Multilingual websites are becoming more common as shrewd business people realize the importance of having a business that crosses international borders and language barriers. How do you know when it’s time to have your own multilingual website?
When It’s Time to Go International
If you have a physical business that has customers internationally, then it is definitely a good idea to have a multilingual website. Even when other countries have English-speaking residents, they’ll often see a translated website as an extra step taken to connect with them.
On the other hand, if your business is primarily online, the time to create a multilingual website is when it when it makes sense financially. If you’re earning $10,000 a month in a U.S- based market and have a product that can be sold internationally, you may have a very real benefit to going multilingual.
Getting your whole website translated might cost $1,000. If by changing to a multilingual website, your $10,000 a month business brought in another $3,000 a month from overseas, this would make your investment well worth it.
When Should You Not Go Multilingual?
If you can’t afford to incur the cost of translating your website and then not increase income, then don’t do the translation at all.
It should also not take up so much attention that it clutters up your website. One common option is to start a completely different site for overseas traffic. You would have a different website for each foreign language, rather than being a subdivision of your main site.
The benefit of this is having a completely different brand that’s more tailored to particular countries and languages. The drawback is that you can’t draw on your previous brand and you can’t draw on previous resources like backlinks, PR and the like.
How to Go Multilingual
You will first need a translator and preferably an editor in your target language. You can find someone from your own circle of friends and from online outsourcing websites.
Create your website in your target language. Either create a subdomain on your main site, or register an entirely different domain. Launch the website and start promoting it.
Going multilingual can be an incredibly lucrative way to grow your business. Just keep in mind that it’s not something you should take on until it makes financial sense. You don’t have to go multilingual unless you already have customers in those countries. It’s a choice, one that may earn you additional income if it is executed properly.
