TIME's Top Websites of 2010 — Seen through a Localization Lens

A "good" U.S. website may not be successful in other countries unless the site's elements ­— graphics, content, architecture, user interface ­— are successfully adapted to reach a global audience. Let's learn a few things from 2010's crème de la crème of the web and see how some of the best websites, according to TIME magazine, successfully translated their appeal for an international audience.

From TIME's Top 50 list, four multilingual websites in particular exhibit the localization smarts necessary to effectively communicate with an international clientele: LinkedIn.com, Mint.com, Stay.com and LiveMocha.com. These four companies took the time to understand the overreaching goal of website localization: how a user in another country would uniquely interact with their translated website and what steps were necessary to optimize the web experience with that user in mind.

Here are four tips, one per site, that demonstrate their localization know-how:

1.  Alignment of website localization with global business strategy. LinkedIn.com, the social medium for professionals, created a business infrastructure that could support their particular multilingual site objectives, such as professional networking and recruitment. In order to achieve their business objectives in other language markets (Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and French), LinkedIn laid the groundwork by establishing:

• Multilanguage customer support, which required training local staff and localizing training materials
• Multilingual payment processing, supported by an understanding of local banking customs and laws
• Localized advertising about LinkedIn services, translated or "transcreated" when appropriate

This step was crucial to the success of LinkedIn's global strategy as it equipped them to handle the new business that their localized website began to generate.

2.  Smart localization of imagery. Mint.com helps you better manage your household budget by simultaneously tracking all of your bank accounts ­— savings, checking, loans, and investments. They just launched the Canadian-English version of their site. You'll notice a few subtle image changes when you flip between the two versions ­— the sports car is not the same (Mint.com chose a less flashy version for our neighbors to the north), the cash and coins in the piggy bank are the local currency for each country, and the image of the checkbook reflects a different bank according to the country. Minor adaptations such as these are vital to Canadians' viewing this as a local site, one that can be trusted, and one that is clearly tailored to their particular needs.

3.  Effective management of real estate. The creators of Stay.com, a novel platform for travel destination research, planning and booking, gave themselves lots of breathing room to accommodate languages with longer translations. This is important when marketing to Scandinavian countries, for example, because the menu headings, buttons and titles need more room in Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish than in English. Check out Stay.com's Norwegian version of the site and you'll notice that web translations were well executed — none of the headings run over awkwardly onto a second line and there is even extra space should they choose to rework the copy. The overall feel is airy and clean ­— both in English and Norwegian. In addition, the marketing copy is direct and to the point, which also facilitates translation.

4.  Smart navigation. LiveMocha.com is a language-learning site that connects native speakers and language learners from around the world in a multilingual classroom and forum. It had every reason to localize ­— its users are from a myriad of countries and linguistic backgrounds. LiveMocha.com has thus far created a foreign language version of the site in Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, simplified Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Turkish, and Polish. Their multilingual navigation helps potential users find the site easily in their native language. To achieve this, they created multilingual landing pages and promoted them with online ad campaigns (do a Google search in any of these languages to view their results), thereby driving traffic to the site in each particular language market.

Once on the page, users can go straight to the language bar at the bottom of the screen for a display of each individual language in the language of its country of origin ­— the French is in French, the Turkish is in Turkish, etc. (this prevents foreign language mishaps in which you're stuck in a foreign version and can't find your way back to English). The navigation is clear and uncomplicated, favoring a parallel experience within the site across all languages. Read more about multilingual navigation options on our blog.

In addition to these four top performing localized websites, there were a few others that deserve recognition. The following are definitely set up with an international audience in mind, but they have only just begun their comprehensive web localization efforts:

1.  Tumblr.com, a popular micro-blogging platform, offers a German version of their site to facilitate use of the dashboard.

2.  TED.com, an amazing resource compiling "riveting talks by remarkable people" from all over the world, TED offers an archive of videos subtitled in 80 different languages. The user interface is only in English, however.

3.  Grooveshark.com, an alternative to Pandora, is an online radio available in 24 different languages, including Basque. Language selection only modifies certain elements of the site at this point. Musical genres and the search feature remain in English.

Work with Acclaro to create a plan for translating your website for new language markets. Learn more about website localization by reading our Top 10 Tips for Website Translation, or contact us to request a quote.