Websites that are accessible in multiple languages can reach a much wider audience. This can result in more visitors, which in turn could lead to better conversion rates and higher sales. In today’s global economy, it is important for business owners to reach as many potential customers as possible, regardless of where they live.
Making your website multilingual will help you achieve that goal. Having a site with different versions of your content available in several languages will make it easy for users from different countries to visit and understand your site.
With the right tools and techniques, creating a multilingual website is not as complicated as one might think. In this blog post, you will discover 5 simple tips on how to make your website multilingual -and start increasing your user base today!
1. Add a language switcher to your site
If you’re serious about making your website multilingual, you’ll want to start by adding a language switcher to your site. This is a little widget that allows users to quickly select the language in which they would prefer to view your pages. In most cases, this widget is found in the header of the page and can be used to change between the languages found in your website.
A language switcher is a great way to make your visitors feel more comfortable while browsing your site. This way, visitors won’t be distracted by misspellings or grammatical errors that come with poorly translated content. Plus, you will send a signal to search engines that your content is in fact multilingual. This can be a great way to boost your SEO.
2. Change Your Website Language with a Simple Markup
If you’re a beginner, you can start by translating single pages of your website. If you’re using WordPress, you can do this in just a few steps. First, you’ll need to create a new post, but this time you’ll choose the language that you wish to translate.
If you’d like to translate your whole website, you can use a plugin called i18n (Internationalization), which is built into WordPress by default. However, if you’re not using WordPress, you’ll need to install a plugin for your specific CMS.
Once you’ve selected the language that you’d like to translate to, you can then proceed to translate the content. You can translate your page by clicking the “Translate” button on your post or page. Once you’ve selected the language that you’d like to translate to, you can then proceed to translate the content.
3. Use A Translation Service
If you are serious about making your website multilingual, you might want to consider using a website translation service. With this option, you’ll be able to outsource the translation of your content to a team of experts whose job is to make sure your website is perfectly translated in several languages. This type of service allows you to translate your content into several different languages with just one click.
You can either do this in a simple online interface or you can use an API to integrate the service into your website. A translation service is the best choice if you have a lot of content on your website that needs to be translated. With this option, you can outsource the translation of your content to a team of experts whose job is to make sure your website is perfectly translated in several languages.
4) Incorporate Language Detection
If you have a smaller website that doesn’t contain a lot of content, you can still make it multilingual by incorporating language detection. This is a feature that allows your website to automatically detect the language of the user and redirect them to the version of their preferred language. If you’re using WordPress, you can add this functionality to your website by installing a plugin like Redirection or Smart Language.
If you’re not using WordPress, you can either use a plugin or find a developer who can create a solution for you. But how do these plugins work? Basically, they look at the user agent (browser information) and then redirect the user to the desired language based on the browser. You just need to enter the code that is relevant to your website, and voilà! Your website is now multilingual!
5. Use Local Domain Names
If you want your website to be genuinely multilingual, you need to translate your domain. Domain names are the main identifier for any website and are responsible for more than 90% of your website’s search engine traffic.
This means that if you have a domain name such as .com or .co.uk but your content is in German, you might not be reaching as many users as you could be and should be using a domain name such as .de. This helps users and Google know that your website is local.
Conclusion
If you are serious about growing your business and expanding your reach, you need to make your website multilingual. Search engines like Google and Bing will reward you for having your site available in multiple languages by ranking it higher for search terms relevant to your target audience. This makes your site more discoverable and can help you gain a significant share of the market.
Beyond SEO and increased traffic, making your website multilingual can also increase your conversion rate by as much as 20%. And, it can also improve your customer satisfaction and reduce your support costs. That’s why now is the perfect time to make the leap and expand your business reach with a multilingual website. Ready? Let’s do this!