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Conquering global markets with localised website translations

To ensure that translated web texts are successful in an international context, they must be linguistically and culturally appropriate to the conditions of the foreign-language target markets. This creates greater customer proximity and builds trust. Apostroph has many years of experience in localising website translations and helps your message get more attention – everywhere.

 

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What you should know

  • Localising a website means adapting it to the customs, rituals and situation of a country or target market so that it works well within the local cultural context.
  • Localisations include text content, but also design elements such as text length, fonts and font sizes and the use of images and colours.
  • The objective of a localisation is to create an authentic user experience: users should feel understood and at home when they visit your website.

Thinking locally for global success

It sounds like a paradox, but it makes sense: if a company wants to be globally successful and expand into foreign-language markets, it must think locally when it comes to its presence.

For websites in particular, it is of crucial importance that users feel at home, that is, are provided with useful and relevant information in a manner that is familiar to them.

Processes and workflows – using agility to achieve more effective results

Let’s assume that you want to publish news on an international website: how do you make sure that you can publish in all languages as close to simultaneously as possible? 

This can only be done with a well-thought-out workflow.

More and more, agile processes are establishing themselves in translation workflows, just like in website development. And for good reason: a website is not a ‘finished product’, but rather an ongoing process that is never truly done. As a result, the content gets passed back and forth between developers, designers, editors and translators on an ongoing basis. 

The advantages of agile translation are self-evident: all the parties involved can work independently from one another – and that saves time and money.

Intelligent interfaces save time

We have many interfaces that we can connect directly to your CMS. Just a few clicks is all it takes for your order to arrive at Apostroph.

Language – where the truth is found

Language plays no small part in establishing familiarity and thus credibility. But even if countries and regions share a language, there are still differences – some significant and some subtle: the English spoken in the United Kingdom is different from the English spoken in the United States or Australia, for instance. Germans use different turns of phrase than Austrians or the Swiss. And the Spanish use terms differently than the Spanish speakers living in the countries of Central and South America. So localisation means translating content in such a way that people in a specific region feel like the target audience.

In addition, adapting a text to the local circumstances also includes observing formal and legal requirements – especially in the business world. This can impact:

  • Date and time formatting
  • Measurements and weights
  • Telephone numbers and contact addresses

Design – when white is not white

But language is not the only factor in familiarity. Other cultural content is perceived and understood in entirely different ways from region to region. This can include:

  • Shapes and colours
  • Pictures and symbols
  • Values and convictions
  • Rituals and etiquette
  • Myths and humour

This can be clearly demonstrated using the example of colour: white, in Western cultures for instance, is associated with purity, perfection and innocence, but also with isolation. By contrast, white is the colour of sorrow and mourning in some Asian countries.

Colours can therefore have a significant emotional and psychological impact on people. Colours can convey messages – they, too, ‘speak a language.’

This is all to show that localisation goes far beyond merely translating text and – in addition to the content of the text – must also take the content design into consideration.

google search engine-seo translations

We know how to feed search engines properly

On request, we optimise your web texts for the relevant search engines. Together with you, our trained SEO team defines the central keywords. We use state-of-the-art software to determine the best hits in the individual target languages. In addition, we check the readability as well as the sentence and text length.

With a proper website localisation, you will leave an impression on your readers and, with the right keywords, also on the search engine.

 

About SEO translations

words on a wall

Five steps to website localisation

  • Include localisation in the concept phase of the website 
  • Prioritise target markets, for example by using website access numbers
  • Filter out content relevant for the target country – and ignore the rest
  • Take texts into account – as well as the visual context such as colours, images and videos 
  • Keep the content up to date – on the main page and the translated country pages

More success with localised website translation

Websites that are translated in a targeted manner open up access to international markets. It is essential that the messages are concise, perfect in terms of style and appealing so that they are read with pleasure by the target audience.

Our experienced language professionals know their way around web texts and always strike the right note. As they translate exclusively into their native language, we guarantee you a linguistically polished web presence from the home page and product descriptions to the formulation of your company philosophy.

  • Translation and localisation of websites for international use
  • Translations directly from the content management system
  • Simplified data transfer processes thanks to connectivity solutions
  • Smooth workflows for content updates
  • Search-engine-optimised texts and translations
  • Various supported web formats such as HTML, XML and Java Properties

 

Effective localisation for strong acceptance in the target market

The basis for successful multilingual communication is localisation. On the one hand, this requires that the translation is geared to the culture of the region. On the other hand, highly developed localisation tools are needed to adapt the multilingual website, products and software to the target market.

With an in-depth localisation strategy, your company will communicate authentically in every language and your website content will win over your stakeholders in other countries and regions as well as those in the domestic market.

 

SEO – how localisation increases organic traffic

A case study from SearchPilot shows the impact that localisation can have. An online fashion shop increased its organic traffic by 24% by adapting its texts for the US market. British English terms had originally been used, which were apparently not properly understood by the majority of American users. 

Do you have any questions? Would you like to work with us?

I would be delighted to introduce you to Apostroph Germany and its services in person.
Ute Schneider
Head of Sales and Customer Service
Ute Scheider Apostrophgroup

The advantages of our website translations at a glance:

  • Advice and processing by specialised language technology experts
  • Interface connection for simplified translation management
  • Style-assured language professionals who are familiar with website translations
  • SEO-compliant translation
  • Localised translations that adapt to cultural aspects
  • Consideration of corporate wording
  • High translation quality thanks to native speakers

 

Any questions?

Essentially, we accept all formats. Files that cannot be edited – including PDFs, for example – are converted. If you are unsure whether we can process your format, just ask us.

You are welcome to request a free test translation or a style sample from us.

Yes, that’s possible, but an export from your system to ours would be better. That’s the only way we can take technological savings into account and ensure consistency in company terminology.

We would be happy to advise you on interfaces in person.

We have a wide range of solutions for system connections. We establish a secure connection to all relevant CMS, editing systems, PIM, sourcing platforms and company-specific systems via apoCONNECTORS, API connections or hot folders. We also support other market-relevant tools. If you would like to find out more, please contact us.

Find out more about interfaces

Because innovation plays a crucial role in our company, we are constantly developing new solutions to further optimise translation processes. This includes state-of-the-art translation management systems and interfaces to CMS, PIM, editorial or company-specific systems. On request – and where appropriate – we can also implement machine translation. With our apoAI, we offer outstanding translation quality, which enables lean or even fully automatic processes, thus making handling more efficient and cost-effective.

Find out more about optimising translation processes

Technology savings can be achieved by using repetitions within a text from previous translations. This is made possible by translation memory technology, which memorises passages and terms and suggests them when appropriate. This reduces the translators’ time and effort without compromising on quality. We pass on the resulting savings to you in the form of a discount.

We are one of the leading suppliers in this field. With our proprietary company solution apoAI, we have a neural machine translation system which is capable of learning and which backs up all data in Switzerland in accordance with ISO 27001. Machine translations can be purchased in combination with post-editing services, as raw data or fully automated on a monthly subscription basis.

FAQ

Achieving goals together

  • Your projects in the best hands

    We work with single points of contact. As a result, you will be looked after by a highly experienced contact person who takes your needs into account and keeps you up to date at all times.

  • We speak your language

    Depending on the project, we put together specific teams of internal and external experts who are well versed in your corporate language.

  • Language intelligence

    Our in-house IT and development department ensures the clever use of technologies so that man and machine are in harmony in an intelligent way.