What is App Localizaiton?
Mobile app usage worldwide is increasing which makes localizing your app especially important. App localization is the process of adapting an app’s functionality, interface, and marketing to suit foreign domains.
Localization helps broaden your net and reduce friction across geos. For example, if you’re targeting a French audience, bear in mind French people generally have low English proficiency relative to other European countries and so you should include a French description of your app in the stores, a French version of your app itself, and ad creatives translated to French.
Why is Localization Important?
Localization goes beyond mere translation. It's about adapting your app to meet the cultural and linguistic expectations of different target markets. This process is essential because:
- Cultural Relevance: Users are more likely to engage with content that resonates with their cultural norms and values.
- Increased Visibility: Localizing your app can significantly improve its visibility in local app stores, leading to higher download rates.
- Competitive Edge: By appealing to local markets, you differentiate your app from competitors who may not have localized their content.
Expert Insights: Research local trends, holidays, and customs to tailor your app's user experience. This can include adjusting color schemes, graphics, and even app functionality to align with local preferences, which can be instrumental in user adoption.
Why is Metadata Localization Important?
Metadata localization is the process of optimizing your app's title, description, keywords, screenshots, and other metadata for different languages and regions. This is important because:
- Search Optimization: Localized keywords can help your app rank higher in search results within local app stores.
- Better Conversion Rates: When users understand the app's value proposition in their own language, they are more likely to download it.
- User Trust: Providing information in the user's native language helps build trust and credibility.
Expert Insights: Conduct keyword research for each target market to understand the local search behavior. Use native speakers for translations to ensure that the language is natural and appealing. Remember, a direct translation often doesn't capture the nuances of the language.
Should You Localize Your App?
Localizing your app can be a significant investment, but it's one that can pay off with increased downloads, improved user engagement, and higher revenue. Consider localizing your app if:
- You Have a Global Audience: If your app has the potential to attract users worldwide, localization is a must.
- Market Research Indicates Demand: If research shows that users in certain regions would benefit from your app, localize for those areas.
- Competitors Are Localizing: To stay competitive, you may need to localize if others in your category are doing so.
Expert Insights: Start with localization for markets with the highest potential return on investment. Monitor app performance closely in each locale to understand the impact of your localization efforts and to make data-driven decisions for future expansions.
How to Localize Your App Advertising
- App content: Update your app to fit the country’s tastes, especially if there is a relevant cultural gap. Translate all text into local languages and remember that culturalization goes beyond the written word and includes images and feel.
- Local SEO: Mobile app localization is not confined to the app itself. Make sure potential customers can find you easily and keep in mind which search engines are popular in the geo you are localizing in.
- App file size matters: Much of the world does not have access to stable Wi-Fi or powerful cellular data. If the app file is too large, people in some geos will simply not be able to download your app.
- App store local optimization: The app stores ecosystem can have a lot of fragmentation because there are tons of different store options.
- IP protection: Check in on your trademarks and copyrights and make sure they can be extended to the country you are targeting.
Mobile App Localizaiton for iOS and Android
iOS app localization: You can change the Xcode, default state, to whatever language you want. The “Base.lproj” is the localized directory inside your project for your base language and as you add new languages, more of these folders are created.
Android app localization: For Android apps, you will change the string into different languages. Make a new folder under “res” with name, “values-local,” where local is replaced with the region you are localizing to.
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