6 Tips for Website Localization

网站本地化的6个窍门

2020-03-06 21:23 XTM International

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Customers are far more likely to buy a product from a website in their native language. Common Sense Advisory provides convincing evidence for website localization: 75% of respondents stated they are more likely to purchase online when the accompanying content is presented in their native language. These days, many businesses recognize the need for localization, but lack the awareness of its key ingredients. Let’s take a closer look at these elements. 1. Identify the target market First things first, you need to know which markets will be the most fruitful for your business. This requires research: you need to discover which locales will bring the greatest ROI or engaged audience. If you don’t know where to start, you could check where your website traffic is coming from, which markets your competitors are in, and based on this, assess the demand. If you just throw darts randomly at a map, it’s unlikely you will spend your localization budget efficiently. 2. Create a localization team Website localization is a collaborative effort of dedicated stakeholders from various fields, such as marketing, sales, localization, IT, procurement, etc. Without salespeople on board, ROI calculations or market trends predictions are difficult. You may also need in-house country reviewers to check the localization before going live. Putting the team together may require considerable legwork, but it will pay dividends in the end as every member can make a valuable contribution. 3. Use translation management software (TMS) The task of localizing a large number of files into many languages, with multiple stakeholders, and vendors can quickly become too overwhelming to manage, particularly when you operate in an agile environment. Translation management software will help by providing you with a central hub for all your linguistic assets, simplifying workflow planning, resource allocation, and file handling. With software localization, it’s easy to coordinate projects with multiple vendors while progressing the job through the workflow. If you want to shorten your turnaround time without sacrificing quality and consistency, a translation management system is essential. 4. Connect your CMS with your Translation Management System Companies that produce frequent updates of their content and require a fast time to market, should consider integrating their content management system (CMS) with their translation management system (TMS). By doing this, selecting, transferring, and updating content for translation can take place automatically, thus avoiding manual file exchange and reducing email exchanges. The bottom line is that this integration not only accelerates localization, but also keeps administration, human errors, and costly rework at bay. XTM connectors for the leading CMSs, , such as WordPress, Sitecore or Drupal can help you automate your content localization. 5. Make it SEO-wise What’s the point of reaching out to customers with your localized online product or service if they can’t find it? Here’s the solution: outsource keyword search to in-country SEO experts instead of translating them. After all, the local SEO experts have a better idea of which keywords local customers are using. Once the research is done, you can include local keywords in the content and in the URL address. 6. Test for top-notch results When your website has been localized for a new market, you need to make sure that translation quality and website functionality are impeccable. This is why linguistic and functional tests are conducted. During linguistic tests, reviewers check if culturally-sensitive information, such as measurement units, dates, and currency, adheres to the local standards. The purpose of functional testing is to ensure that the website displays correctly across devices and browsers. In short, adequate testing gives you a bug-free release saving your time, money, and rework. Conclusion To sum up, an expertly localized website can be a goldmine for your business. It will earn you the trust of customers which you can monetize regardless of geographical boundaries. To make your website successful, be sure to incorporate the above points into your website localization strategy. In case you need a helping hand in the process of using software localization, you can always lean on the XTM experts. Contact them to see how the award-winning XTM Cloud can support you in your next project.
消费者更加可能从语言是其母语的网站购买产品。卡门森思顾问为网站本地化提供了令人信服的证据:75%的受访者表示,当网站附带的内容以他们的母语呈现时,他们更有可能网上购物。如今,许多企业认识到本地化的必要性,但却缺乏对其关键因素的认识。下面就让我们来仔细看看吧。 1. 确定目标市场 首先,你需要知道哪些市场对你的生意最有利,这需要调查研究:你需要发现哪些地方将带来最大的投资回报率或参与度。如果你不知道如何开始,可以先看看你的网站流量归属地,竞争对手在哪个市场,基于此,再评估需求。如果你只是像在地图上随性扔飞镖那样,那么你投入在本地化的预算可能不能物尽其用。 2. 创建本地化团队 网站本地化是需要多方合作,涉及来自不同领域的利益相关者,如营销、销售、本地化、IT、采购等。如果没有销售人员,很难计算最大收益率或预测市场趋势预测会。你可能还需要国家内部的审查员在上线之前检查本地化进程。将团队放在一起可能需要大量的跑腿工作,但终会有回报,因为每个成员都可以做出有价值的贡献。 3.使用翻译管理软件(TMS) 将大量文件本地化为多种语言、涉及多个利益相关者和供应商,这一任务很快就会变得难以管理和进行,特别是在敏捷环境中工作的时候。翻译管理软件将帮助你为所有语言资产提供一个中央枢纽,简化工作流规划、资源分配和文件处理。通过软件本地化,能轻易地与多个供应商协调项目,同时还可以通过工作流提升工作效率。如果你想缩短周转时间的同时又不牺牲质量和一致性,那么翻译管理系统是必不可少的。 4. 将内容管理系统(CMS)与翻译管理系统连接起来 产品更新频繁并需要快速上市的公司应该考虑集成其内容管理系统(CMS)与翻译管理系统(TMS)。这样,能够自动选择、传输和更新需要翻译的内容,从而避免手动交换文件和减少电邮来往。集成上述两个系统,不仅可以加快本地化效率,同时也能很好地控制管理成本、人为错误和损失巨大的返工。领先CMSs的XTM连接器,如WordPress、Sitecore或Drupal,可以帮助你自动完成本地化工作。 5.搜索引擎优化(SEO) 如果客户找不到你提供的本地化在线产品或服务,那你接触他们的意义何在?解决方案如下:对于关键字搜索,不进行翻译,而是外包给国内其他SEO专家,毕竟,本地SEO专家更加了解本地客户会使用哪些关键词。一旦研究完成,你可以在内容和URL地址中包含本地关键字。 6.测试出最好的搜索结果 当为一个新市场而本地化你的网站时,你需要确保翻译质量和网站的功能是无可挑剔的。这就是要进行语言和功能测试的原因。在语言测试中,评审员会检查文化敏感信息,如测量单位、日期和货币,是否符合当地标准。功能测试的目的是确保网站在不同设备和浏览器上正确显示。简而言之,多次测试可以确保网站没有bug,从而节约你的时间、金钱、避免返工 结论 总而言之,经过专业本地化过的网站能为你的生意“吸金”,还能帮助你赢得客户的信任,从而获得盈利,不受国界限制。要使你的网站成功,一定要把以上几点纳入网站本地化战略之中。如果你在此过程中需要帮助,可以咨询XTM的专家,联系他们,看看屡获殊荣的XTM云如何在你的下一个项目中大展身手。 译后编辑:杨安训 (中山大学)

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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