Localisation.

Localisation is adapting content to the culture, habits and search language of a target market; it is a wider undertaking than translation.

Translation carries a text from one language to another; localisation makes that text work in the target market. The difference is clearest in keywords: a direct translation can produce a term nobody in that market searches for.

1. Search terms — the word actually searched for in that market.
2. Form of address — formal or familiar? In German a necessity.
3. Examples and references — names the local audience recognises.
4. Formats — date, time, number separator, currency.
5. Legal texts — translation is not enough; every market has its own legislation.
6. Images — images containing text have to be produced separately in every language.

The fifth item carries a warning: a privacy statement and terms of use are a legal matter, not a translation job. Translating one market’s legal text from another’s may fail to meet that market’s requirements.

Localisation is work that can be deepened endlessly, and the stopping point is found with this question: would this differentiation change a customer’s decision in that market? If not, the investment should not go there.

And a balance: building a separate brand narrative for each market disperses recognition. The right balance is keeping the core fixed and adapting the shell — a shared identity, local terms.

Machine translation has improved markedly in recent years and is a reasonable starting point for some kinds of content. But publishing it unreviewed carries two risks: not knowing the domain terminology, and reputation.

The sensible approach is hybrid — the machine produces a draft, a human reviews it and corrects the terminology. The cost is lower than translating from scratch, the quality higher than unreviewed machine output.

Not every page deserves the same investment: conversion pages want full localisation, while an archive post can get by with reviewed machine translation. The deciding test is this — what do I lose if this page is translated wrongly?

1. Search terms — the word actually searched for in that market, not a translation.
2. Form of address — formal or familiar in German, a necessity.
3. Formats — date, number separator, currency.
4. Legal texts — translation is not enough; it is a legal matter.
5. Images — an image containing text means separate production in every language.

A note on balance: localisation also does harm when overdone. Building a separate brand narrative for each market disperses recognition; the right balance is keeping the core fixed and adapting the shell — a shared identity, local terms.