How to Conduct Website Localization: A Step-by-Step Guide

Website localization refers to the process of adapting a website's content, language, design, and functionality to fit the cultural, linguistic, and technical needs of a specific target market, ensuring it resonates with the local audience.

It’s so effective that the Localization Industry Standards Association  (LISA) found that, on average, every €1 spent on localizing your website yields €25 in return.

While language makes up a large part of the website localization process, brands looking to enter global markets must go beyond translation to make sure they communicate effectively and meaningfully. This includes paying particular attention to cultural differences, language nuances, website internationalization, and even payment methods.

Combine all these factors together, and you’ll improve the overall user experience for your target markets and make your foreign market entry as smooth as possible.  

To find out more, let’s take a look at how to manage your website localization strategy effectively. But first, why should you put your marketing efforts into site localization when looking to go global?

1. Preparing for Website Localization

It’s time to build your website localization strategy.

But what’s in a localization strategy? It includes how you plan to adapt your marketing, products, and services to a particular audience. Essentially, this is every touchpoint you’ll have with your audience.

Your market research will have told you:

• the languages your target audience speaks
• the colloquial language and slang they use
• cultural and social norms
• the most relevant celebrities or figures
• pop culture references

Integrating this into your messaging and offering will tell your audience that you do, in fact, have a current pulse on what they engage with daily. Even better, your localization efforts show that you understand them better than other companies (foreign or local)

Let’s take a look at Coca-Cola’s global website compared to their Australian site.

‍

Their global website delivers a general message that works across all markets. However, the Australian website features a localized approach, using imagery – like bottles of Coca-Cola cooled by ice on scorching sand – to align with the local culture. This simple change connects their product with the everyday experiences of their audience, demonstrating the importance of cultural context in localization.

The goal of website localization is to enter new markets effectively, but this requires deep market research to understand the local audience’s preferences, behaviors, and cultural nuances. Without this research, your efforts may fall flat, as your brand might come across as unfamiliar or disconnected from the local market.

A strong example of successful localization is how Netflix entered the Indian market. Instead of just translating existing content, they conducted extensive research to create original, region-specific shows and movies. They also adapted their marketing campaigns, pricing strategies, and payment options to meet the unique needs of the Indian audience, making their offering more relatable and accessible.

Similarly, Airbnb tailored its platform by focusing on cultural preferences and local regulations in each market. They didn’t just translate the site – they ensured the website featured local payment methods, was available in multiple languages, and showcased region-specific accommodations. This research-driven approach allowed them to build trust and connect with local users.

To achieve the same results, businesses need to invest in thorough market research before embarking on a localization strategy. This includes analyzing cultural preferences, language nuances, local regulations, and payment behaviors to create a personalized, culturally relevant experience for each market.

‍

Website localization can be notoriously complex. Putting together a team to streamline this process will undoubtedly improve your workflow.

An example team could include linguists or translators, developers, designers, localization managers, QA engineers, marketers, and more and a breakdown of roles within a localization team could look like the following:

• A localization manager to oversee the overall project. Their goal is to delegate tasks, monitor the progress, and ensure everyone is on the same page
• A designer who can easily adapt your branding guidelines to your target audience, creating websites and designs that reflect a localized version of your brand
• Translators to improve the accuracy and relevance of your translated, localized content.
• Quality Assurance (QA) engineers who can thoroughly test your localized website and ensure it works properly.
• A customer support team that speaks the locale’s language; ideally, you’d have one in different regions per area you plan to target.

However, not everyone can afford to assemble a localization team, especially if you don’t have the numbers to confirm your potential for international growth.

That’s where a website translation solution like Weglot can be helpful: you can localize your entire website for a fraction of the time and money you would spend on a traditional localization team.

Learn more about Weglot and how it can be implemented in your website localization strategy.

2. Technical Aspects of Website Localization

Website internationalization is the process of ensuring your website is technically ready to host and display the proper translated content to your target audience.

It involves more than fully translating your website into your target audience’s preferred language. For example, it involves correctly displaying naming conventions, currencies, and date formats.

Here’s what you need to consider when internationalizing your website:

1. Site Architecture

Your website architecture must be configured to allow search engines to distinguish between different language versions of your site.

If not set up properly, search engines might treat these versions as duplicate content, leading to poor visibility in search results.

Tools like Screaming Frog SEO Spider can help ensure search engines crawl and index the correct language-specific pages. You’ll need to configure your website architecture to ensure that search engines pick up on the different language versions of your website and treat them separately from your main website. Otherwise, they’ll treat them as duplicates, harming your visibility on search engine results.

2. URL Structure

The URL structure of your website plays a vital role in site localization. The structure tells search engines like Google to present your site to specific audiences in specific countries, boosting your visibility in local search results. The right URL structure for your website tells search engines like Google to present that site to a specific audience in a specific country, enabling you to target them effectively.

Here are common URL structures to choose from:

• Country code top-level domain (ccTLD): Example: yourwebsite.fr, which has a French ccTLD. This is best for large companies that need a highly localized presence.
• Subdomain: Example: fr.yourwebsite.com. This works for a more flexible international strategy where you still maintain strong branding consistency.
• Subdirectory or subfolder: Example: yourwebsite.com/fr/. This is ideal for smaller businesses with fewer resources, as it’s easier to manage.

Each structure has its pros and cons, so it’s important to choose one that aligns with your website localization strategy.

Adding hreflang tags to your source code is indispensable to internationalizing your website. They’re HTML attributes search engines use to determine the geographic area and language the page is intended for. They look like this:

<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://www.abc.com/" />

Try searching for “Nike official website” in the UK. The first result will bring you to https://www.nike.com/gb/.

They’re meant to ensure that search engines serve you with the most relevant page tailored to your language and geographic location. After all, you wouldn’t want search engines to serve the Chinese version of your website to a Spanish speaker in Argentina.

3. Content Localization Process

According to Nimdzi, 9 out of 10 international internet users will ignore your product if it isn’t in their local language.

And this isn’t simply because they can’t understand what’s being said. Even 60.6% of people (CSA Research, 2014) with high proficiency in English would rather look up something online in their native language.

The key part of the content localization process for your end user is a fully translated and displayed site for your global audience, which is an unavoidable step in the process. Adding multiple languages to your site will be determined by the initial research you carried out.

But what’s the best way to translate your website content, and how can you ensure your site copy is as natural in your original language as in your target language?

There are 3 types of translation methods to think about.

Machine Translation

This method of translation allows you to translate your site without needing human intervention. It might be quick, but its results are less accurate.

Leading machine translation providers include Google Translate, DeepL, and Microsoft, which provide high-quality translation output. AI translation and automatic translation also fall under this umbrella, and they are both rapidly improving, making it a powerful option for companies looking to scale quickly.

However, for brands looking to connect with customers on a deeper, more personal level, machine translation may require a human touch to ensure quality.

Human Translation

Also known as manual translation, this method offers a highly accurate and contextually appropriate translation, often performed by a professional linguist or native speaker. The result is content that reads naturally and resonates with the local audience.

While it can be time-consuming and costly, human translation is the go-to option for industries where precise, culturally aware language is critical – think legal contracts, medical documentation, or luxury branding.

For businesses prioritizing authentic customer engagement over speed, human translation can make the difference between a generic message and a culturally compelling one.

Machine + Human Translation

Here, you’ll have the best of both worlds. This is often done by using a first layer of machine translation and then having a human edit the output until it reaches the desired level of accuracy.

Companies like Airbnb and Booking.com have perfected this method, using AI translation to handle vast volumes of content while human linguists fine-tune critical pieces like property descriptions and customer support FAQs. The result? A localized experience for users across different countries and languages without sacrificing quality or authenticity!

Alongside the actual words on your site, you’ll need to pay particular attention to other website UX and UI factors, including:

• Adapting images, videos, graphics, and even emojis 😉 to resonate with the target culture.
• Fine-tuning content to suit cultural, religious, or general preferences.
• Modifying website design, layout, and formatting to allow for translated texts that read from right to left.
• Offering pricing in local currencies and numbers in local units of measure.
• Localizing date formats and phone numbers.
• Using the correct naming conventions, as different languages put first and last names in different orders.
• Adhering to local regulations and legal requirements.

4. Cultural Adaptation in Website Localization

When entering new markets, it’s not just language that needs to be localized; cultural nuances play a significant role in how your brand is perceived.

What resonates with one culture may feel alien to another. Understanding local traditions, values, and preferences ensures your message connects with the audience.

For instance, something as simple as using certain gestures, symbols, or even humor can either engage or alienate users based on their cultural background. Netflix and Airbnb are great examples of brands that adapted their offerings to reflect local cultures, allowing them to build trust and success in new markets.

Cultural preferences extend to your site’s visual presentation. For example, colors carry different meanings in different regions. In some cultures, red signifies luck and prosperity, while in others, it can be associated with warnings or danger.

It's crucial to select colors, imagery, and even layout designs that match the cultural expectations of your audience. McDonald's, for example, offers a vegetarian menu featuring items like the McAloo Tikki burger, which is tailored to local tastes.

Interacting with “Faceless MegaCorp (TM)” won’t inspire loyalty. But interacting with an ecommerce brand that understands local customs, holidays, and other quirks will feel much more right and encourage customers to return!

Successful localization also means adapting the user interface (UI) to accommodate different languages and reading patterns. That’s why accounting for multilingual design is crucial to localizing your website. Let’s take Facebook as a good example. Here’s their design for languages that read left to right, like English, German, Indonesian, and more:

Now look at Facebook’s website for Arabic users:

It completely flipped the design to accommodate right-to-left alphabets, like Arabic better.

This is a great example of how adapting website localization strategies goes beyond just translating text—it also involves tailoring the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) to the target culture and language. If you don’t also account for these factors, your translated content won’t successfully reach your intended audience.

Visitors who navigate your website should have the smoothest experience possible. Your website localization efforts will impact this since the UI elements will differ per language.

Depending on your target language and audience, you may need to use other emojis and color combinations to avoid potentially offensive cultural associations. It’s also recommended to adapt your images, especially those representing people, to those that more accurately reflect the different countries you’re targeting.

Let’s take a look at Clarins’ website. The French version features a Caucasian woman.

But on the Japanese version of the site, the women featured are clearly of East Asian descent, resonating with the website visitors.

Remember, your website localization should always include a detailed UI localization strategy, where design elements are adjusted to meet the specific needs of each language. Here are some best practices:

• Text Expansion and Contraction: Different languages may take up more or less space on the page, affecting the layout. Ensure your website is flexible enough to handle these variations.
• Font and Typography: Not all fonts work well in every language. Choose fonts that are readable in your target language and compatible with the local writing system.
• Localized Navigation: The structure and flow of navigation menus may need to be adapted based on cultural preferences, especially in languages that read from right to left, such as Arabic or Hebrew.

5. Localization Tools and Technologies

A robust translation management system (TMS) can streamline your localization efforts by managing large volumes of content efficiently. A TMS helps automate repetitive translation tasks, making it easier to manage updates across multiple language versions of your website.

For example, tools like Weglot detect and translate website content automatically, including dynamic elements like metadata. This reduces the risk of human error, ensuring nothing gets missed in translation. In addition, in-context translation tools, such as Weglot’s Visual Editor, let you edit live previews of your website, simplifying localization.

For a more granular approach to localization, computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools offer features like translation memory and terminology management. These tools help translators ensure consistency by suggesting translations for repeated terms, speeding up the process and reducing costs.

Translation memory stores previous translations so that the same phrases don’t need to be retranslated. Glossaries can also be created to manage brand-specific terminology, ensuring that certain words, such as product names or technical terms, are consistently translated the same way across all content. This feature is especially useful for websites with highly technical content or specialized jargon.

No localization project is complete without quality assurance. Localization quality assurance tools help ensure that translated content is free from errors and that it maintains the original intent of the message. These tools automatically scan for issues such as missing translations, formatting errors, and even cultural inconsistencies.

Tools like Xbench or Verifika are designed to detect potential problems, ensuring that your final localized content is polished and professional. By incorporating quality checks into your localization process, you minimize the risk of launching incomplete or incorrect translations, which could damage your brand’s reputation in new markets.

This is exactly how Weglot handles the translation, localization and internationalization of your website. Learn more about how Weglot works and try it for yourself with a 10-day free trial, no commitment.

6. SEO for Localized Websites

Once you’ve translated your site, the next step is to consider keyword research and search engine optimization. International SEO is crucial in ensuring your localized site is visible on global search engines.

You can do this through keyword translation. Understanding what keywords your audience is searching for will improve your global rankings. This is why like-for-like website translation cannot always work and where international keyword research plays a role.

To optimize for each market, you’ll need to conduct international keyword research tailored to your audience’s specific search intent. This involves:

• Identifying primary keywords: Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to identify top-performing keywords in your home market.
• Translating and localizing keywords: Translate your primary keywords but also localize them. Localization means adapting the keywords to match the search behavior, slang, and preferences of your target audience. Tools like Weglot offer built-in translation features, but you’ll also need to tweak keyword phrasing for relevance manually.
• Conducting local search volume analysis: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush's regional analysis to identify search volumes and competition for each localized keyword in your target market.
• Checking keyword viability: Ensure the translated keywords match user intent. For instance, some terms might have different meanings in different regions, requiring careful localization. Consider long-tail keywords specific to each country.

For example, as AS Marketing's Leigh Buttrey explained during the International Marketing Summit 2024, their campaigns in Norway shifted to focus on Norwegian keywords despite lower search volumes. This allowed them to stand out in a competitive landscape because the localized keywords built trust with their audience, resulting in higher conversion rates than campaigns using English keywords.

You’ll need to find the exact terms your target audience uses. The process can look something like:

• Identify your keywords
• Translate your keywords
• Localize your translated keywords
• Check the viability of your localized keywords

7. Testing and Quality

To ensure a great user experience across different regions, functional testing is essential.

This process involves verifying that all localized elements, such as language settings, currency conversion, and region-specific functionalities like payment methods, work correctly.

For example, Shopify, a major e-commerce platform, has localized its UI for different markets by adapting features such as currency conversion, shipping options, and payment methods to reflect local needs. These changes have greatly improved the overall user experience, allowing customers to shop comfortably in their preferred language and currency.

For digital products and platforms, offering local customer support and help centers is another best practice. Slack provides multilingual support across different time zones to ensure users get quick assistance in their native language. This focus on localized support, alongside their user-friendly interface, ensures a great experience regardless of the user's location!

8. Launch and Maintenance of Localized Websites

Launching a localized website requires careful coordination across multiple regions.

A staggered or phased approach can help reduce the risk of technical issues during launch. When Amazon enters a new market, they localize not only their website but also logistics and support services, ensuring that the launch is smooth and adapted to regional expectations. Your launch plan should account for different time zones, server demands, and localized marketing efforts to create a seamless entry into each market.

Once your localized site is live, monitoring its performance is key to ensuring long-term success. Track metrics like bounce rates, conversion rates, and time spent on the site to gauge the effectiveness of your localization strategy.

In addition, gathering feedback from users in different regions will help you identify areas for improvement. Tools like Google Analytics can provide insights into user behavior by region, allowing you to make data-driven adjustments for each market.

9. Measuring Success and ROI of Website Localization

To track the success of your localization efforts, it's essential to set clear KPIs. Here are some key metrics to measure the effectiveness of your strategy:

Organic Search Traffic

Measure traffic growth from your target regions using tools like Google Analytics. An increase in visitors from specific countries indicates your localized site is resonating.

Metrics:

• Organic traffic from target regions
• Rankings for localized keywords

Local Keyword Rankings

Track how your site ranks for local keywords using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. Ensure your localized content aligns with local search intent.

Metrics:

• Rankings for regional search terms
• Performance on local search engines

Conversion Rates

Analyze conversion rates (purchases, sign-ups) from each region to assess how well your localized content drives user action.

Metrics:

• Conversion rate per region
• Average transaction size in localized markets

Bounce Rates and Time on Site

Monitor how long visitors from different regions stay on your site and whether they engage with your content. High bounce rates may signal cultural or linguistic disconnects.

Metrics:

• Bounce rate and time on site for localized pages
• Page views per session

Customer Engagement

Measure engagement through social shares, comments, and interactions specific to localized content. Higher engagement signals a connection with local audiences.

Metrics:

• Social media engagement by region
• User-generated content (reviews, testimonials)

Localization-Specific Issues

Track technical errors, broken links, or improper translations that may affect the user experience.

Metrics:

• Localization-related errors (e.g., broken links, translation issues)

Revenue from Localized Markets

Measure sales growth from localized regions and compare it with your localization investment to determine ROI.

Metrics:

• Revenue and average order value from specific regions
• Growth in sales post-localization

Customer Satisfaction

Use surveys and feedback to gauge how satisfied local customers are with your site, and adjust based on their input.

Metrics:

• Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) by region
• Feedback from customer support

Continuous Improvement

Localization is ongoing—refine your strategy based on data and user feedback for long-term success.

Metrics:

• Iterations and updates based on regional performance
• Improvement in regional engagement over time

Tracking these KPIs will help ensure your localization strategy is driving meaningful results and growing your presence in new markets.

Next Steps: Get Started with Weglot

Website localization doesn’t need to be scary. With the right tools by your side, the process can be a lot quicker and more efficient than you thought. Weglot is more than just a way of translating content – it's your new tool to expand your market and connect with global audiences.

With Weglot as your website localization solution, you can enter new non-English international markets and scale faster.

Thanks to its automation, you can say goodbye to manual work and juggling Excel sheets. Weglot helps you with website localization through easy website translation management, automatic content detection, and localization.

And the best part? You don’t necessarily have to burn a hole in your pocket or hire expensive linguists. All you need is the URL of your website to get started!

We’re not done yet! Here’s some important further reading to help you take your website localization strategy one step ahead:

• 5 things you didn’t know you should localize
• How to improve your localization strategy in 2024
• 5 website localization issues to avoid
• 5 examples of multilingual websites that inspire