How to Localize Your Website for China
Want to reach local Chinese markets and engage the huge potential customer base? Translating your website to the Chinese language is the solution. China’s extensive e-commerce markets and rising imports make it attractive for companies all over the world. Many globally known names are establishing their presence in China to grab their market share. If you also want to become a recognized name in the Chinese market, you need to translate and localize your business website into the Chinese language.
Strategic Approach for Website Translation
China’s strengthening economy and the booming interest of their middle class in foreign services and imported products make their market highly attractive for companies all over the world.
Many global names are translating their websites to resonate well with the foreign audience in order to enhance their credibility.
Did You Know: Apple has translated its official website into 130 languages.
Companies do prefer to translate and localize their websites as per the linguistic and cultural preferences of the audience to improve their global image and enhances their sales. Interestingly, the B2B and B2C companies which run on entirely different approaches follow some common rules when it comes to localizing their websites for the Chinese market.
If you are also planning to dive into the Chinese market, we are here to help! The best possible solution is to hire a professional Chinese Translation company in order to get a flawless translation for your website.
Here is everything you need to know in order to translate and localize your website into the Chinese language.
Schedule a Process of Website Localization
Whether you are planning to build an entirely new website or translating an existing one into the Chinese language, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions, such as:
- What are the preferred payment methods of the target market?
- What’s the process for local data agreement?
- How much time do you have for localizing your website?
Figuring out answers to these basic questions and scheduling the process will help you save time.
Transcreation: Creative Website Translation
When you are translating your website into Chinese or any other language, literal transformation is not a good idea. Instead of translating words, you need to translate the idea to make the content appealing for the target market.
Translate your website by keeping in mind the cultural differences and it will help in establishing your credibility. We suggest you put more specific(related to China) information on the Chinese version of your website to make the target audience relate to your brand.
Remember not to choose a word-to-word translation for marketing material and product descriptions as that might leave you with totally senseless content. Get the whole idea translated and it can easily be done by taking assistance from a professional localization partner that can take the cultural aspects into account and deliver reliable results free from any type of error.
Pay Special Attention to User-Experience
One of the biggest challenges of expanding into foreign markets is connecting your brand with their needs and wants. You need to be innovative to develop a creative localization strategy in order to grab the attention of the Chinese market.
The first thing you need to do is understand the target audience. It will take some time but the better understand your new audience, the more effectively you can hit them via localizing your brand. In-depth market research and competitor analysis will help you get a better idea of how to position yourself in the new market.
Make sure you present your brand in a way that resonates with the audience and they feel connected. If you want to improve customer acquisition in the new market, you need to know them well, in the first place.
In addition to understanding your audience and current market trends, you need to pay special attention to user-experience. Make sure you offer s seamless, user-friendly browsing experience with easy to navigate interface for visitors’ convenience. The more friction-less experience you provide, the more traffic you will get. Therefore, it is important to adapt the website as per the socio-cultural preferences of the audience.
Here are some of the important questions that you need to find answers to:
- Is your website design and content appealing for the Chinese market?
- It is good enough to grab the attention of the Chinese audience and convert them into customers?
- Does your website offer easy and engaging user-experience?
Improve the Visuals
The selection of an appropriate color scheme and design for the website is also very important. You need to make your website look like a local Chinese one in order to provide the visitors with a more personalized experience.
You might already know, Chinese people love the red and gold color. Try incorporating these on your website to add a local touch to your website. Different colors have varying interpretations in different regions. Do your research, find out what different colors represent in China, and use the suitable ones as per your requirements. It can actually work to make the audience relate to your brand.
Keep the Web Copy Concise and Catchy
Keeping the fast-paced life of the Chinese audience in mind, we suggest you keep the website copy simple and concise. Nobody has time to read pages after pages of tons of information. Just keep it short and easy to understand. Make special efforts to make the buying process easy and fast and customer acquisition will be easy for you.
Most of the Chinese customers have a shorter attention span as compared to western customers and they prefer online shopping in a couple of clicks. Thus, if you want to keep the Chinese audience engaged, it is better to come up with creative and short website copy instead of lengthy blocks of texts.
SEO-friendly Content for Chinese Market
In order to improve your online visibility, you need to optimize your content for the Chinese market. Google isn’t going to help you in China. The most popular search engine used in China is BAIDU and you need to make efforts to improve your ranking on it. Rethink about the page titles, Meta tags and images. Do your research properly as simple keyword translation might not be helpful. Find out what keywords your target market is using for relevant products/ and services and optimize your content accordingly. For best results, consider hiring native localization experts.
Hire a Reliable Translation Partner for Chinese Translation Services
Last but not the least; choose your translation partner wisely. Website localization is a tricky thing and needs to be done perfectly to make your mark in the foreign markets. Website localization includes evaluation of the total content to be translated, transcreation and localization of taglines, product descriptions and graphics, and most importantly, effective content optimization for improving the online presence.
For seamless translation and localization, hire a professional Chinese translation company that has been working in the Chinese market.
