14 04 2017
Localize. Don’t translate.
If you are planning to go global, start with website localization in the language of your most potential market. One way of judging this is by analyzing sales from countries where you are getting orders despite the fact that your website in English has no significance in such market.
Why Localization?
More and more people are accessing the Internet for Product and service information. Availability of Smartphone at affordable prices and speed of ‘connectivity on the go’ is a great contributor for a growth of Internet throughout the world.
You are no more in the protected world. Global brands huge opportunities to expand into new markets and compete with local brands. To stay on top on various searches, multi-lingual website with linguistic SEO is done for each region.
Website translation without localization does not attract an audience as it reads foreign compared to content written with region specific flavor.
Advantages of website Localization
- Volume and Reach: Website localization in multiple languages enables you to go beyond boundaries and add new visitors.
- Competitive Edge: Website Localization in multiple languages give you a competitive edge, as you are perceived global with local connect.
- Penetrate new markets: Website Localization in multiple languages helps you to penetrate a new market where English is not the preferred language by Internet Users.
- Culturally Connect: Website Localization in multiple languages helps you to connect culturally and make a right impact as you speak their language.
- Cost effective: Website Localization is one of the surest ways to go beyond boundaries and is the most cost effective solution.
What Languages for website Localization?
Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, Russian, German and Spanish are the official languages in the top 10 countries with the highest number of Internet users. Website translation and localization in these languages will attract new potential customers who prefer to browse in their local language.
The table below indicates that English is not the official language in 7 out of the top 10 countries.
Top 10 countries with highest number of Internet Users – June 30, 2016
| Country | Internet Users | Internet Penetration | Official Language |
| China | 721,434,547 | 52.3% | Chinese |
| India | 462,124,989 | 36.5% | English & Hindi |
| United States | 286,942.362 | 88.6% | English |
| Brazil | 139,111,185 | 67.5% | Portuguese |
| Indonesia | 132,700,000 | 51.4% | Indonesian |
| Japan | 115,111,595 | 91.0% | Japanese |
| Russia | 103,147,691 | 70.5% | Russian |
| Nigeria | 97,210,000 | 52.0% | English |
| Germany | 71,727,551 | 88.9% | German |
| Mexico | 69,000,000 | 56.0% | Spanish |
The table below indicates that English has limited reach in the global market.
Top 10 native language speakers among Internet Users – June 30, 2016 
Source: world Internet stats. Internet users by language as on June 2016
Identify your market and culturally connect with a vast majority of a customer whose mother tongue is not English, by website localization in multiple languages.
Shakti Enterprise, the most preferred language solutions provider with for over 30 years and done website localization in most Indian Languages for Corporate Giants like India tourism, BSNL, HERO Motors, TATA group, Aditya Birla Group etc, will help you in choosing the language combination that best fits your immediate and future goals.
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