Award-winning localisation, translation, editing and multilingual copywriting services company PAB Languages Centre is celebrating a record quarter for website localisation projects.

The business, founded in the East Midlands and now operating globally, completed 11 different website translations and localisations for clients, including into French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, Swedish, and Japanese.

This comes as more and more businesses recognise the value of having websites not just in native languages but localised too.

Around 40% of internet users said they will never buy from websites that are not in their native language and 65% of non-native English speakers prefer content in their native tongue, even though they are highly proficient in English, according to CSA Research.

And in a 2022 study by PayPal, 57% of online shoppers said that they shopped internationally. In fact, two out of five global shoppers had made a cross-border purchase in the previous three months.

Iwona Lebiedowicz, founder of PAB Languages Centre Ltd, said: “A multilingual website engages new audiences and opens the opportunity to become visible across international search engines. A properly localised website speaks directly to the consumer in their own language, enabling businesses and brands to compete with local and global players in their niche."

“Localisation is a comprehensive process that entails not only text translation but also other factors to bear in mind. These include modifying your content to respect local market habits, addressing economic, historical, and sometimes political references, adjusting images, icons, and colours to local tastes and culture, changing dates, addresses, phone numbers, and other details to fit a local format, and converting to local currencies and units of measure."

“The numbers are quite staggering – translating your website into English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese and Italian enables you to reach 80% of the global online purchasing power – so it’s no surprise that an increasing number of businesses are looking to translate and localise their websites.”

PAB Languages Centre helps organisations across all industries connect and communicate with their audiences. Offering localisation, translation, editing and multilingual copywriting services in more than 200 languages, PAB has a team of professional translators, linguists, interpreters, and lecturers who come from all over the world.

It has UK offices in the East Midlands as well as Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire, and Essex. PAB works locally and internationally with clients from the UK and around the world.

“Localisation is a complex process and one that requires a huge range of skills and specialist knowledge. For these reasons, the process of localising a website is best handled by a team of professionals,” added Iwona.

She advises checking experience, expertise, value and references when choosing a website translation and localisation service.

“Look at their portfolio to see their approach to localisation and ability to work with diverse content types,” advises Iwona. “Check for reviews and ask for references from previous clients to understand their quality of work, responsiveness, and ability to meet deadlines. A professional team should include experts in areas such as culture, technical architecture, web development, SEO, copywriting, translation, and quality assurance."

“Localisation requires specialist knowledge, and to ensure that your localised website delivers a return on investment it is essential to choose a trustworthy agency with a good reputation.”

When PAB Languages asked clients why they had decided to translate and localise their websites they said it helped to create a sense of trust and familiarity between the company and its customers, helping to develop a better customer experience and increasing customer loyalty.

For more information, visit www.pablanguages.co.uk