Multilingual Website: Reasons Why Your Business Needs It

Should you publish multilingual versions of your website, or offer other multi-language options? Once upon a time, these were options that only large companies considered or those who were breaking ground in foreign lands. Now, there are compelling reasons to have a multilingual website, whatever the size of your business or where you operate.

You’ll Make It Easier for Customers to Interact With You as You Expand

If you expand into foreign markets, having a multilingual website makes it that much easier for customers in new territories to interact with your brand. Without compensating for any language barrier, they can simply hop online to consume your content. Plus, they can more easily browse your products and engage with you and your followers. Even if it is common for people to also speak your native language in a particular area, communicating with them in theirs removes a significant amount of friction from the engagement process.

It Allows You to Grow Around Your Competition

There are many ways to neutralize your competition. For example, you can do things better. You can do things less expensively. If you adopt a multi-language approach to your online presence, you do something that is easy and inexpensive. You simply, and quietly, do something that your competitors are not doing. As a result, you reach out to potential audiences that they are missing entirely.

You Can Increase Your Sales

Every time you publish anything online, you increase your chances of landing more traffic and sales. This is true whether it’s a landing page, a microsite, or simply giving visitors an opportunity to select the language they would like to use when they’re on your multilingual website. When a customer realizes they can place orders, for example, in their native language, that increases the likelihood that they will take action such as making a purchase.

Internet Adoption Is Growing Worldwide

While the Internet may have initially been created with English-speaking audiences in mind, things are rapidly changing. It’s still true that English is the most widely used language for website content. However, it’s only used in a bit more than half of the websites published today. The remaining percentage is taken up by content written and published in other languages.

This will only increase as overall Internet use increases worldwide. As developing nations and others continue to increase Internet adoption, more content will be written in different languages.

Even Customers at Home May Prefer Different Language Options

People may assume that they only need online translation services if they sell products or do business on foreign soil. That’s not always the case. The customers you have, right now, right where you are, may benefit if you were to offer them multilingual web pages.

Keep in mind that there are households, neighborhoods, communities, even towns where a large number of people communicate in a different language. Even those who are quite fluent in yours might prefer to do business in their native language. Pay particular attention if you do business in areas where there are immigrant neighborhoods or communities that are close to borders.

Searchability and Multilingual SEO

Did you know that a professional translation agency can help you boost your SEO and help to ensure that you show up in search engine results in different languages? Think about it. First, there are search engines beyond Google, Bing, and Yahoo that are huge in other regions. Imagine trending on search engines that are popular in China. Even if you choose to focus only on the standard three search engines for optimization, you can increase your SEO and get better rankings if you can begin to rank for keywords in other languages.

You Will Increase Brand Recognition

People anywhere in the world instantly recognize a can of Coke. This is the result of more than a century of global marketing efforts. By creating a multilingual website and using a website localization service, you can accomplish the same, albeit at a smaller level. When customers are attracted to your website because you communicate in their language, they see your products. They read your messaging and begin to get to know your brand. This leads to more brand recognition and engagement.

Being Multilingual Boosts Customer Trust and Confidence

The ability to learn about products and interact in their own language is a big trust and confidence booster. As a matter of fact, customers are actually willing to pay more for that privilege. Even if you don’t roll out fully multilingual versions of your site, you can still translate landing pages and product descriptions. If you also provide multilingual help text and order forms and ensure your checkout process is fully translated you’ll further boost customer confidence.

Conclusion

Increased sales, more engagement, trust, SEO, and a competitive edge: These are just a few reason you should consider translating your website. Now more than ever, reaching out to customers in their own language is important. Whether you translate your entire site or simply a few pages, you are likely to reap some real benefits from making that choice.

About the Author

Margaret is a freelance writer at Writersquad.co.uk who is seeking to discover new ways for personal and professional growth. Currently she’s working in the company The Word Point and trying to improve herself in the blogging career. She is an experienced and self-driven specialist who cannot imagine her life without writing.