How to measure the success of web translations

In our globalised and digital world, a web translation for your online shop is crucial when expanding your online business. To make the most of a translated website’s potential, you must ask yourself how to measure web translation success and adapt your strategies accordingly.

In this article, we explore the key metrics to evaluate the performance of the website translation and how to use these to improve it.

The importance of metrics in web localisation

Measuring metrics when we translate web pages allows us to evaluate its performance and make sure it is fulfilling its scope, interaction and conversion objectives. This data helps us identify areas of improvement and optimise our strategies to expand our business.

Key metrics to measure the success of web translations

There are different types of metrics that can help us measure success when translating web pages. Let’s take a look at the most significant ones:

Web traffic

Web traffic is essential for evaluating the success of web translations:

• Unique visitors: the number of people who visit your website. The higher the number, the more people are accessing your website in the translated language.
• Pages viewed: the number of pages on a website that users view. This shows us how attractive our translated content is.
• Time spent on a page: the time visitors spend on your website before leaving. The longer the time suggests the translated is relevant and attractive.

Conversion rate

The conversion rate measures the percentage of visitors that perform a desired action on your website, like making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter. It is essential for evaluating success when you translate a web page as it indicates whether your translated content is persuasive and effective. Other relevant metrics include:

• Percentage of visitors that perform a desired action: the number of visitors who fulfil a specific objective in relation to the total number of visitors.
• Conversion targets: the specific objectives you want your visitors to fulfil, such as making a purchase, registering for an event or downloading a document.

Bounce rate

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that abandon your website after viewing just one page. A high bounce rate can indicate problems with quality of the web page translation, relevance of the content or the ability to browse the website. It is important to analyse the causes and find solutions to reduce this rate and improve user experience.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation, or SEO, guarantees our translated content is easy to find in SERP. Key metrics for SEO translation include:

• Keywords and ranking: the keywords that position our translated content and its ranking on search engines.
• Organic traffic: the number of visitors that reach our website through non-paid search results. An increase in organic traffic shows that our SEO and translation strategy is working properly.
• Inbound links: the number and quality of the links that lead to our website from other websites. These links are essential in search engine positioning and show our translated content has authority and relevance.

Tools for analysing web translation metrics

There are a number of tools that can help us to analyse the metrics of our web page translation. Here are a few of the most popular:

• Google Analytics: a free and powerful tool that allows us to analyse web traffic, conversion rate, bounce rate and many other key metrics.
• SEMrush: an SEO analytics tool that allows us to research keywords, analyse the competition and optimise our translated content to improve our ranking.
• Ahrefs: an analytics platform for inbound links and SEO that allows us to identify link opportunities and to improve our SEO and web translation strategy.
• Moz: a complete SEO and online marketing analytics tool that provides us with information on keywords, inbound links and our website’s performance metrics.

How to interpret and apply the results

Once you’ve analysed your metrics, you must interpret the results and apply what you have found out to improve your translation strategy. Key steps to take include:

• Identifying areas of improvement: evaluate the metrics to determine which aspects of our translated content or international SEO need improving.
• Setting goals and identifying priorities: establish clear and realistic targets according to the results obtained and prioritise the most important steps to success when you translate a web page.
• Implementing changes to the web page translation and strategy: make adjustments to your translated content, web structure and SEO strategy to improve performance and achieve your goals.

The importance of ROI in web translation

Measuring and adjusting your web translation strategy is essential in guaranteeing the success of your online business.

By analysing the key metrics and applying what you have discovered, you can optimise your translated content and improve user experience, scope and conversion rate. This, in turn, will have a positive impact on the growth and global success of your company.