How To Do Software Localization Correctly?

English is the international language, but not everyone can understand it. It may surprise you, but 75% of the world population doesn’t speak English at all. Especially in Asia, most people don’t know English and only understand their native languages. If you are looking to launch your software product in an international market, you must localize it to the culture, interests, and linguists of the targeted audiences. To make your software successful in the foreign market, you need a localization solution that fulfills your business expansion needs.

For this purpose, you need reliable and well-practiced localization experts to create a solid localization plan for your software. You should hire a professional localization project manager to optimize your localization processes to deliver expected results. It is important to avoid some common mistakes in software localization made by localization managers. Following are some common software localization mistakes that you must avoid.

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Software Localization

Not hiring experienced staff can lead to poor localization project management. When it comes to software localization, you must have a professional team to manage it properly. There are some most common mistakes localization managers make that you must avoid. Make sure you are not making the mistakes mentioned below. Otherwise, the global reputation of your software would badly suffer.

1. Do Only Translations

There is a misconception that localization is all about translating the content from one language to another. Translating is a major part of localization, but localization is more than translations. Many other aspects localization managers have to consider launching their software globally. It would help if you adapted every aspect of your software to the targeted region’s cultural, social, legal, and linguistic nuances. 

Other than translations, you have to adapt your code, layouts, images, and payment method to the foreign market. If you think the translation alone would do the job for you and there is no need to alter other aspects, you are certainly making a big mistake that can make your brand suffer in the international market.

2. Hard Coding

To fully localize your content, you have to adopt the whole culture of the targeted region. Hard coding can lead to a lot of confusion and errors. You should develop a code easily modified to other regions’ specifications. As all countries have different time and date formats, currencies are also varied; it is important to modify them for every new market. Make sure you haven’t hard-coded the numbers, dates, time, currency, and units to make the localization job tougher.

3. Lack of Unicode 

Lack of Unicode support is the most common mistake of localization project managers. For example, you are using a server that recognizes the English language, whereas your target customers in China are searching in Chinese languages, it can corrupt the translation process. If you have letter impairment issues, using UTF-8 can help you, and it also supports you writing Unicode to avoid such errors. Ensure the developers you are hiring for the localization project are familiar with Unicode. Otherwise, your localization tasks would slow down, and you may require more effort to modify the code for every new country.

4. Avoid Embedding Text in Images 

For localization, you should try to use visuals, they reduce the need for textual content, and everyone can understand it. Adding text to images is a good way to communicate your message effectively to audiences, but it is not always recommended. Embedded text in images can cause your software to get impaired, and for every new market, you have to translate the image text. So, it is important not to link text with images; text should be kept separate from the code.

5. No SEO Internationalization 

Your local SEO might get you higher rankings in the local market, but not internationally. If you want to make your website visible in foreign markets, it is important to do SEO for every region. SEO is not just limited to translating the keyword to the native languages, but you have to conduct separate keyword research. For every region, you must use the keyword phrases used by local audiences. To make your software successful in a foreign market, you must not ignore SEO internationalization. It is the best way to enhance your software visibility on search engine results.

Conclusion 

Summing up the discussion, we can say that localization is critical for the success of your software in foreign markets. So, the project managers need to localize the software correctly and avoid common mistakes in software localization. You should pay attention to all localization aspects, including in-context translation.

You should hire a professional project manager and assemble an experienced team that provides you with reliable localization solutions tailored to your unique business needs. Moreover, before fully launching your software to the international market, you must test it on a small group of customers to get an idea about the customer’s response and how they would perceive your product.