cater to growing audiences in Latin America. Once you know your target markets, dig deeper into local consumer behavior, preferences, and purchasing habits. Take the time to investigate competitors in each region, too, to understand their localization strategies and positioning. 

For each demographic, consider researching different factors such as:

• Language and dialect preferences
• Cultural norms and expectations
• Local regulations and compliance requirements
• Preferred payment methods and communication channels

In addition to reporting tools like Google Analytics that show site traffic or top search queries, you can gather direct feedback from audiences with surveys and interviews. These insights let you tailor localization strategies to market needs.

3. Internationalize your website

Prepare your website for localization by internationalizing its structure and code first. Design (or update) your site architecture to handle multiple languages, cultural formats, and updates for new markets. Internationalization lays the technical groundwork that makes localization possible.

Key internationalization techniques include:

• Using Unicode encoding to handle special characters
• Separating content from code for easy translations and updates
• Designing flexible layouts to accommodate new text additions
• Setting clear URL structures for different languages
• Supporting local formats for dates, times, and currencies

4. Automate localization processes with the right tools

Creating new versions of your web pages for different audiences is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Thankfully, you can leverage automation tools to save time and maintain consistency across multiple languages. These tools typically include features like translation memory databases, machine translation, and integrations to make localization easy and cost-effective.

For example, Smartling offers flexible and powerful website translation solutions to help you deliver high-quality, localized experiences and drive global growth. Smartling’s web translation proxy allows you to translate all of your online content hands-free—it crawls your site and translates new content without the need for manual intervention. 

When you’re evaluating vendors, make sure they have multiple translation workflow options to ensure you get the best mix of quality, speed, and affordability. For example, with Smartling, AI Translation can quickly and accurately translate blog posts, while AI Human Translation adds a human in the loop to ensure expertly polished content for homepages and landing pages. Smartling also integrates with popular CMS platforms to simplify translation management and implementation for your team.

5. Test website components before you launch

Before going live, test every part of your newly localized website to make sure it’s ready to meet customer expectations. For instance, you might:

• Double-check for mistranslations, missed industry terms, and cultural sensitivities
• Ensure all translated content displays correctly and fits within your page designs
• Review layouts, buttons, pop-ups, and images for each language version
• Make sure your site meets local legal requirements, such as privacy policies and accessibility standards.
• Confirm that brand messaging is cohesive across content formats and languages
• Test usage across different browsers, devices, and regional settings to catch any compatibility issues
• Use cloud-based testing platforms to simulate real user experiences from various locations

With thorough testing, you can identify and fix any issues before launch, protecting your brand reputation and ensuring user satisfaction.

6. Measure localization results and optimize

After launching your localized website, track its performance using clear metrics and KPIs, like:

• Page views
• Bounce rates
• Gemiddelde sessieduur
• Clickthrough rates
• Omrekeningskoersen
• Cart abandonment rates
• Return on investment

• Customer satisfaction and feedback scores

Keep in mind that checking these metrics isn’t a one-time process. It’s important to regularly analyze user behavior and collect feedback to make necessary adjustments. After all, user behaviors change and content may need updating to improve customer experiences.

Localize your website with Smartling’s all-in-one platform

Website localization means more than just translating text. It means creating a seamless, culturally relevant experience for users in every market you serve. By investing in a thoughtful localization strategy, brands can build trust, improve user engagement, and drive global growth. 

Businesses can rely on Smartling’s suite of translation tools to streamline website localization. Smartling’s Global Delivery Network (GDN) translation proxy, for example, makes it easy to deliver multilingual website experiences—without needing to create entirely new versions of your site—saving you valuable time and money as you expand your global reach.

Smartling offers a range of resources to help you build a robust global marketing strategy. Want to make sure your content maintains a consistent brand voice across languages? Download our localization style guide template to create your go-to guidelines for voice and tone.