Localization • Content • SEO • Quality • More
So, you’ve decided to localize your website for the Japanese market. An excellent choice for high-profit potential – Japan is the third-highest economy in the world with remarkable brand names such as Nintendo, Canon, Toyota, and Uniqlo.
As a foreign business entering Japan, how might we make a mark in website localization?
Since localization is a highly specialized field, we’ll take an in-depth look at localization for websites and games. We’ll look at localization processes such as content creation, content extraction, and creation, that all go into making your Japanese website great.
Then, I’ll show examples of brands that have successfully localized for the Japanese economy, market, and audience–examples any brand can follow.
Japanese Website Localization
When you’re localizing for multilingual functions, you want to keep in mind that websites and games will be seen through computers/mobile devices/game platforms. That means the scalable design of these will matter, and the localization processes will be different for each.
When done properly, website localization can make your business a perfect fit for that region and also enhance your global market potential, and since localization is specialized, there are so many other elements to consider. So what’s the best way to localize Japanese websites?
Here are two tips to begin with:
- Keep data on your target audience – Know which demographics you will most appeal to, whether it be age (are you marketing to millennials, Gen Z, or senior citizens?), gender (are you in a female-centric or male-centric field?), or a specific group in society (entrepreneurs, gamers, publishers, etc). Whichever segment of the Japanese population they are in, your audience will be of the utmost importance to you.
- Keep an eye on the Japanese market trends – You can’t expect to go into this market without keeping in touch with the Japanese market trends and doing your own market analysis on your specific market in Japan.
Are you ready to localize your website for use in Japan? Here are a few specifics on the localization process, with an eye on Japan:
Content Extraction
First, you’ll need to extract content. Your content inventory, your process mapping, and your glossary of text strings need to be translated. Don’t just use automatic machines for this one. Automatic machines and human supervision are best for content extraction since they will work for hand in hand for accurate extraction.
International SEO
Of course, you’re going to want to be doing keyword research for the Japanese market, as part of your international SEO.
The standard is to use a top-level domain to rank for Japanese search engines. Your hreflang should read: company.jp.
Inbound links will also work for Japanese search engines, and since content marketing is not really a huge part of Japanese SEO, affiliate advertising will still appear.
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance is a huge element of website localization. This is where the human supervision of the machine will come into play, as well as quality assurance checks of not just what’s translated but, of course, user experience.
Project managers may supervise each part of the project, making sure the project runs smoothly as well as certifying the quality of the localization work at hand. Ideally, project managers that are suited for this task will have extensive knowledge of both the Japanese culture/market and the localization process of Japanese websites. Choosing a good project manager can make the whole process run smoothly.
More information
Read the full article, including case studies, on the btrax blog
