If you think about it, website translation is rare. It is not uncommon for a website to maintain only one language. Russian website is only available in Russian, a Chinese website is only available in Chinese—mostly mandarin—and an English website is only available in English.
Multi-language websites are common in the casino industry and for large enterprises like Amazon or Google. But, does it make sense for small- and medium-sized businesses to translate their websites?
Yes, it does. And here are the reasons why:
- Global Traffic reach
- More Google-friendly
- Higher conversion rate
Let us take a look at each one, and see how the online casino industry and large companies benefit from translating their websites into multiple languages.
Globe Traffic Reach
It is true that English is the international language. This only happened because of the English people colonizing a vast majority of the world centuries ago.
Today, however, 85% of internet users speak any of the following languages:
- Russian
- Chinese
- Spanish
- Arabic
- Indian
- French
And not only that. Studies show that 75% of internet users prefer websites and content in their own languages.
There was a time when people were not brave enough to publish content in their native language for fear of being ostracized. But today, creators for YouTube and blogs are shifting gears—people are bolder and are creating content for their own people.
If you do not get on the bandwagon, your website will be left behind to English speakers only. And if you let this happen, you will miss out on a huge amount of traffic.
More Google-friendly
Google is available in a lot of languages. If a person uses his own language to type on the Google search box, do you think your English content would be given priority?
No, Google will not rank you higher because it knows that the user is searching for a language that is native to him.
As you can see, a multi-lingual site also has an improved overall rank. If your translated website has its own URL or sub-domain, Google will recognise that it is one and the same site catering to the same keyword or niche.
For example, you can use www.ABCCOMPANY.com for your English website, then either create a new website or just have an extension for your French version.
- ABCCOMPANY.fr – French version of your site where it has its unique RL
- ABCCOMPANY.COM/FR – French version of your site where it has a sub-domain for its translated pages
That being said, your website would maintain its authority because it is Google-friendly. But how does this work.
Higher Conversion Rate
While this is obvious, we must back this up with stats. Common sense dictates that the higher the traffic, the better your sales.
Studies as far back as a decade ago were able to prove that 90% of Europeans visit websites in their native tongue. The thing is, 42% of these people will NOT buy if the website is in a language different from their native tongue.
We can surmise the same thing for China, a country with over a billion internet users. If you think about it, websites in native tongue has more credibility in English.
Summary
Now, you have all the reasons to translate your website not just for better SEO, but for improved traffic, relationship with the Google bots, and better conversion rate.
Today, non-English people are not fairly represented online. China alone has more than a billion internet users, but less than 2% of websites globally are written in Chinese. And knowing that websites in native tongue are much more credible than English, this opens doors of opportunities for you to enter other markets.
