If you work for an e-commerce company, providing multiple language options on your website is a crucial step towards growth. Research shows that 75% of non-English-speaking customers will choose a product in their own language rather than in English. There is around $55 trillion economic potential worldwide for online products, but only 36.5% is for English-speaking audiences. Opening your services to 11 more languages, including German and Japanese, can expand your potential to 88.7% of the world’s total online GDP. Those are some very solid reasons to invest in localizing your content by providing as many language options as you can.

You probably provide a lot of content in English, and much of it needs to be available in other languages to maximize your global business potential: website content and product information, sales support, e-mail campaigns, blogs, and user-generated content.

So how do you translate all that content into 11 languages?

Enter the LSP—Language Service Provider. Companies like Ulatus can help translate your content and realize the potential in multilingual audiences. But how do you choose the right one? What should you look for in an LSP?

Make Sure They Are Using the Most Effective Technology

Translation can be extremely slow without effective tools and integration systems, and you don’t have time for that. You have a lot of content you need to make available on your website as quickly as possible. So, you need a LSP that can provide fast, high-quality translations that integrate seamlessly with your content management system. Ask about machine translation versus computer-assisted technology and whether they can help you decide when to use one or the other.

Make Sure They Are Providing High-Quality Translations

Providing content that makes no sense is even worse than providing no content in the target language. You need to make sure your customers are going to understand the content well, and that your services have a professional reputation among speakers of that language. Make sure the LSP has high-quality certification through a well-known industry standard, good customer reviews, and a robust quality management system.

Make Sure They’re on Top of Multilingual SEO and Digital Marketing

Providing content in a widely spoken language isn’t going to attract customers if they can’t find you! A good LSP needs to know how to drive traffic to the most relevant pages using SEO optimization, keywords, and digital marketing in all the languages you are using. Remember that merchant sites with six or more language options rank better in search engine results!

Make Sure You’re on the Same Page

The right LSP should understand your needs and challenges as an e-commerce company and share your vision for your business. They should appoint a project manager to make sure you have someone to consult with on any issue, and as you build a relationship with the LSP, you should have a team that is dedicated to your project and is familiar with your particular needs and goals. This personal touch is essential for smoothing out problems that may arise and making sure that your project is carried out most effectively and In line with your vision for your business.