Choose the right URL structure
Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:26 am
Customize content and website design for different regions
When localizing your site for a new audience, it’s critical to consider every element — colors, layout, typography, and images. In other words, your site should “meet your visitors where they are,” providing a relevant experience that’s cohesive and consistent. This is the most effective way to maximize engagement and connect with potential customers. Here’s how to get started:
Spend time researching design trends and norms in your target market
It’s important to understand design trends and the dos and don’ts when marketing to your target region before you start planning your website design . For example, Western countries tend to favor sleek, simple designs that italy b2b leads require more scrolling to browse content, while some East Asian countries, such as Japan and China, prefer minimalist designs that pack a lot of content into shorter pages.
As mentioned before, colors can also have different cultural meanings. For example, red symbolizes good luck in some countries, but danger and caution in others. Nuance is crucial to localizing the experience, so detailed research is key.
Custom content
Tailor every content element on your site to be locally relevant—from images and marketing promotions to blogs and articles. For example, if you’re using photos of famous landmarks, consider replacing them with more recognizable and accessible landmarks in your specific region.
If your website is only available in one language, you’re missing out on potential customers and business opportunities. Language translation isn’t as simple as just converting English words into another language: tone, humor, cultural relevance, and idioms must be considered. A punny marketing slogan directly translated into French might be completely incomprehensible and possibly even offensive.
While AI and machine translation tools can provide excellent first-time translations, it’s critical to have a native speaker review your content before publishing. Native speakers can ensure linguistic accuracy and cultural appropriateness, and can even provide suggestions to maximize the impact of your message.
Make sure your website is discoverable by your target audience
Even the best localized website won’t perform well if it doesn’t attract the right audience. Therefore, it’s crucial to optimize your website for international SEO and attract traffic from your target markets. Let’s explore some key considerations that can have a significant impact on your organic discoverability.
A subdirectory URL structure for your localized site (website.com/ru for the Russian site) allows you to maintain domain authority, which can produce better results than a subdomain URL structure (ru.website.com) where your site is on a different domain from your main site. That said, you may need to put your localized site on a different domain for business reasons, such as if a business has an entirely different brand in Japan.
Generate a global sitemap
Having a well-organized sitemap that includes “hreflang” tags is essential for search engine crawlers to understand the relationship between various localized pages.
Localization metadata
Remember: your metadata content should be localized across pages for each supported locale. Your metadata tells search engines how to read and display your site on the search engine results page ( SERP ), so ensuring this content is optimized for different locales is critical to your international SEO strategy. This includes meta titles and descriptions.
Reaching new heights with a strong localization strategy
In today’s digital-first world, businesses must look beyond their home market to drive growth. Successful global expansion begins with a localized experience, and a website is a great place to start that process. For anyone looking to take their digital strategy to the next level, making your website visitors feel at home, no matter where they are, is key, and implementing a localization strategy for your website is a key determinant of whether you can do that. If you’re interested in learning more about our localization solutions, contact us today!
When localizing your site for a new audience, it’s critical to consider every element — colors, layout, typography, and images. In other words, your site should “meet your visitors where they are,” providing a relevant experience that’s cohesive and consistent. This is the most effective way to maximize engagement and connect with potential customers. Here’s how to get started:
Spend time researching design trends and norms in your target market
It’s important to understand design trends and the dos and don’ts when marketing to your target region before you start planning your website design . For example, Western countries tend to favor sleek, simple designs that italy b2b leads require more scrolling to browse content, while some East Asian countries, such as Japan and China, prefer minimalist designs that pack a lot of content into shorter pages.
As mentioned before, colors can also have different cultural meanings. For example, red symbolizes good luck in some countries, but danger and caution in others. Nuance is crucial to localizing the experience, so detailed research is key.
Custom content
Tailor every content element on your site to be locally relevant—from images and marketing promotions to blogs and articles. For example, if you’re using photos of famous landmarks, consider replacing them with more recognizable and accessible landmarks in your specific region.
If your website is only available in one language, you’re missing out on potential customers and business opportunities. Language translation isn’t as simple as just converting English words into another language: tone, humor, cultural relevance, and idioms must be considered. A punny marketing slogan directly translated into French might be completely incomprehensible and possibly even offensive.
While AI and machine translation tools can provide excellent first-time translations, it’s critical to have a native speaker review your content before publishing. Native speakers can ensure linguistic accuracy and cultural appropriateness, and can even provide suggestions to maximize the impact of your message.
Make sure your website is discoverable by your target audience
Even the best localized website won’t perform well if it doesn’t attract the right audience. Therefore, it’s crucial to optimize your website for international SEO and attract traffic from your target markets. Let’s explore some key considerations that can have a significant impact on your organic discoverability.
A subdirectory URL structure for your localized site (website.com/ru for the Russian site) allows you to maintain domain authority, which can produce better results than a subdomain URL structure (ru.website.com) where your site is on a different domain from your main site. That said, you may need to put your localized site on a different domain for business reasons, such as if a business has an entirely different brand in Japan.
Generate a global sitemap
Having a well-organized sitemap that includes “hreflang” tags is essential for search engine crawlers to understand the relationship between various localized pages.
Localization metadata
Remember: your metadata content should be localized across pages for each supported locale. Your metadata tells search engines how to read and display your site on the search engine results page ( SERP ), so ensuring this content is optimized for different locales is critical to your international SEO strategy. This includes meta titles and descriptions.
Reaching new heights with a strong localization strategy
In today’s digital-first world, businesses must look beyond their home market to drive growth. Successful global expansion begins with a localized experience, and a website is a great place to start that process. For anyone looking to take their digital strategy to the next level, making your website visitors feel at home, no matter where they are, is key, and implementing a localization strategy for your website is a key determinant of whether you can do that. If you’re interested in learning more about our localization solutions, contact us today!