Why Translation and Localisation Go Hand in Hand
These days, it isn’t enough to get by with lazy translation practices.
Some websites still approach translating their website as an afterthought, something to do quickly once everything else is done with their webpages, and more often than not, rely on machine translate to do the work for them. Whilst automation is a quick solution at a basic level and does translate the content on your website’s pages, when you look closer, it can miss an important part altogether - localisation.
Translation and localisation work together to create a seamless transition between how your content is originally written and how it reads in another language. The key with localisation is ensuring that none of the context, terms or phrases are lost and become completely different when translating. Putting it simply, translation will translate the words, but localisation ensures it makes sense. It’s what we specialise in here at Talking Heads, creating natural translation and localisation for your products and services whether you are an e-commerce company or working in the public sector. We make sure that your content reads like it was written in the target language in the first place, for any language in the world.
The Art of Localisation
It’s no surprise that the majority of shoppers want to read about a product or service in their own language before purchase, in fact according to Shopify, 75% of shoppers want to buy products in their native language and 59% rarely or never buy from English-only websites. This means that to become a global brand, you must take translation and localisation seriously to benefit from the huge potential a global audience brings. Localisation will adjust to the local language and adapt your website into cultural context. Doing so avoids the pitfalls of poor translation, something we touched on in a previous post about common translation mistakes.
The route to a perfectly localised website and service is only achieved by the help of linguists who speak and work in the language you require. Having the assistance of multilingual experts ensures accuracy and efficiency with none of the common mistakes we commonly see. With the future uncertain, one thing that is clear is having a fully functioning website, products and services that can be understood in other languages without issue, is essential. If your company has the aspirations of becoming a global brand, this can’t be achieved without the right tools to help. With increasing numbers of people globally going online to find the products and services they require, localisation is the key to driving traffic in your direction and gaining conversions from a wider audience.
If you would like to learn more about our services at Talking Heads and how our network of linguists will assist your company with translation and localisation, please get in touch today.