10 Great Reasons to Translate Your Website

For most companies, a localized website is a must if they want to find new customers and retain existing ones. 

Why? It varies depending on industry, existing global market share, and other factors. But chances are there are at least a few great reasons to translate your website for multilingual and global customers. Here are 10:

1. You want to expand your brand reach.

Targeting multilingual and global markets is a great way to sustain company growth, and localized websites are the best way to reach them. They're key for: 

• Drumming up brand awareness 
• Educating potential customers, distributors, employees, or partners about your brand and its offerings 
• And providing engaging customer experiences by serving new customers in their preferred languages 

Not sure you can handle a translation project while also focusing on your company's needs? Weigh the pros and cons of leveraging internal resources vs. partnering with a 3rd party for website translation. 

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2. Your brand is gaining popularity abroad.

Sometimes your reputation precedes you, and your brand takes off in a new market unexpectedly. If you discover unexpected overseas interest in your products or services, keep the momentum going by translating your website. A survey conducted by the European Commission found that 90% of Internet users in the EU always visit websites in their own language when given the choice. This highlights the importance of translating website content into multiple languages to reach a wider audience and gives consumers a platform to directly engage with your brand.

3. You already do business abroad.

If you're already conducting business beyond your domestic market, it's best practice to provide localized information and support for international customers. Customers are far more likely to do more business with your brand when they can read product descriptions, understand shipping and payment options and transact in the language they're most comfortable in. 

So, what can you expect from translating for new markets? You'll be able to: 

• Establish brand credibility and reputation in new market. Your global customers want to experience your brand in their own language. By helping them navigate your website more easily, they will trust that you have the expertise to provide them with the best outcome. 
• Increase revenue and instantly expand your TAM (total addressable market). The total addressable market is the total revenue opportunity that is available to a business if 100% market share was achieved for a product or service. By translating your website, you can gain instant access to a broader addressable market for every language you offer. 
• Recruit local talent. If your company wishes to establish itself in a new global market, you may need to employ local contractors or well-known figures. Translating your website means not only will you reach them, but they can also reach out to you about brand opportunities.

4. Your competitors aren’t doing it—yet.

Having a translated website can differentiate your brand from the competition. Entering a new market before your rivals can help you gain market share faster and empowers you to set the standards for quality and services that your competitors will have to meet later. 

Here are some things to consider when entering a new market before it has been thoroughly explored: 

• Pace of growth: You will want to consider the pace at which you'll likely grow in the new market. This will help you adequately prepare for rapid growth and keep customers happy. 
• Establishing your position: Being first allows you to entrench yourself as a market leader. This makes it harder for competitors to take from your market share by creating a wide moat that establishes you as the incumbent solution. 
• Localizations to new Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP): It is important to localize. Be aware of the different consumer preferences in each new language, and become culturally fluent. This ensures you aren't wasting resources or turning away potential customers by clashing with local customs. Your ideal customer profile (ICP) may change, and you need to adapt to that.

5. Your competitors are already doing it.

Your competition may already be serving online customers in their preferred languages. To be relevant in those markets, you should translate your website, too. Luckily, there are translation solutions that get you in new markets fast, with brand-perfect translations that can give you an edge in UX and customer experience. 

By following in competitors’ footsteps, you can access information about: 

• What languages you should target. If your competition is translating its content into Chinese and Greek, that could hint at a specific need within the Chinese and Greek communities for your company as well. 
• What languages you should avoid. You don’t want to waste your time and money on translations that don’t lead to more revenue or better customer retention.

6. The law demands it.

Sometimes translation is more than just best practice. In some markets and industries, it's a legal requirement. Certain countries and regions have laws and regulations requiring language access for those who need it. Failing to meet these regulations won't just result in lost business, but in penalties and fines, too. 

Not sure if this applies to your business? See if you might be subject to fines, lawsuits, or even incarceration by neglecting your non-English speaking customers.

7. The data suggests it.

Examine your website analytics. You can easily access data which can reveal untapped markets that can be better served with multilingual websites. Here are some important data points to consider when deciding if your customers may need translations: 

• Besides your domestic market, where else is visitor traffic coming from?  
• Are global visitors spending time navigating your site, or are they bouncing?  
• Are they converting? Can they convert? 
• If you translate for a secondary market, for example the US Hispanic population, will you also attract customers from other countries like Spain or Colombia? How lucrative is that? 

If you are experiencing frequent bouncing and visitors outside of your intended market, you could benefit from website translation and a greater conversion rate.

8. You want the SEO benefits.

Your website is more than a platform for customers to engage and transact with your brand. You also reap SEO benefits from online content, which boosts search rankings and organic traffic.  

Website translation can help with SEO in several ways: 

• Increases visibility in search engines: Translating your website into multiple languages can help your website appear in search results for those languages, leading to more traffic and potentially more customers. 
• Improves user experience: When users visit your website in their native language, they are more likely to engage with your content and stay on your website longer. This can improve your website's bounce rate and increase user engagement. 

• Builds backlinks: Translating your website can also increase the likelihood of receiving backlinks from other websites in different languages. These backlinks can improve your website's authority and ranking in search results. 
• Expands your target audience: Translating your website can help you reach a wider audience in different countries and regions. This can increase the potential for conversions and revenue, as well as brand awareness. 

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9. You want a boost in traffic and revenue.

Global users who can't read your website won't find you, and if they don't find you, they won't convert. According to a study by Common Sense Advisory, businesses that translated their content saw a 1.5% increase in revenue compared to those that did not. 

Making your content available in new languages will attract new customers, increase your website traffic, and ultimately lead to conversions. Conversions need not be limited to on-site transactions, but lead generations and on-site engagement are also meaningful. Even non-transactional websites benefit from translation in the form of completed contact forms, informational downloads, and a reduced amount of customer support call centers.  

10. You want to deliver a world-class customer experience.

Giving your multilingual and global customers an authentic online experience is the best reason to translate your website and can incorporate any or all the reasons above. 

When you want to make new customers aware of your brand, support offerings you already provide, or do a better job of serving a market than your competitors, you do so by giving customers a CX that's just as good as your origin website's. Your customers don't just deserve that stellar experience-they expect it. Don't let them down. 

Conclusion 

Did any of these reasons stand out to you? Get fast and easy website translation using a combination of artificial intelligence, translation memory, and algorithmic translation. MotionPoint’s Adaptive Translation™ delivers human-quality translations while saving you up to 60%.

Curious For More? Sign up for AdaptiveCon a Webinar on The Future of Website Translation in Light of AI, June 13th. Register here!