Why online localisation is a little like the cakes at your local bakery!

What is website localisation?

Website localisation (or localization) is a process whereby a website is built or adapted to suit a specific geographic area. If you think about this in real life terms with physical shops or business, it may help to make more sense of it.

As an example, let’s say a baker sets up a cake shop in Dublin. The owner speaks English, as most of her customers also do, and she bakes cakes that are suited to local tastes and contain ingredients she can source locally. Her business does very well and she decides to move to a sunny Spanish island and set up shop there instead, leaving someone else in charge of her Dublin business. She uses the same model. She speaks English, she bakes the same cakes. Though her business struggles. Why? Well because her customers speak Spanish, not English, her cakes don’t suit local preferences and tastes and some of her ingredients aren’t available locally, so she’s spending money importing them from other places. Lastly, she’s never changed the time on her watch, so she’s operating at Irish business hours and not taking the siesta and late meal times into account!

When it comes to website localisation, you need to take as many elements into consideration, though the specific ingredients and recipes may vary from business to business. But if you want to sell to a Spanish speaking market, you’ll need to speak their language. If you’re selling products, you’re going to need to be able to deliver products to them in a reasonable amount of time and at a reasonable cost. And you’ll need to be able to respond to orders and offer customer support at times that make sense to your new customers.

Translation Services for Global SEO

Another elements that comes into play online is that most customers will find (or at least you hope they will) through search engines like Google. In each market, Google prioritises local results – websites offered in the native tongue and with elements that prove the site is local – such as integrated maps and local business directories pointing to or linking back to the site.

In order to make sure the language is local and also suited in tone to your target market, you’ll need to enlist the services of professional translators who also have a basic understanding of SEO or can take advice from your digital marketing consultant on the phrases that may need to be used.

Expand your business online by getting a quote for professional translation today. You can get a quick quote here >

What is content marketing?

Content refers to, well ‘stuff’! Content is text, like these paragraphs here, images, video, diagrams, infographics, music etc. Anything that gives information, is content. A website empty of content is just a framework and domain name – not very interesting. Content is what brings a site, a blog, your business and your social marketing strategy to life online. And because it’s what brings it to life, you should plan it all in line with your brand and do it often. Supermarkets don’t buy beautiful fresh vegetables and then never buy anymore. They buy them on a daily basis so the supermarket is always full of fresh, healthy goods. Likewise, you can and should do the same with the content on your blog.

How can I implement a content marketing strategy?

1. Think about your brand, products and services.

What do you provide? Your content, if it’s going to help your online marketing, will need to relate to this. You can pick niche, varied and unique angles, but keep it in line with what you’re providing most of the time. A cute cat picture or excellent quote every no and again will do no harm.

2. Consider your audience.

Who are you trying to reach? Write and choose content that matches with what your target market will be interested in. If you sell expensive designer jeans, there’s no point in writing blog posts about ‘cheap’ or ‘free’ jeans or clothing. Even if these are keywords that are searched a lot, they’re going to attract the wrong traffic. Be faithful to your services. If it’s designer, write about the designers, the quality and give your customer a feel for your great, top notch, online customer service. Reinforce that with beautiful packaging, on time deliveries and kind returns policies to create loyal customers who want to shop with you again.

3. Consider where your audience are.

Online, there are two ways you need to think about this. Firstly, what platforms or spaces does your audience ‘hang out’ in? If you’re a B2B organisation, people you’re targeting could well be doing their homework and research through mediums like LinkedIn and possibly twitter. If you’re providing something young fashionistas are going to be interested in, make sure you are providing content they love where they are – Pinterest, Instagram and probably twitter.

Secondly, think about where these potential new customers of yours are geographically. If they’re English speakers, make sure your site and related content is in English -and that counts for your social media and other platforms too. If they’re Russian speakers, translate your content into Russian or indeed set up a Russian site specifically for these customers. Do they same for the languages of any other markets you’re targeting too and implement these handy steps to make the localisation efforts work even harder for you.

4. Be ready to snap!

When I say be ready to snap, I don’t mean lose the plot, don’t worry. I mean be ready to take a great photo, capture a video or record an impromptu interview. It will help to have a smartphone with a decent camera and pictures really enhance and attract customers, even if your content isn;t necessarily visual. If you own a bakery, snap the fresh bread out of the oven in the mornings. Ask a customer can you take a little video of them telling you what they love about your cakes! Think about what you’d like to see from businesses you love or don’t know much about that and provide that content to your customer.

If your business is more B2B, go to conferences, corporate meetings, networking events etc. ready to take photos and tweet interesting facts, new developments etc. Get someone else to take pictures of you with members of other businesses and organisations and get them onto twitter. Make sure to include the other company’s twitter handle so that they know it’s their and can retweet it to boost your exposure.

Have you seen any really excellent content strategies or ideas online? Share your experiences – good or bad, in the comments below. If we can help, we’ll provide or direct you to some other tips that might help.

Of their most used tools is Google Maps and search engine/smart phone users are making use of this more and more frequently to find out everything from where a businesses is located to reading reviews and checking opening hours. It’s also a good way to let Google now where you are. The closer a smartphone user is to your location, the more likely you are to show up in the ‘Business results’ on a Google search and also on a maps search for services or products.

What’s more is it’s easy to do. And if you have more than one premises, nationally or internationally, you can set your location at each of these places. Do you have a collection point for products you ship abroad for customers? By utilising that address, you can put yourself on the map there too and help boost your international rankings.

How To Put Your Business on the Map in 2014

1. Firstly you’ll need a Google account or gmail address, if you haven’t got one already. You can sign up here.

2. Next, go to Google Places/Businesses here and sign in using your gmail address and password.

3. You’ll be taken to the page shown below. Read and agree to the terms and conditions to continue.

4.  Next, search for your business to see if it’s already listed.

5. If your business is not listed, click on ‘No, these are not my business’ to continue. If your business is listed, click into it to claim it and add to/edit information already there.

6. Add all of the details you are happy to display publicly, and submit.

7. You’ll then be told the address will need to be verified. Google do this by posting out a pin number you to activate your online business listing. This can take up to two weeks. In the mean time, you can still click through to edit the information that will be shown when the pin arrives and you can activate it.

8. Add your details. Make sure to describe your business clearly in the description section. Use language and terms that your potential customers understand and are likely to type when searching for a business like yours. You can also add photos and opening hours. Adding opening hours is incredibly important as it’s one of the top things people search for in relation to businesses! Especially shops and services that require a physical visit.

9. In one to two weeks when your pin arrives, log back in, using the same steps at the beginning. Your details will all be saved, but you can now use the ‘Verify’ option and pin to make your listing go live. It can take some time for Google to review and it begin to appear, but it’s worth it.

10. If you have other business locations, you can add these too, within the same Google account/gmail address, as long as you can verify each by receiving post at that address.

Top Tip: If you’re listing your business in non English speaking countries, make sure you have your description and business details translated professionally. If a web user is searching for a business in a hurry, they will be more inclined to click on one they can actually understand!