What Is Localization? Meaning, Examples, and a Step-by-Step Guide

What does localization mean? Localization is the process of not only translating a website or online store, but also fully adapting it to the language, culture, legislation, and search behavior of a specific target market. The goal of localization is to offer a foreign visitor the same familiar user experience as a local visitor.

Take website localization for German as an example. For an online store in Germany targeting Austria, it’s essential to adapt words to Austrian German (such as “Januar” to “Jänner”). This makes the average Austrian feel more at home on the website. With Clonable ’s central platform, you can use substitution rules to replace not only words but also flags, logos, banners, and local prices per market—without losing synchronization with your main website.

Moreover, Clonable allows you to replace more than words. For example, if you want to replace the 'language flag' at the top of your website, you can! An Austrian can then see his own flag, instead of a German one. So there are more parts of your website that can be replaced. Examples are color schemes, logos and shipping costs. Videos can also be substituted. For more applications of Clonable substitutions, click here.

What is the difference between translation and localization?

Many people wonder what the difference is between translation and localization. While translation is purely about converting text from one language to another, website localization goes much further.

With thoughtful localization, you tailor the entire shopping experience to the target market: think local currency, date and time formats, popular payment methods (such as Bancontact in Belgium or iDEAL in the Netherlands), specific shipping terms, and cultural tone of voice. Translation ensures visitors understand you; localization ensures they trust you and convert.

Why localize a website? The main benefits

Localization has several advantages, including:

• Entering a new market;

• The customer feels more at home;

• The customer trusts your website more;

• Wider reach: some are very attached to their culture, and avoid "internationalized" websites;

• Improved SEO rankings in the target area.

The only downside to localization, is that it takes more effort. With Clonable, however, localization is a snap. We'll go into more detail about it below.

Localization with Clonable

With Clonable , you can master localization in no time. Take the aforementioned example with Austria. You take a German website, and clone it to an Austrian domain. You then replace German words with their Austrian counterparts, such as replacing 'Januar' with 'Jänner'. This replacement can be done with substitutions. You enter the word to be replaced under 'original'. The replacement word is entered under 'Replacement'. Then you tap 'case insensitive' if you want to ignore capital letters when replacing.

Localization in steps

1. Consider what you want to locate to

The first step is to think of your target language. Are there markets for which you can localize? For example, if you have a French Web site, you may want to look into localizing for Quebec or for Switzerland. Or suppose you have a German Web site. Then you can localize for Austria, Switzerland, or Luxembourg, among others. So there is a whole laundry list of possibilities for localization. All possible sales markets!

2. Consider what you want to replace

Next, it is smart to make a list of the words and parts of your website to replace. With Clonable, you can replace the following things:

• Certain words;

• Pieces of text;

• Specific words;

• Images;

• Logos;

• Banners;

• Videos;

• Shipping costs;

• Email addresses;

• Phone numbers;

• The preselected country (e.g., when paying);

• The standard payment method

That’s not all! Check out our Knowledge Base for more examples, options, and explanations. Think about everything you’d like to replace for localization. Also, think about what you’ll use to replace all of this. To replace specific words or phrases, you can compile translations. Lists of common differences between languages are often available online.
A tip: when replacing certain words, it’s helpful to pay attention to the “ SEO .” You can find more information about this in this article.

3. Replace!

The next step is hopefully logical: substitute what you want for localization!

For information per section to be replaced, please visit our Knowledgebase. If you really don't understand something, please contact us.

4. Check that all changes are correct

Sometimes when substituting, a mistake can slip in. Perhaps there are certain instances that you just did not want to translate. Clonable has a solution for this: the so-called substitution exclusions. If you enter something here, it will not be translated. This is useful for specific email addresses, phone numbers and contact information, among other things. For more information on substitution exclusions, see our Knowledgebase.

5. Your Clone is ready!

If there are no more errors to be found, the localization is complete! Enjoy your clone!

Want to know more?

Want to learn more? Check out one of our other articles, or visit the knowledgebase. Are you interested, and would you like to take out a Clonable subscription? Click here for our offer.