How to Master Website Localization: 7 Steps & a Checklist

Multilingual websites are the lifeblood of global brands.

They’re how you connect deeply with customers across borders – speaking not just their language, but to their hearts and minds. However, without careful planning, website localization can become expensive and overwhelming – especially when you’re juggling large amounts of content and coordinating multiple teams.

That’s why we’ve created this step-by-step guide to website localization, built on 30 years of industry experience.

We’ll walk you through the 7 key steps every marketer needs to know to successfully launch a multilingual website. And to make your job even easier, we’ve included a free Website Localization Essentials Checklist you can download and use right away.

P.s. There’s no form to fill out – simply download the checklist and start planning your localization project with confidence.

What is website localization?

If our team had a dime for every time they heard that website localization is simply content translation, we’d be on a permanent beach vacation.

But the truth is, confusing the two can lead to delayed launches, costly rounds of revisions, and missed opportunities for growth.

Yes, a translation plugin can churn out a multilingual version of your website in seconds. But true website localization goes far beyond simply making your content readable in another language.

Website localization means adapting a website’s content, design, and functionality for a specific language, culture, and market. It goes beyond translating words to ensure that everything — from images and tone of voice to SEO keywords and calls-to-action — feels natural and relevant to local users.

When done right, website localization is a strategic tool for market growth because it helps brands connect with customers, build trust, and drive conversions in different regions.

In the next chapters, we’ll show you exactly how to make website localization work for your brand — and your marketing results.

Benefits of website localization

Localizing a website can be a significant investment where costs can quickly reach five figures or more.

Therefore it’s only natural for decision-makers to ask: Is website localization worth it?

In most cases, the answer is a resounding yes. Here are some website localizations statistics that prove why:

• 76% of global consumers prefer to shop in their native language.
• 90% are more likely to engage with websites in their own language.
• Companies that invest in website localization see, on average, a 1.5x increase in conversion rates because they remove language barriers and create a more personalized user experience.
• As a result, 84% of marketers view localization as a key driver of revenue growth.

There’s also another powerful advantage: in many markets, localized content still faces limited competition. This “blue ocean” effect means fewer rivals in local search results, greater visibility in niche markets, and faster rankings on search engines.

In short: when you localize, you’re not just being found — you’re being discovered in places where competitors haven’t yet arrived.

How to localize a website in 7 steps

We asked our experts for their website localization tips, and this is what they shared.

1. Define your website localization strategy 

Before you even begin localizing your website, it’s crucial to define your localization goals and target audience to prioritize your efforts. Here’s a framework to help you decide: 

• Corporate growth plan: Which geographical markets are your company targeting in the coming year/s?  
• Cultural overlaps: Targeting countries with similar cultural backgrounds can facilitate the adaptation process.
• Language similarities: Prioritizing languages that are spoken across multiple target markets can streamline translation costs (e.g. Portugese for Portugal and the massive Brazillian market). 
• Timelines: How much time do you have to launch your multilingual website pages? Express jobs are always charged at a premium. 
• Localization budget: How much do you have to spend on translations, technical and layout updates, and translation management tools? Do you have the capacity to manage a full-scale localization project in-house, or do you need to outsource? 

Conduct a content audit

The next step is to conduct a content audit. Look through the pages on your website and identify which ones contain critical information about your company and main product offerings. You can segment pages by the following: 

• High-impact pages: These pages typically have a significant influence on conversion rates and brand reputation (such as your homepage, about us, and key product pages). Prioritize human marketing translations with SEO in mind for these pages.  
• Low-impact pages: These pages receive minimal traffic and have a limited impact on conversions or brand reputation. Consider omitting translation or using machine translation for these pages.
• Pages without local relevance: Not all content will be relevant for all language versions, and thus may not require localization.

Once you’ve identified your target markets and key pages, set clear goals for your localization efforts. Are you aiming to increase website traffic from specific regions, boost conversions, or raise brand awareness? Defining these goals will help you measure your success later. 

2. Build your team and workflow 

One of the many reasons website localization can be challenging is because it requires a team of specialists to ensure a smooth launch and subsequent maintenance. This includes web developers, graphic designers, copywriters, translators, quality assurance (QA) managers, and localization project managers.  

When building your dream team, ask yourself about: 

• Resource availability: What in-house team members or external resources do you currently have that could support the localization process? Will you need to outsource any roles? 
• Content update frequency: How often will you need to make updates to your website? Will this be a one-off project, or will it require a dedicated team for regular content updates post-launch? 

Qualified native-speaking translators are vital for any successful localization project. They bring deep cultural insights and ensure your content resonates authentically with local audiences, avoiding miscommunications and enhancing engagement. Without their expertise, even the best localization efforts can miss the mark. 

An experienced localization manager is also essential for streamlining the process, ensuring deadlines are met, and maintaining project efficiency.

Partnering with a professional translation company, like Milengo, grants you access not only to a network of expert native translators but also to experienced localization managers, minimizing obstacles and ensuring a seamless website localization rollout. 

3. Leverage time-saving translation tools 

Nobody wants to spend hours sifting through email attachments or copying and pasting lines of translations into a content management system (CMS). The ultimate time-saving hack for localization projects is to automate processes with translation technology and tools. 

A wide range of tools are available to manage localization projects and achieve your business goals. Here are some you can consider:  

• Machine translation (MT): This can be used as a pre-translation tool to reduce costs for repetitive content and for content on low-impact pages. However, it must always be followed up with post-editing for accuracy and cultural sensitivity. 
• Translation management systems (TMS): These powerful tools are a synergy of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools and machine translation topped with project management and business intelligence features. They are made to be a centralized portal that helps you keep track of localization processes, workflows, communications, and costs.
  
  When choosing a TMS, it is important to ensure it can be integrated into your content management system to automate the export and re-import of translations.
• Translation Memory (TM): Utilize a TM to store previously translated content. This ensures consistency and reduces costs when translating similar phrases across different pages, especially for technical information. 

4. Prepare your website’s architecture

The architecture of your website can significantly impact the cost and efficiency of localization.

Web development and design teams play a crucial role in this. They prepare your website for localization through a process called internationalization. This involves ensuring your website’s architecture is flexible enough to accommodate multiple languages efficiently and cost-effectively.

Here’s what to consider: 

• CMS Selection: A Content Management System (CMS) is the backbone of your website. Even if localization is only a later-stage plan, it is important to choose a CMS that supports multiple languages. This can save you time and resources down the line by eliminating the need to re-code parts of your website. 

• Code structure: Ensure your website’s code is flexible enough to handle varying character lengths and that text can be easily resized as lengths of texts will change with translations. For example: German translations usually expand by 35% whereas Chinese translations contract. Encoding your site in Unicode (UTF-8) is also crucial to ensure it can accommodate special characters used in different languages. 
• User interface (UI) design: A well-structured website from the start can significantly reduce localization costs. Review your website’s design elements. Are they adaptable for languages with different writing directions (e.g., right-to-left)? Where will you place the language switcher?

5. Optimize technical SEO  

A good international Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy is crucial for any website that wants to drive organic search internationally. There are three main building blocks of SEO: on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

Technical SEO optimizes the technical foundation of your website for search engines to crawl, index, and rank it effectively. In simple terms, it helps search engines find and understand you.  

Some key technical SEO considerations include: 

• URL Structure: Implement clear and consistent URL structures that incorporate language codes to help search engines easily identify the language and regional differences. 
• Hreflang Tags: Hreflang tags signal to search engines which language variation of your website is relevant to a specific user’s location.  
• Localized Sitemaps: Create separate sitemaps for each language version of your website to help search engines index your content efficiently. 

6. SEO translation and cultural adaptation

Once you have all the systems in place, it’s finally time to start localizing your content!

Localization goes beyond simple translation of words. It’s about cultural adaptation too. This means tailoring your content to resonate with local references, humor, and idioms of your target audiences.  

Let’s look at an example below from British online fashion retailer, ASOS. Like many other large e-commerce stores, the menu categories on their website are aligned with local search habits, which are based on SEO and on-site search analyses.

In the screenshots below, you see that the UK website includes ‘Vintage’ and ‘TopShop’ (a well-loved British brand) in their menu. On the other hand, navigation for the US site features lesser categories, but highlights ‘Plus Size’, as inclusivity is an important factor for many American consumers.

Furthermore they also showcase products in local currencies, and use different hero images and messages for the different regions.

Here’s how to approach this step: 

• Keyword research: Use a keyword research tool to identify keywords relevant to the high-impact pages in your target markets. Your linguists will need to incorporate these keywords into translations in a natural-sounding way to help your localized website rank higher in local search engine results.  
• Numbers and currencies: Localize details such as dates, times, number formats, currency symbols, and measurement units to prevent confusion. 
• Images & colors: Localization is about visuals too. Using culturally appropriate images and graphics is key to building trust and engagement with your global audience. 
• Translation quality: Invest in professional professional SEO translations by native speakers who understand both your industry as well as the nuances of the target language and culture. Ideally your linguists should also be seasoned marketing translators to ensure CTAs are well-written to drive conversion.  

7. Test, launch, promote and optimize

Before launching your localized website, thorough testing is crucial. This includes functionality testing across languages and meticulous proofreading by native speakers. Look out for things such as: 

• Text fit: Ensure translations fit within the original page layout by reviewing them after importing them into your CMS. Translators often receive texts for translation with no visual context of where and how words are displayed, and therefore cannot identify length restrictions, unless specified.

• Consistent style: Key slogans, product names, and spelling should be consistent throughout the website. For languages ​​that distinguish between formal and informal forms of address (e.g. German or French), the register should be consistent throughout. Therefore, if you work with different translators, it’s advisable to create 
  style guides and glossaries for each translation language.
• Translation quality: Does the quality of translations match your expectations? You might need to get a native-speaking colleague to help out with this part. 
• SEO and keyword placements: Verify keywords are sufficiently and correctly placed on SEO pages and ensure meta descriptions are complete.
• Broken links: Scan your pages with the help of plugins or tools for any 404 errors. 

Define your website KPIs

Define Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your website that align with your goals, and track them regularly to measure the effectiveness of your localization efforts. KPIs for website localization can include:  

• Website traffic by region 
• Conversion rates 
• Bounce rates  
• Keywords positions and rankins

Ready? Launch your localized website, promote it widely, and watch your global audience grow. But the work is far from over. As now you need to continuously analyze data around your KPIs to identify areas for improvement and optimize your website accordingly.

Tip: Set up your tracking before launching your multilingual website to accurately measure your efforts. Often, a simple Excel sheet in which you document data on traffic, ranking keywords or other success criteria such as leads generated at regular intervals is often sufficient, if you don’t have access to paid tools.

Unlock new markets with website localization

Want to implement these best practices for your website localization project? Look no further! At Milengo, we understand the complexities of localizing websites. We can help you navigate every step of the process, from crafting a winning localization strategy to meticulous translation and SEO optimization.

Our team of experienced linguists and localization experts will ensure your website speaks directly to your target audience in each language, boosting your global brand presence and website conversions. 

Ready to unlock the potential of a global market? Contact us today for a free consultation of how a managed and streamlined approach to website localization can help your business thrive! 

This article was published on July 23 2024 and updated on July 1 2025 for clarity and recency.

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