Now, more than ever, people are socialising, working, and even shopping online.
As for the current web trends, most people are highly likely to associate and shop from foreign based websites, especially if they can read and review the website marketing content in their own language.
Recent statistics show that nearly half of the Internet content in 2020 is not written in English.
For example, Portuguese is the six most common language in the world, but only 2% of the web content is written in Portuguese. If you decide to translate your website into Portuguese it will be indexed in competition with 2% of the content on the Internet, going against different niches, unrelated keywords and actually not competing with you directly.
It’s worth a thought whether this would help boost your search rankings. Also bear in mind that website translation and the use of content in foreign languages have become more common, and there will be more competition. Today we have gathered some of the most common mistakes website owners make when translating their website into other languages:
Ignoring SEO
WordPress considered the most popular CMS on the market (over 60%). A close second is WooCommerce with just 4% of the market.
WordPress provides a number of interesting translation plugins, which work great. Some of these plugins require a monthly fee, and not a one-time cost.
Most of these plugins, however, lack one crucial thing – SEO.
While it may be tempting to just click a button and enjoy a full website translation, this will not index the foreign language search results.
Making a complete website translation ensures that your marketing content will be available on all desired languages and indexed by search engines as well. Note, that this will remove your immediate competition, if not all of it.
Yoast SEO provides excellent resources concerning multilingual SEO.
Ignoring localized translations
Translating your website provides an excellent opportunity to implement great localization strategies. One successful key point in marketing is the ability to make a personal and emotional connection with your audience. You can accomplish this by using localization.
Even domestic marketing campaigns use this option. The marketing techniques which are used in larger urbanized centers, will not be as effective as in smaller areas.
When using localization services, you would need a translation company which specializes in this service, or at least a specialist working in the specific geographical area you’re targeting. There are a number of local expressions and figures of speech which might change the entire context of your message if they are translated literally.
Such strategies mainly focus on removing the local vernacular in the original language and replacing it with similar localized expression using the native language of which you are translating the website. These services however, should not be restricted just to the speech.
Setting up a different website for translation might seem a bit far-fetched and daunting at first, but there are a number of tools which would do the job quite fast and easy. There can be, however, some errors which website owners make when creating multilingual websites and using these tools.
WordPress multisite and other multilingual side configurations
Using WordPress multisite is at the moment one of the best options for establishing multisite copies of one website, only in additional languages with the same core files. This gives you the opportunity to use a fully indexed website which is translated with the inclusion of localization strategies such as localized website content and images.
This issue is not limited just to multilingual WordPress website, but the most common problem is site owners forgetting to back up their data and website.
Using VPN technologies and to too many 301/302 redirects
The most common mistakes concerning multilingual WordPress websites is trying to automize the navigation or making it too technically complicated. While these options may be great for more advanced WordPress users, they can be extremely difficult if you’re not familiar with the whole process.
As common as it is to use IP gateways, it might not be the best option. If someone is looking for the English version of your website and is rooted to the Russian version, this will significantly increase your bounce rate.
One of the most common redirects is 301. However, such redirects can be blocked by some browser plugins and browsers which will result in the new translated website not been discovered at all.
Such redirects also increase your security risks if they are not properly implemented or managed. Given WordPress popularity, it’s always a target for crackers, hackers, and other users with malicious intent. Avoiding the use of such redirect is the wiser solution for anyone who is not a WordPress expert.
Ignoring brand consistency and inverse template design
What if you came across a user who is fluent in all available languages of your website? What if they could read all of your content? Can you guarantee that the user experience would not change?
Are the advertisements in the same location and size? Are you using different images depending on the location?
Being consistent with your brand image is a crucial aspect, which is often overlooked when using multilingual websites.
Brand consistency is important not only for the overall user experience with your website, but also for creating and maintaining customer loyalty. There is one curious element, which is often overlooked when creating website translations.
You may ask what do you mean by inverse template designs? Brand consistency is very important, no matter which language you are using. There are also a number of languages which are written from right to left. Will you then maintain the brand consistency of your website if the language is written in the other direction?
Such a feature can be accomplished by using a plugin or with the help of professional WordPress support.
The idea behind creating website translation is attracting and keeping foreign audience, thus creating a website which would be welcoming to all new visitors and making them feel at ease.
Colour Psychology
While the colour scheme of your website is not exactly in the forefront in terms of website translations, it’s still worth mentioning. Some colour combinations can be fine in certain locations, but unpleasant to others.
Different colours have different meaning for different people, meaning that in any case you will always have a customer who is not pleased. There are also some colour combinations you should avoid at all costs.
It’s worth to do some research on what would be the ideal colour combination and template design for your website. The idea is to connect on a personal level with your audience which would result in a long-term Internet marketing campaign.
Conclusion
With the help of website translation services you can communicate with your audience in their own language. By using localization services, you connect with them on an emotional level.
We hope the information you found here today would be useful and avoiding such mistakes will help you create a successful multilingual WordPress website.
