There’s nothing like a personal touch, and localization illustrates this on a massive scale. The process adapts text and content (often through translation and interpretation) to a new language, locale, or group, and has become a very widespread practice in the digital sphere. Most commonly, we see it applied to websites and apps.
For example, you might notice that when you travel abroad, a familiar website looks different or shows other options. With app localization, you might even be able to download a new version of the software.
If thousands of businesses are doing localization, there must be a good reason, right? Let’s take a look at 5 great reasons why localization might be a good choice for your digital platforms.
1. Increased traffic
When you create localized content, it’s quite like creating a new path next to a trail that many people walk: eventually, more and more will try this path and make it more pronounced. Essentially, now that you begin providing content that more people understand, more of them should stick around and try your services.
2. Earning goodwill
As long as your localized content is sensitive to cultural and linguistic norms, it should create a lot of goodwill for your company and boost its reputation. People in developing companies tend to be particularly excited when a globally-popular product or service reaches their market, and they see this act of localization as an endorsement of their region. As you might guess, this goodwill translates perfectly to word-of-mouth praise and an uptick in business simply as what users see as a way to reward your investment.
3. Google approves
Think about how many clicks, views, and sales you have missed just because users haven’t been able to find your platforms. If you want your website/app to be highly ranked in a particular country, it is only natural to follow the rules and algorithms of the locale. And of course, one of the basic tendencies is that a search made in a particular language will prioritize content in this language.
4. Legal compliance
Occasionally, localization is something that a company must do if they want to comply with regulations. We see this all the time with intellectual property (like films, games, etc.) only becoming licensed and accessible in certain countries after the content undergoes localization. Thus, you may find yourself needing to localize if you want to avoid paying hefty fees or termination/obstructions to your services.
5. Competitive edge
Localization can be a huge advantage if you’re the first to provide tailored content among a field of competitors. Even if your competitors’ services/products are better in some way, the fact that you make the experience clear and understandable to users will be a game-changer that many will prioritize. And by the time your competitors follow suit and perform their own localizations, you would have already chewed off a large portion of the market share.
Though localizing can be a lengthy process, the benefits certainly outweigh the challenges, and this is worth looking at for every company with a global presence.