Localization Services Definition
Before diving into content localization, let us learn about localization services in general. The localization service definition states that all the services that help clients deliver their audio, video, and textual content in the native language of the target audience are localization services. It includes dubbing, translations, subtitling, interpretation, and much more.
Non-English speaking countries form over 80% of the total world’s population. In such cases, it is evident for organizations to put localization on top of the priority list.
As of now, there are tons of localization companies offering services. After learning about the localization service definition, it is clear that organizations must pick a professional service that meets all their requirements in the best possible manner.
However, regardless of how big or small your organization is, it isn’t immune to localization potholes.
Mistakes and errors in localizing content are something all brands have faced once. While sometimes the localization company is to blame, other times, the reasons are different. No matter what the reason is, the fact is that no organization wants to deal with such issues.
Here in this blog, we will talk about the top ten content localization mistakes that companies make.
Common Content Localization Mistakes
Trusting Machine-based Content Localization Services
Don’t get us wrong; we also know what benefits machine content localization services deliver. Features like faster translation speeds, cost-effective nature, and more make them quite appealing. Also, it puts less pressure on the company’s localization teams.
But, different things make machine translation solutions the arch-rival of localization.
Firstly, translating content to localize is different from translating technical documents.
Localizing content requires it to pass through a series of transformations and not just through linguistic means.
Machine translation speeds up the process, which is appreciable. But, it never pushes cultural contexts into content while translating it.
Machine translation fails in translating and localizing speeches, idioms, casual languages, or other such non-technical stuff.
Localization faces a significant setback if done through machine translation as it does not have human intelligence.
AI intelligence is wiser than human intellect in many streams, but not always.
Machine translation miserably fails in localizing content. That is why choosing localization companies that rely only on machine translation is the first mistake.
Ignoring Space Requirements and Limitations
Different languages have different text sizes and font structures. It is thus crucial for organizations to have an initial idea of space requirements or limitations.
That means that any random sentence like “Connect with us today” is small in English. But in German – “Verbinden Sie sich noch heute mit uns” or in French – “Connectez-vous avec nous aujourd’hui”, the same sentence is much bigger.
Also, some languages like Hebrew and Arabic have a right-to-left synchronization, which is not the same as English.
What most organizations do is ignore space limitations. Whether your organization is localizing content on business websites or mobile application software, maintaining size is essential.
Keeping adequate space, which is twice that of the English sentence, is a crucial step that most organizations miss. What they get in return is a wrong format and structure that ruins their SEO factor too.
Generating a Different Meaning Altogether
A big failure of content localization services is the inability to convey the ‘right’ brand message. Even multi-billion dollar companies like Apple and KFC have faced such mistakes in their globalization approaches.
Therefore, it is vital for organizations to only looking for professional localization services. Although they don’t guarantee to provide you with 100% errorless content localization, their records are better than others.
Another mistake that localization companies make is translating the names of places, products, or services. It makes it utterly confusing for the audience and gets the brand to lose credibility.
Both of these errors are common in localization services. Organizations thus need to be more careful while translating and localizing different types of content.
Localization Services Definition Includes the Localization of Payment Methods
Different countries have different payment methods and currency units. Organizations that are looking to develop their markets in foreign countries should do extensive research. They should dig out the target region’s currency and its value with USD.
They should also look for the most-used or the most popular payment methods. Just like how popular PayPal is in the US, GPay is in India. But that does not mean GPay is invalid in the US or vice versa.
One of the most popular localization mistakes, organizations keep the payment methods as it is. Sometimes, they forget to change the product’s price tags from the source unit to the target unit.
While these problems are products of poor localization services, their correction is relatively simple.
Localization Services Definition Says To About Political Opinions
Political matters are much like an emotional nutcracker. The audience is an emotionally sensitive group of people. They have a substantial choice and connection when it comes to political context. Picking up political instances in content can make your content sound judgemental. It might look partial and offensive even when your organization has zero intentions to do that.
Therefore, introducing political context in content localization services is one of those mistakes that companies make.
The more companies keep such topics at bay, the more prominent the localization services become. Organizations should inform their localization companies to avoid talking about sensitive issues like politics.
Content Localization Services Sometimes Fail to Separate Weekends from Weekdays
In different parts of the world, by ‘weekdays’, they mean a week that starts on Monday and ends on Friday. Saturday and Sunday are the weekend days.
On the other hand, Middle East countries consider Fridays and Saturdays as a weekend.
When your organization localizes content, they need to understand and focus on the target region and their weekly holidays. Many localization companies forget about this change and thus leading to unwanted issues in the content.
Thinking Only About the Language?
As said earlier, localization is different from translation services in many aspects. While translation does a minute shift from one language to another, localization takes the game ahead.
Content localization services focus on the region and ensure to make the context suitable for the local audience. Therefore, localization services should have minute parts of cultural references, localized terms and expressions, and different things.
Localization companies should avoid mistakes, look for alternate date formats, and change currency and payment methods. Also, many other features are essential to localize content.
Coming back to what mistakes companies make is that they give their complete focus only on the language. They will ensure zero errors in the translation process but ignore the industrial guidelines of localization.
Losing Great Content Titles in Bad Localization
Your organization’s contents should always look fresh and straight out of the writing department. That is how the contents will engage customers and make them feel like they were made exclusively for them. Similarly, having a catchy and engaging title is equally important.
However, lousy localization companies often mess up the title in the target language. Modifying the title is okay only if the localization experts design an equally enthralling title. But this is something the companies fail to do and end up ruining your content’s first impressions.
This factor also marks the need and importance of professional companies. Those companies will have language experts who will use their expertise to create unique titles that inspire the audience.
Believing Expensive Content Localization Services Are the Best
It is a popular misconception that organizations have while connecting with expensive localization companies. Organizations need to understand that not all costly services are invaluable as gold. Therefore, spending money like there’s no tomorrow is simply foolish.
Many organizations in the industry believe that the best services of content localization services come wrapped in gold emblems. But the reality is quite the reverse as most of the reputed and quality companies offer affordable services.
Thus, companies must do basic field research on localization companies. They can easily find professional companies that provide better services at lower price rates.
Localization Services Definition Says To Stop Rushing All At Once
Different organizations rush to as many new international markets as possible. But as per the localization services definition, clients must approach the process slowly. Instead of going with the flow and working with many localization companies together, they must work with one service provider at a time. They must conduct thorough market research and then partner with a company most suitable for the localization needs of a particular country.
So, what is the outcome of rushing?
They find that their content quality is miserable, and all they did was waste bucks on nothing.
In these cases, the content localization services are not to blame as they do their job no matter what. But what the organization does is waste their funds, resources, and everything else, only to tick boxes.
This practice isn’t new, as organizations have been doing this for years. It doesn’t count as a mistake but as a severe threat to its future in the long run.
How Does Picking The Right Content Localization Services Help?
After reading through the top ten most common mistakes that companies make while choosing localization companies, it must be clear that selecting the best one can hinder the chances of facing these issues.
Content localization services will help your organization in multiple ways. They will provide reliable support required to enter and prosper in a foreign market. It is a new region, and therefore, the organization’s approach will decide its fate. And that fate is designed by the multilingual team and localization experts of the company. They will enhance the client’s brand reach, ROI, audience engagement, and customer conversion rates. 
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