Do you own a small business?
Today, there are over 30 million small businesses in the United States. This number makes up 99.9% of all U.S. businesses. However, many business owners aim to penetrate the global market.
In this article
- What is Localization?
- How is Localization Different from Translation?
- When Should You Localize Your Business?
- Why should you hire a freelance localization expert?
- 1. Professional Translations
- 2. Save Time
- 3. Spot Mistranslations
- Hire a Freelance Localization Expert Today
Globalization is becoming the norm in the business landscape. Being part of the global market gives businesses more opportunities to grow. One of the first steps to globalizing your business is localizing it.
Want to localize your content? Read on to discover more about language localization and globalizing your business and why it pays to hire a freelance localization expert.
What is Localization?
Localization refers to adapting your content, services, and products to a local market. Localization falls under the umbrella term of globalization. You may need to adjust some functions on your site to service international users.
This helps you adapt to different cultural, legal, political, and linguistic preferences. At the end of the process, your site should feel made for a specific locale. It allows you to match cultural expectations.
You can localize not only your website and products. During the process, you can include any marketing materials. This can range from TV and radio ad campaigns, all the way to product placement in video games and new types of interactive ads.
How is Localization Different from Translation?
Many confuse localization as another term for translation. However, this is wrong. Translation refers to converting text from one language to another.
It is also only one part of the localization process. Aside from translating text, localization can also involve the following:
- Adapting graphics and visuals to a target locale
- Altering content to satisfy buying habits
- Changing layout and design to display the translated text
- Converting currencies and metrics
- Using proper local formats, including symbols, punctuation, phone numbers, and dates
- Local regulations and legal requirements
These are but a few components included in localization. The translation is only a small part of the process. To localize your business, you will need to adjust your content, layout, and currencies.
When Should You Localize Your Business?
When browsers visit your website, your content is the first thing they tend to notice. It serves as the first impression of your brand. Many online users expect a diverse in-language experience upon clicking on your site.
Localizing your content should be part of your plan from the very beginning. However, you can start the process when your business is ready to expand to the global market. Rushing the process could result in wasted time and effort.
Ensure to research the various cultures in the market. This allows you to prepare for potential customers who have interest in your brand.
Are you planning to start localizing your business today? Consider hiring a freelance localization expert!
Why should you hire a freelance localization expert?
Here are eleven reasons why you should hire a freelance localization expert:
1. Professional Translations
You can ensure a professional experience when you hire from a tried and true provider, like a creative services marketplace such as Voices. These companies have strict translating policies to ensure quality services. Many translators spent years mastering their language.
Your chosen company will look for a specific translator who can best meet your needs. The company has access to a team of native speakers of your target language.
Because they are professionals, they have more work experience, as well as experience with various projects. They also have better writing skills to assist you. Many companies require their employees to have college degrees.
Freelance translation experts may also specify their field of expertise. This could range from business, legal, finance, medical, and other fields. With a professional freelance localization expert, you can ensure quality results.
2. Save Time
Hiring an in-house translator may cost you some time before you can even start. It can take months to train and hire the right translator. When you hire a freelance translator, you can save more time.
When you turn to a professional freelance writer, you can count on a timely translation process. You can rely on your hired team to complete your requirement. An automated or crowdsourced service may be faster than other methods.
While faster, it may be less accurate. Getting reviewers and proofreaders could add time to the process. Hiring a freelancer to finish your work can help you save time.
3. Spot Mistranslations
You can’t rely on machine translation to spot words and expressions with more than one meaning. Your customer may find that your content sounds awkward. This shows unprofessionalism and could lead to a loss in visitors.
This could hurt your brand and your users if your content contains medical, legal, or technical terms. Cautionary messages on your site could be dangerous if they are inaccurate. Amateur translators could present you with the same problems.
Depending on your target language, a single word could have multiple dictionary entries. Hiring a proper translator can give you more accurate translations. Human translators can spot mistakes and correct them right away.
4. Quality Translations
When writing content for a blog post or website, quality always comes first. Hiring a professional translator serves as an extension of your current team. You can find a specific team to cater to the needs that you have.
Your relationship with your provider ends once you pay them and they finish their task. You can contact your provider if you have any follow-up needs. You can ask for a renegotiation of your contract.
Some freelancers have certification for their work. Consider looking for a freelancer with proper certification for their services. This ensures top-quality work.
5. Organized and Logical Workflow
Many freelance translators have an established workflow process. Even freelance companies have proper systems in place to deliver quality work. This helps them ensure the desired style and tone.
They will maintain these aspects of communication across various languages. This allows many business owners to scale up as their work volume decreases.
While freelancers may not be able to take multiple loads at the same time, they can still complete their tasks. Their established system helps them to manage their workflow.
6. Specialized Work
One of the benefits of hiring a certified translator is finding specialized work. You can find many freelancers who can provide accurate translations. Among their skills are specializations in various fields and areas of expertise.
Many professional freelance translators have industry knowledge. Their hands-on expertise adds to their high proficiency. You can rely on specialized translators to address different fields.
A bilingual friend or employee may not be able to provide the same level of quality. You can find freelance translators with specialties in the following services:
- Agriculture
- Automotive
- Business Services
- Chemicals
- Construction
- Education
- Electronics
- Factory and Warehousing
- Finance
- Food processing
- Healthcare
- Information Technology
- Legal
- Manufacture
- Mining
- Petroleum
If you’re looking for a specific industry, look at your freelancer’s bio or online talent profile. It will be easy enough to spot in their credentials.
7. Precision and Accuracy
Being familiar with a language is not enough to reach your localization goals. Surface knowledge may help you when communicating with locals in a foreign country. However, it won’t suffice for a professional website or extensive marketing materials.
To get accurate and precise translated content, you need a comprehensive knowledge of your locale. Some target locales even have a different dialect a regular speaker may not know. They may not be able to tackle regional dialects and cultural differences.
A professional translator can maintain precision and accuracy thanks to their translation memory. It is a vital database that allows them to store sentences and segments. You can reuse these segments when you hire another certified translator in the future.
This allows you to avoid translating the same text multiple times. Your translator can review then accept currently saved segments. This allows you to keep track of your budget and timeline.
Translation memory also serves as a tool for professional translators. It cuts the workflow so they can move on to new content and texts. In short, it allows you to get faster translations and save time and effort.
8. Context and Security
One of the benefits of hiring a freelance translator is that you only need to share your resources once. You can keep your internal references and abbreviations in a concentrated environment. Before working on your content, a freelance translator will review your company.
They will conduct background research to learn more about your industry. This also helps them identify jargon and names of institutions and individuals. You may also include a non-disclosure agreement in your contract.
This ensures the security of any sensitive information. A freelance translator will keep this information confidential.
9. Gain More Customers
Your website may start losing customers if you don’t provide available translations. With proper translations, you can reach and satisfy more of your target audience. When they feel happy with your service, customers tend to share their experiences.
Recommendations and high ratings will provide relevant context and will serve as peer review. Your content serves as a bridge to the global market. It turns your website into a more inclusive landscape for more customers.
No matter the outcome of the process, you can still succeed in gaining more customers. Localizing your business is part of a good company strategy. With proper execution, you are sure to see an increase in sales.
10. Build Credibility
Building a multilingual website allows you to build brand credibility. Your customers will recognize your effort in communicating with them. Potential customers and new visitors will see how serious you are in your business.
This allows them to see that you have a credible website and helps you to keep their attention. All the while, you succeed in catering to their needs as a unique culture. Multilingual users will have a pleasant experience while browsing your website.
Access to content in their native language contributes to a great experience. Your users may leave your website unsatisfied if they can’t understand your content. In some cases, this prevents users from revisiting your site.
Translating your content to cater to multilingual users serves as a foundation for your site. Focus on building a multilingual website before moving to more functions. Your content is the first impression of your company online users will see when they visit their website.
Having a good understanding of your content gives them an incentive to stay. You can impress them with various bells and whistles later on.
11. Benefits Your SEO
Something all companies should care about is SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Large search engines like Google use an algorithm to retrieve search results for their users, and you want your website to rank well for the keywords your prospective clients routinely look for.
Google is the biggest search engine on the planet. With over 130 trillion pages, it may be hard for users to find what they’re looking for. SEO helps them find relevant content.
While built on keywords and phrases, SEO also has a lot of different moving parts. Assets like text-to-speech and visual content can help you build your SEO. Another aspect of strong SEO is the effective use of multiple languages.
There are more SEO keywords and phrases in English, making competition high. However, in non-English languages, competition is far less. You can use keyword gaps in other languages to your advantage.
Many international users find it difficult to search for content in their native language. There’s a significant lack of multilingual content. If you have a multilingual site, you build a bridge for international users.
This also benefits your SEO with multilingual keywords. Other languages have less competitive keywords. When you utilize these keywords, you can drive more traffic to your website.
Good ranking for keywords in other languages can also give you an increase in DA. DA stands for Domain Authority, and it helps you rank for keywords in a domestic language. This helps you build and support your SEO efforts.
Hire a Freelance Localization Expert Today
Localizing your business is an essential step to growing your brand. It gives you more opportunities to join the global market. Are you wondering if you should hire a freelance localization expert?
You’ve just read eleven great reasons why you should!
Need to localize your content with the help of a localization expert? Sign up for a Voices account and get matched with one of our talented localization experts today.
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