How to Build Multilingual Landing Pages for Your Website

Both theIRL and online world are multilingual spaces. People who speak a wide range of languages explore the Internet and may come across your website – whether you are running a business or offering services. And offering multiple languages on your site can be an important part of the user experience that might not occur to all during the initial website design process.

Having a multilingual website can create not only a more user-friendly experience, but also help you to connect with all new audiences.

So, if you have been asking yourself how you or a Columbus, Ohio website design company can serve a page with content in multiple languages, we will explore the answer below.

What Are Multilingual Landing Pages?

First off, what do we mean when we say multilingual landing pages? Landing pages, as you will know, are the various web pages that are found on your site that house all sorts of content – from product information to blog posts that answer questions. A landing page is meant to serve a focused purpose.

And for a multilingual page, the same is true. The biggest difference is that a multilingual landing page is designed to be available in multiple languages without losing the original meaning.

For example, a landing page that discusses a service you offer is available in English first as that is the original language. But it is also available in Spanish, French, German, and Japanese with essentially the same meaning, layout, and information present in all four languages.

How Do You Serve a Page with Content in Multiple Languages?

When it comes to building out landing pages with content in multiple languages, it may seem overwhelming at first.

But there are a number of straight-forward steps that you or a Columbus, Ohio website design firm you choose to work with can use to build out strong multilingual content that serves your business and audience effectively.

Below, are four different ways that you can build multilingual landing pages for your website that make for a user-friendly and intuitive experience.

1. Make your language switcher easy to find

A user-friendly website design can make all the difference in keeping site visitors on your website and the same goes for keeping visitors of another language as well. That is why keeping your language switcher easy to see and use on your website is important!

A language switcher can appear in many different ways but two common ways you may encounter them on other sites is through a simple drop down menu or small icons of various flags that represent each language.

Consider placing your language switcher either on the header or footer of your website as these are the two most common locations for them. This makes it easy for visitors to find and helps make them feel welcome on your site by providing them with access in multiple languages.

2. Use templates to keep your branding consistent across your website

To help ensure that each visitor to your site has a consistent user experience, be sure to use templates (for the actual layout of the page) across your landing pages. This will be an easy way to ensure that your site, either in its original language or languages you translate your content to, will have the same look and feel.

You or the web design company you work with will want to keep your brand, imaging, and site experience consistent anyways, so ensuring that the website design looks the same even in multiple languages will only further that overall consistency.

Maintaining a consistent look from the get-go will also keep future updates that need to be made to your base website and the translated pages easier as well.

3. Allow site visitors to choose their preferred language

Give site visitors the ability to choose their preferred language. This is a great choice – both from a branding point of view and in terms of user experience. It’s not uncommon for websites that offer different languages to ask visitors to switch regions, forcing them to go to a completely different website in the process.

A regional website switch will take a visitor from one site to another. For example, someone shopping on a US-based website may want to switch their language to Spanish. Some sites may prompt that user to switch to the Spain or Mexico-regional website even though they want to continue shopping on the US-based site – just with Spanish as their preferred language.

This is why allowing visitors to simply choose their preferred language as opposed to switching regions can be important.

It allows them to have access to your content in a meaningful way without needing to switch to a site they may not want to be on.

4. Be sure to consider things like currency and date layout

With over 76% of consumers surveyed by CSA Research preferring content about products in their own language, it’s clear that multilingual landing pages are extremely valuable to website owners. And just as the above steps tie both into creating multilingual pages and a good user experience, so does paying attention to smaller details on your multilingual pages.

With different languages come different formatting to consider. Things like different currencies, date formatting, and even units of measurement vary across languages – even within English speaking countries as well.

For example, the United States is one of the only countries that use the mm-dd-yyyy date format. On landing pages that include publication date or content where dates are used, being sure to translate the correct date format into the various languages is a small but important part of the multilingual process.

Now you have a better idea of how to build out multilingual landing pages for your website – especially with a user experience focus.

Split Reef is a Columbus, Ohio based website design firm that offers a full suite of services including custom website design, digital marketing, professional SEO, and iOS app development. With a second office located in Jacksonville, Florida, Split Reef is able to work with clients across state lines and throughout the country. With a dedicated team of professionals who keep up to date with the best and latest techniques in the industry, they bring a cutting edge approach to all projects.

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