As businesses expand globally, gaining access to international markets becomes easier, yet it demands some moves to succeed especially when entering a new market with different language needs. If you are planning to expand to a country with a different language than yours, adapting your website is a must since there is no better way to introduce your brand.

Adapting your website is essential because English is no longer enough. Indeed, English occupies the third place on the ranking of the highest number of native speakers. The first is Mandarin, with almost 955 million native speakers, followed by Spanish with 405 million native speakers, then English with 360 million, Hindi with 310 million, and Arabic with 295 million. Even when English is ranked first when it comes to languages used online, brands that only use English lose a big part of the market.

Translation is the very first step to take if you want to adapt your website. Other factors to take into account are the imagery, functionality and even color palette according to the preferences of the targeted audience. This process is called adaption.  

Adapting a website is a vital step to take when you want to reach and attract your audience because the absence of adaptation can lead to a confusing message or a bad use of words, which only harms the brand’s image.

Rather than simply translating a text, a company should focus on localization because it is the best way to ensure that each page makes sense in both, a linguistic and cultural context for each country. A company that decides to adapt their website to a certain language and its context aims to ensure that the right message is being delivered from the brand and that the users and potential clients understand the message.

The very first thing to do in order to have a proper adapted website is to translate texts into a new language; this requires professional translators who have knowledge of the context and use of certain vocabulary. Next, the text, graphics, headings, images, and other elements, are adapted to ensure they are culturally and linguistically correct, a process known as localization. Finally, it is important to make sure that all local information (date, price, unit of height, unit of weight, among others) is correct according to the context.

Functional adaptation is an important part of adapting a website since it plays a vital role when determining the success of a website. Experts consider that the best kind of functional adaptation is when users of a website do not realize the site has been adapted to their language preference, local culture, and location and even to personal preferences. One of the best examples of this is Google.com.

When the website is completely adapted, users will get the right message and will be even more willing to keep revising the website since there is a sense of reliability and professionalism.