Localizing and personalizing your websites content can have astounding affects for the growth of your business internationally. Users no longer want to browse a standard version of a site with no regard for their location; they want something personalized to their country through things like language, currency and support.
By proving that your business takes the time to localize content for users from different parts of the world, you show a huge dedication to customer service and the user experience. This helps to refine your brands image as professional, high quality and attentive to detail.
Localized content also has a very positive effect on SEO. With people from all over the world capable of searching for your site, you are more likely to find new international customers if Google knows that you are catering specifically to their search location. Naturally, by providing this personalized and localized experience, your business will also see higher rankings, fewer bounce rates, longer time on site and ultimately more conversions.
Talk to Customers In Their Language
One of the most important aspects to focus on for localizing your content is your sites language. Distinguishing between UK English and US English shows users that you are equally committed to both locations. Google’s ‘hreflang’ tag has made these small distinguishable features easier to implement without appearing as duplicate content. With these tags, Google knows which content to deliver to which audience, ensuring a personalized user experience.
However, with the use of the ‘x-default hreflang’ tag, multinational sites that do not have localized content for specific countries can redirect users to a global ‘default’ page, which is intended for a more generic audience.
Deliver A Great User Experience
Another great way to personalize the user experience is to focus on the different devices that people are using. It’s undeniable that mobile and tablet usage is experiencing an unsubstantiated rise. So it’s important that when a user lands on your page from a desktop, mobile or tablet device, they have a unique user experience, not only tailored to their browsing device, but to their browsing location.
With tablet traffic already outgrowing smartphone traffic this year, it is more important than ever to concentrate on valuable, user-tailored content for each browsing device.
If you have not yet implemented a responsive design on your site, then you are already falling behind. A responsive design will build trust and confidence in your brand and will help to convert visitors into customers.
Personalize Their Search Results
Another way of attracting new customers and delivering a unique browsing experience is by making your content stand out from the rest on search engine results pages (SERP). This can be done using the extremely useful and valuable resource known as rich snippets.
Rich snippets allow you to add extra, attractive elements to your content on SERP’s, such as ratings, reviews and embedded videos. These features immediately make your site more attractive, gain more attention and you are also more likely to have a higher CTR.
Rich snippets also look professional and allow you to rank better for SEO. With rich markup code that is easily inserted into your site, there is no reason why your company can’t stand out from the competition with more engaging, interesting and attractive content on results pages.