Adapting your content for multiple audiences is pivotal if you’re a global brand or looking to enter international markets. That’s why it’s important to implement multilingual content localization best practices for your target markets. Let’s take a closer look at multilingual content localization, along with some best practices and pitfalls to avoid when managing your content strategies.
What is Multilingual Content Localization?
Multilingual content localization means adapting content to align with your international audience’s languages and cultural norms. More than just translation, multilingual content localization is about creating content that resonates culturally and contextually with each local audience you target.
1. Relying on Literal Translations
Relying on literal translations can lead to awkward or incorrect phrasing in the target language. Tools are essential to help make sure your content maintains its original meaning and adapts to different cultural nuances.
For instance, an online paraphraser can help you refine translations to sound natural and contextually appropriate. You can rephrase text using different modes and edit your message until it resonates with your target audience.
*Pro-Tip: Verify translations with native speakers or human translators for optimal results.
2. Not Maintaining Brand Consistency
Changing your style and tone across different languages can dilute your brand voice. Instead, create a style guide your team and professional translators can refer to when translating content for your multilingual audience.
Make sure to maintain a consistent tone across your:
- Email marketing campaigns
- Social media content
- Product descriptions
- Website copy
- Blog posts
For example, if your brand voice is “conversational expert,” — all of your translations should use that style and tone. If you use humor and lightheartedness in some languages and formal jargon in others, you’re not maintaining brand consistency, which can target the wrong audiences in each region.
3. Not Optimizing for SEO in Different Languages
Search terms and intent vary by language. To encourage search engine rankings, make sure to research and use keywords in your target languages.
Be sure to also ask your website developer to implement hreflang tags correctly.
Hreflang tags are HTML attributes that specify a webpage’s language and geographical targeting. They help search engines understand your content’s regional and linguistic variations so users see the version of your page that’s most relevant to them (based on their language and location).
This is especially important for multilingual websites that want to improve user experience and SEO.
Optimizing meta tags and descriptions for local search engines is also essential for better visibility in different regions. This involves using keywords in the target language that local users commonly search for. For example, if you’re targeting Japanese keywords, use Japanese not English. By doing this, your content becomes more relevant to local search queries.
It’s also important to make sure your meta tags and descriptions are culturally appropriate and engaging to attract more clicks and drive more traffic to your site. This helps search engines understand the regional focus of your content and improves your website’s ranking in local search results.
4. Not Refreshing Content Often
Stats, studies, and information become outdated, diminishing your content’s value and authority.
Instead of publishing once, refresh your content pieces across your languages often to keep the information up to date. Consider updating your content semi-annually or annually, depending on the subject matter and sources you’ve included.
Be sure to update important images, graphs, and screenshots, too.
5. Overlooking Local Laws and Regulations
Failing to comply with local laws and regulations can lead to legal issues and damage your brand’s reputation.
Make sure to research and adhere to the legal requirements of each region you’re targeting. This includes data protection laws, advertising regulations, and industry-specific rules.
6. Ignoring regional language variations
Languages often have regional variations that can significantly impact how your content is received.
For example, Spanish speakers in Spain communicate differently than Spanish speakers in Mexico. Some words are even considered offensive in one country and perfectly acceptable in the other.
Make sure your translations account for these differences so your content is accurate and more relatable.
7. Skipping Quality Assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is crucial to maintaining high integrity with your localized content. Skipping this step can lead to serious issues that could harm your brand’s reputation and user experience.
During your QAs, conduct thorough linguistic, functional, and visual element testing to catch errors and ensure everything works as intended.
Let’s take a quick look at all three.
Linguistic testing means checking the translated content for accuracy, consistency, and cultural appropriateness. It helps make sure each language is correct and resonates well with the local audience.
Linguistic testing also helps identify issues like incorrect content translations, grammatical errors, and cultural insensitivities that could alienate your audience.
Functional testing means testing localized content within its functional context. In other words, verifying that all links, buttons, forms, and interactive elements work correctly in the target language.
Functional testing helps catch issues like broken links, text overflow, and formatting errors that could disrupt the user experience.
Visual element testing means making sure localized text fits well within your content’s layout and design. Different languages can vary in length, potentially causing text to overflow or leave too much white space.
Visual testing helps maintain a consistent and aesthetically pleasing design across all language versions.
*Pro-Tip: Establish a feedback loop with your localization team and native language speakers to continuously improve your content. Incorporate feedback from users to refine and enhance the localization process.
Wrap Up
Multilingual content localization is a complex but essential process for global brands. You can create content that resonates with diverse audiences by avoiding common pitfalls, such as relying on literal translations, neglecting SEO, and overlooking cultural differences.
To ensure the success of your localization efforts, implement best practices such as maintaining brand consistency, refreshing content regularly, and using translation services.
For good measure, here’s a quick recap of all of the pitfalls we covered in this article:
- Relying on literal translations
- Not maintaining brand consistency
- Not optimizing for SEO in different languages
- Not refreshing content often
- Overlooking local laws and regulations
- Ignoring regional language variations
- Skipping quality assurance
PS: Looking for language service providers or professional translation services? Our five-step process delivers precise and accurate results, so you can avoid costly mistranslations. Get your free online quote today.
Author Bio:
Kelly Moser is the co-founder and editor at Home & Jet, digital magazine for the modern era. She’s also the content manager at Login Lockdown, covering the latest trends in tech, business and security. Kelly is an expert in freelance writing and content marketing for SaaS, Fintech, and ecommerce startups.