Why should you have a multilingual website?
Why could it be interesting to have a multilingual website? In summary, languages are like the limits of your business. More languages often mean more markets and business opportunities.
To meet your clientele’s needs
WebSelf has clients in several countries, like Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium. These countries have the particularity of having more than one official language. Consequently, whether it is to respect the local legislation or meet your clientele's needs, having a multilingual website could be relevant.
To be present in a new market
You may also want to try another market, area, or country. A multilingual website can help you with this. One of the main advantages of being active on the internet is that there are no borders. You can get clients from all over the world if it is what you are looking for.
To customize the user experience and content
Moreover, it could be relevant to take the time to offer your website in many languages to customize the user experience and the content. In business, adapting a product to a specific group of people in an area is called localization. Instead of letting Google and other search engines automatically translate your web pages, you could customize the content according to the language to ensure that all texts are relevant.
To increase your sales
As we know, often, a higher number of potential customers can lead to a sale increase. It is one of the reasons why several companies have multilingual websites or online stores. For example, WebSelf website builder is available in French, English, and Spanish to have customers worldwide.
4 Things to consider before creating a multilingual website
Do you want to have a multilingual website? If it is the case, here are four critical things to consider before starting this project.
What languages are relevant to your business?
You must know that having a multilingual website can be expensive, whether it is regarding translation services or logistics. As with social media, before you start being active on all platforms, you should analyze the different markets to see which ones are relevant to your products and business. You could also start with one new marketing and add some over time.
How will you translate the content?
Now, what about your website content? Are you going to translate it yourself, use a translation tool or work with a professional translator? Of course, if it is not your mother tongue, it should be important that someone could proofread the texts to avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. There are also different ways to speak a language. For example, English spoken in Canada differs from that in Ireland or New Zealand.
Did you think about shipping?
In addition, if you have an online store, did you take the time to calculate these new markets' shipping costs and logistics fees? Do you plan to do everything from one place to open offices elsewhere? Are you going to work with local partners? Let us say that you opened a boutique in Canada, and you want to sell to customers in the United States. We recommend you check what are the different shipping fees and methods to avoid unpleasant surprises.
What about SEO?
Whatever the language, paying careful attention to SEO will be necessary. Besides translating the titles and texts, you must think about the title tags and meta descriptions. Do you know what keywords you should use on the different languages of your website? If you have any doubts, we invite you to contact SEO specialists from the targeted areas.
How to create a multilingual website with WebSelf?
WebSelf gives you the opportunity to create a multilingual website. This feature is available with the Pro and eCommerce package.
To activate the multilingual feature, visit the settings, and click on Language and Add a language. You will then have many options, including the flag or a mention of the available languages.
When a new language is activated, WebSelf will copy the content of your actual website; however, you will have to provide the translated texts since our builder will not do it automatically. You can also customize the different pages according to the available languages.
In conclusion, there are several reasons why it can be interesting to have a multilingual website. Besides increasing the number of potential customers and your sales opportunities, it will help you improve your notoriety worldwide. Here is another tip: we strongly recommend you take the time to proofread the texts and test all buttons before publishing your website. Good luck!