Localized websites

If your company wants to expand into the international market, you will need to localize the content of the website for visitors of different origins. Localization provides visitors with a local user experience and compliance with the laws and culture of the host country. In the following blog post, we explore the concepts, features, and technologies associated with localization.

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Internationalization (i18n) and localization (l10n)

If you want to offer your company's services to customers who speak another language or come from a different cultural space, you need to think about internationalization and localization. In terms of information technology, internationalization refers to the technical solution to achieve localization.

The process of integrating technologies, which allows the content of a website to be localized to different audiences is called internationalization. Localization refers to extending the content of a website to be multilingual or otherwise more culture specific .

Polylang, Translatepress and other plugins

If you use a popular content management system to manage your website, it's likely that most of the work has already been done by someone else. Localization technologies for content management systems are likely to be found through plugins .

For WordPress, there are plugins like Polylang and TranslatePress that allow you to localize the webpage’s content for different visitors. There are many plugins and the reader can browse them all in the plugin store. These plugins usually also hide some functionality behind a paywall .

Web application localization

If your web solution is a web application, the integration process is somewhat different. The final solution for localization will depend on the technical framework of your web application. Developers need to consider different options for integration.

Does your framework already have a localization library that you could use? Probably!
Should developers start developing the technical capabilities themselves? Unlikely!

Some of the most popular frameworks and solutions can be found here: Django web applicationNodeJS web applicationJava web applicationDOTNET web application. The aforementioned libraries are general recommendations, and other options should be considered for a real solution.

Cultural specificities

Localization is not just about multilingualism. Cultural characteristics such as religion , language-oriented design and compliance with the laws of the cultural space must also be taken into account.

An example can be the media and entertainment companies that make significant changes to the content of their websites for Chinese customers. Different countries have different requirements and should definitely be explored to expand the cultural space and to ensure the best user experience.

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