Why build a Multilanguage Website?
The number one question for people considering having more than one language is simple: why do it? Our early adopters include government and non-government agencies, web architects and hosting companies who need Joomla! 1.5 with multi-lingual. These guys all have their own individual motivation for adopting Nooku Content — but essentially they all wanted ‘the best’.
Beyond the technical, there are many reasons to create a multi-language website. If you’re in business and you sell online, you could be missing out on a huge market by not considering those who don’t speak your language. Did you know that a prospective buyer is four times more likely to make their purchase from a website written in their own language?
If your competitors are already using multiple languages on their website, you will be losing significant traffic by default. Given current industry trends here’s a few basic statistics to support this fact. Growth of Internet users since 2000 (by language). Arabic language users has seen growth of 1576 per cent, followed by Portuguese (571 per cent), Chinese (472), French (422), Spanish 360, English (167), Italian (151), German (123), Japanese (86) and Korean (81). In short, English-only websites lose you money.
When building your multilingual website, there are five main considerations you should keep in mind.
- The Build
- The Translation
- Promotion
- Maintenance
- Customer Support
Whether you are considering Nooku+Joomla! or some other form of CMS, you need to cover the above bases so you can professionally implement your content. Joomla! founder Peter Russell and translations expert Daniel Rajkumar are co-authoring a book about these processes, to assist people wanting to explore the wonderful world of other cultures and opportunities. By subscribing to our newsletter, you will be notified when it’s available.
“The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture.”
Edward T. Hall and Mildred Reed Hall