Are Translation and Localization the Same?
Learn the difference between website translation and website localization and why you need both for global success.
 18 Min. Read |  Jessica Rivera |  March 14, 2025 |
| 18 Min. Read | Jessica Rivera | March 14, 2025 |
To reach new global markets, it is critical to translate your website to communicate with new customers in their preferred languages. While website translation helps attract international visitors, combining translation and localization is what truly fosters genuine connections and drives higher conversion rates.
Many people use "translation" and "localization" interchangeably, but they are not the same. Both processes help businesses expand internationally, yet each serves a different role in delivering an optimal user experience. Without effectively "speaking" your audience's language-both literally and culturally-how can you engage them successfully?
While translation and localization offer similar functionalities, there are essential differences between them. Understanding what distinguishes these terms, processes, and services, helps you extend the reach of your website more efficiently and profitably. To understand how website translation and localization services differ, you need to define the two concepts.
The concept of website translation is very straightforward. Website translation is the process of adapting your website content from its original language into other languages, often word-for-word, to make it accessible to global customers. Translated content mirrors the style and tone of source content but doesn’t consider the context.
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Website localization services go beyond a word-for-word translation experience. It involves refining website content through culture, language, and flow to provide users with the most valuable and relevant experience. Localization considers language dialects used in a target region or country and adapts all website content elements for local or regional consumption. The localization method modifies the language and website elements to appeal to the linguistic and cultural preferences of the target customers.
There are several elements of website localization that are important to consider when deciding how to develop a multilingual website:
While translation is one aspect of localization, localizing website content is a fundamental next step after translation. Therefore, the two concepts are important for multilingual website development, both as standalone concepts and together.
Transcreation is a creative way of translating a message from one language to another. It keeps the same tone, style, and context, and makes sure the original meaning is not lost. The goal of transcreation is to recreate the message in a way that resonates with the target audience and maintains cultural relevance.
Transcreation is useful in advertising, marketing, and branding to adapt campaigns and slogans to different cultures and languages. Unlike traditional translation, transcreation allows more freedom in the creative process by using cultural research and adaptation to ensure that it is appropriate and relevant.
When travelling to another country, it’s helpful to know simple phrases in the local language such as "please," "thank you," and "how much". But if you weren’t fluent in the language, you probably became frustrated by your inability to communicate in other situations.
Your target market may face a similar challenge when interacting with your business online. They need a website that "speaks their language" so they can easily grasp what you're conveying. There's no room for frustration or confusion. If they experience friction, they'll often leave your site before converting.
Websites presented in local languages yield better market responses than those that aren't. According to Common Sense Advisory, nearly 73% of customers prefer to purchase a product or service from a site that provides information in their own language, and 56% of consumers said the ability to obtain information in their own language is more important than price.
So, why should you localize your website? In a nutshell, while translation is vital, it will only get you so far.
Your global customers can not experience friction when they visit your website. If they do, they'll abandon it.
Machine translation (like Google Translate) is cost-effective for basic translations, but it lacks cultural and contextual accuracy. It also doesn't generate SEO-friendly, indexable pages, limiting organic traffic potential.
Human translation, on the other hand, ensures nuance, accuracy, and cultural appropriateness. Combining AI-powered tools with human review often yields the best results.
Google Translate also doesn’t create searchable, indexable versions of those translated pages, which is important from an SEO standpoint.
Website localization goes beyond the word-for-word linguistic conversion of conventional translation and instead uses words and phrases that resonate within specific markets.
Region-neutral translations are very effective, but localization is more persuasive to many multilingual customers.
For instance, consider the differences between the words "trousers" and "slacks." The terms are identical in meaning, but one resonates far better in the UK than in the United States.
But website localization can go beyond word choice. Savvy marketers often customize their multilingual websites to highlight local holidays, celebrations, or customs. This illustrates fluency in a local market's culture, quickly generating customer trust.
Other examples of localization include creating special promotions for specific markets or crafting unique, trust-building messaging to establish credibility in brand-new markets.
In the early days of serving a multilingual market, it was not uncommon for a company to be greeted with local skepticism. Local customers often wonder how committed a company is to the market and its needs. When brands use localized content, they don't appear opportunistic - they appear authentic.
Website translation technology does not consider the nuances of your chosen language, your website, app, or marketing content may present differently. Website localization includes things like layout adjustment, reading technique, and word count.
For instance, certain romance languages like French and Spanish need about 30% more words than English to get the same message across. Conversely, Finnish actually requires 30–40% fewer words. Website translation only deals with the language, but localization makes sure copy looks right.
At this point you're probably asking yourself: should I invest in translation or localization for my website? Both options differ on a strategic level, so the answer may not be black and white. Simple translation may be appropriate for some content types in specific markets. Localization is most often required for adapting highly emotive creative marketing content so it clearly resonates across regions.
Websites usually contain several content types, from marketing copy to legal and technical information and user-generated forum content. For reasons of efficiency and cost, consider which types of content require localization and where you can simply ask for translation. Website translation and localization help you connect with your target audience and reach them on a more personal level.
Translation alone can be helpful to address many people who speak the same language, even though they may originally come from different countries. Translating broadly enables readers to grasp messaging, regardless of their origin. This phenomenon frequently happens in the United States with people who speak the same language, such as Spanish.
While the U.S. has Spanish speakers from many different parts of the world, they embrace varying sets of cultural nuances, phrases, and dialects. In this case, a well-crafted, broader translation would purposefully avoid using regional phrases or words from any specific country and acknowledge the broader Spanish market in the localized, U.S. market.
Translation alone is a less expensive option. Some web pages or translation jobs are not so important that they require human translation. MotionPoint may use machine translation for one page and human translation for other, more important pages.
Localization creates more cohesion, but it is more costly. Localization also requires content verbiage translation upkeep and considers web design as well. That can include changing graphics or developing entirely new web pages, depending on the target language and cultural differences from the original website.
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Localization would benefit you most if:
MotionPoint looks at business needs and can tailor website translations or localizations (or, more often, the blending of both). Here are several case studies that highlight how the needs of a company can determine how a single website can develop into robust, multilingual websites to address customers and help businesses grow.
Master Lock, a leading U.S. manufacturer of retail and commercial security and safety products, needed both website translation and localization when they began expanding globally. Localized websites offer a true strategic value for Master Lock. Distributors and sales teams utilize the Master Lock website to gather product information for regional customers, and customers can also access Master Lock's comprehensive online product and service information. Additionally, Master Lock’s websites change regularly, based on frequent updates when a new product or segment is rolled out, so accurate translations are critical for the business. To date, Master Lock has translated and localized websites that are supported in Chinese Simplified, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Rio Bank is a community bank with branches throughout the heart of Southern Texas, many of them near the Mexican border. Business was growing, but Rio Bank found they weren't getting adequate customer feedback important for marketing and customer service. When a customer survey was developed in Spanish and feedback increased sharply, Rio Bank quickly realized the need for better communication with their Spanish-speaking customers. So Rio Bank asked MotionPoint to translate their website and create an immersive, dual-language experience for all clients. Translating their website yielded increased customer satisfaction instantly, where more than 90% of their customers speak Spanish.
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Expanding into new markets requires accurate translation and engaging localization. If your website doesn't feel native to your target audience, you risk losing potential customers.
MotionPoint understands that publishing market-relevant localization across multilingual websites is more challenging than it sounds. It requires powerful website translation technology to customize website code to present the appropriate localized content to the right customers. It demands translation-management technologies that easily publish, track, and update customized content.
It also requires world-class translators who are fluent in languages, cultures, and customs. MotionPoint helps your business find the solutions you need for anywhere you want your business to be in the world.
