Expansion and localization are very prideful achievements enjoyed by successful companies. Businesses around the world constantly look up to globalized giants like Apple, Microsoft, or Amazon and dream to achieve the same success. A company that is ready to localize into other markets can experience unprecedented growth if the targeted region needs their services, but the localization process has many nuances that can make or break the expansion.

Localization requires us to change the product or its presentation to attract clients in different regions. Some expansion processes are much simpler, especially if countries speak the same language. However, that does not mean that it is easy to expand in these regions. Localization takes a lot of work and resources, and not every company has the luxury to compete for growth.

There are also a lot of risks involved in the localization process. Some companies even end up hurting themselves due to poor preparation and execution, while some overestimate their capabilities and cannot compete with other businesses. Of course, the process is less competitive when there are no competitors, but that does not mean that the region will be interested in your services.

In this article, we will learn more about localization and what it takes to persevere and enjoy its results. We will also talk about the tools that help us achieve this task. For example, if we try to build a client base in India, an Indian proxy will let us analyze the market without any restrictions. Let’s learn the essentials of testing and completing localization!

Start with internationalization

The process of localization is often seen as a simple translation of a product and website, but it is much more than that. Of course, the key part of making your product understandable to other countries is translating the language. This process is called internationalization, and it makes your platform versatile enough to support foreign language characters. Some businesses take care of these communication barriers before any attempts to localize and avoid any engineering changes in the future.

Once your product and website support the proper rendering of foreign characters in different languages, it allows a much easier implementation of localization. Different standards for interchanging data support various non-Latin typographic features. Once you adapt your product to different possible situations, the rest of the localization consists of non-functional properties to make your application and website attractive and presentable to new potential clients.

There is no shame in looking for inspiration from your competitors. The internet is full of public data waiting to be collected and analyzed. You can research other businesses by yourself or set up web scrapers to collect data for you. If you want to expand your company into India, learn more about internationalization with the help of an India proxy. The intermediary server will help you bypass geo-blocked websites and remain anonymous during your research.

What should you focus on during localization?

If your system can already support other languages and their character systems, you can start focusing on adapting your website and product to your new client base. Every difference between regions that you encounter can be used as valuable information for restructuring and localization.

Language changes may force you to choose different alignments, which will force you to rebuild your graphical user interface (GUI). Different word lengths and spatial differences force you to constantly test and adjust until you build a system that can function with a new language and character type.

However, even if you implement some visual changes, do not stray too far away from the original product layout. Consistency will ensure a much faster and smoother expansion. If you plan to localize your business in India, a local residential proxy will show you a local point of view of your website. An India proxy will help you monitor these changes and compare your product with competitors, so use this tool to your advantage.

Create testing checkpoints to avoid mistakes

Expanding the reach of your products to other regions can become a messy business if you do not structure localization in an orderly fashion. Implementing currency, time, and language changes should be your main priority. Because the whole GUI is built to compliment your text, implementing new characters and text alignments will highlight the necessary changes to make your product presentable. Divide localization tasks into testing checkpoints to not miss any linguistic inaccuracies and resource attributes. Ensure the proper functioning of scripts and usability of your UI. Once you systematize these changes, you won’t mess up the functionality of your system. Then all that will be left is customizable presentability to future clients.

You will have a much better time testing a website if you will utilize proxy extensions. For businesses in India, you can use an India proxy to simulate a local connection or use a different address and monitor the responsiveness of your website. Proxy servers greatly compliment all localization tasks, so you can use IP geo targeting to test whether your page is working as intended.