Do you know that a lot of modern-age companies operating globally are still moving with old school marketing strategies?
Translating content on the website isn’t on the to-do list of many companies. New research reveals that 81% of companies in the global market still don’t know how translating content will save their time and money. They might not be aware of the technology tools that can be useful for translation purposes.
What if I tell you that you can increase your site traffic by just making sure that your content is available to people in multiple languages?
Yes, it’s true. Website owners who translate their site content see a 47% increase in search traffic.
What is a multilingual website actually?
A multilingual or multi-language website is just like any website that offers content in more than one language.
Top reasons why multilingual content might bring more traffic to your website
The biggest reason to have a multilingual site is to get quality search traffic. Here are some reasons how multilingual content on your site can help you with this:
1. It improves SEO visibility
Every business owner wants their site to appear in the top search results. But do you know that Google results are partially dependent on language? When you change your language settings from English to French and look for a term, you’ll see entirely different results.
Plus, Google gives a high overall SEO rank to multilingual content.
What to do?
When your digital content is translated into multiple languages, it’ll become easier for potential customers speaking different languages to find your site.
What is more, translating content for readers improves search engine visibility, which is an inbound marketing strategy that is more customer-centric. According to 59% of marketers, the inbound strategy generates quality leads and organic traffic.
To achieve better search engine visibility, you need to let go of the old mindset. Start embracing newer digital marketing practices, such as making content available in new languages.
2. Extend the reach to potential overseas market
What if you get to know that a large chunk of your customers are foreigners?
Do you know that only 25.9% of internet users speak English as of 2020? This means there a tremendous demand for content in other prevalent languages such as Chinese, Arabic, and Malaysian.
Better search engine visibility is linked to better reach. If you wish to extend your reach to the international audience, then you have to translate your content to other languages.
When your content is visible to more people, they’ll open it, which means your site traffic will be boosted. Plus, if they like your content, chances are they’ll share it with their social network.
The only question is whether you’ll avail of this opportunity.
3. Higher traffic with improved user experience
Without a doubt, digital multilingual content, including text and video, drives a better user experience. Most of the time, users leave a website that requires more time to load, hard to read and appears out-dated.
Remember that you need to take care of other factors that impact user experiences, such as website design, navigation, FAQs, internal linking, and readability factor.
Chinese characters are different than English text but need lesser space to convey the same message. If a user is unable to read the text because the font size is too small or doesn’t fit well on the site layout, they are more likely to back off in search of a better user experience.
4. Build trust with non-English speakers
Building brand recognition and trust with the digital audience is the number 1 goal of enterprises.
Higher brand trust and authenticity is directly linked with a higher number of site visitors. One way to achieve this is by going global.
Multilingual content is a TRUST Signal
A trust signal is basically an indicator that inspires consumer confidence in your online brand. It drives visitors to your site and encourages them to complete an action.
Consider this example. You are looking for a research paper writing service UK, and you click on the top two websites appearing on your search engine. The first website contains only-English content, while the second website is the one with the translated version in your own language. Who would you use?
You instantly trust brands that are operational in more than one country. To put it simply, customers perceive brands as more authentic when they have international clients.
5. Higher conversion rates
When you are able to communicate in such a way that you are native, you convert leads into actual sales. This is the biggest reason your website needs professional language translation.
A conversion rate is defined as the percentage of visitors that accomplish their intended goal- purchase the item they’re looking for.
6. It helps you beat the competition
While multilingual content is important for engaging your users, it also helps you differentiate yourself from your rivals. It demonstrates that you care about all users and cater to their needs.
Consider the example of the World Health Organization (WHO) site with a global audience. It provides translation of its content in many languages, which shows that the tips, suggestions, reports, stats, and other important resources are gathered from around the globe.
Some other tips for driving website satisfaction and increasing traffic:
According to Assignment Assistance, 92% of people read online customer reviews before trusting a site for purchase. Add testimonials from foreign customers in their native language.
Create video testimonials in targeted languages.
Ensure that the language switcher is easy to find.
Be consistent with your templates.
See an example of Airbnb homepage design that remained consistent for both Australian and Japanese language.
As you change the language setting, the text changed, but no visible difference is seen in the theme.
7. Content translation is easier than you think
Making your digital content multilingual sounds daunting, but it is not as difficult as it seems. If you compare the past and current prices of digital technology services such as content translation from the past, you’ll be surprised.
With the right translation solution, you can optimize your budget, time and capture new visitors to your eCommerce site.
With this option, you can expand your business in new geographies in the most cost-effective way. If you are a small business and it looks like an expensive option, then you should know that most translation providers offer monthly payment schemes.
8. Other factors to consider
But you need to make sure that you won’t get organic traffic unless you have tons of content to translate. There are some other factors that go into getting organic traffic, such as:
· Hosting your site in the target country.
· Earning links from other country’s websites.
· Producing quality content comparable to local sites of the target country.
There’s no escaping the fact that local sites get more traffic. Therefore, it’s OK to promote your multilingual content using paid ads.
The bottom line
All in all, most of today’s internet users prefer to visit and purchase from businesses that provide a personalized experience. Multilingual content from a business does the needful. Multilingual content enables businesses to connect with their actual and potential target market.
Technically speaking, multilingual content is favored by search engines because it prioritizes user intent more than ever. If your content matches with the user intent and is available in the native language of the users, then be ready to receive heavy website traffic.
Author bio
Claudia Jeffrey is currently working as a Sr. Research Analyst & Digital Evangelist at Dissertation Assistance, the best place to buy coursework online from writing experts. She has assisted many small businesses by setting up their multi-language site. She also provides free practical tips to boost online social media presence.