Mirela
Product localization is really just making sure your product doesn’t feel like a foreign import. A solid product isn’t enough if it’s frustrating or confusing to use. People just won’t stick around. We’re here to tell you that your users should never struggle to use your product, no matter where they are on the globe. In this guide, you’ll learn what the localization of a product involves and how you can build a strategy.
Want to grow? Localize.
With all the competition today, you can’t launch a product internationally without localization. Well, you can, but you probably won’t be as successful as the competitors that do. Even if the product itself is excellent, the experience would immediately feel foreign. So how do you make your product feel more familiar and trustworthy? With the help of localization, of course.
One of the most immediate benefits of localization is increased adoption. Users find a product that speaks their language and meets their expectations, and they understand its value much faster. They don’t have to translate interface text in their heads or guess what certain features mean, so they won’t abandon the product early in the experience.
Have you noticed how user behavior varies across markets? The way people search, navigate, or make purchasing decision usually differs from country to country. Should users adapt to your product or should you adapt the product to the way people already behave? The answer is: it’s always you that needs to adapt.
If you want to improve your conversion rates, localization can make that happen. The reason is simple: when you tailor everything from the first ad to the final interface to fit the local vibe, people actually want to engage with it. Nonetheless, even small adjustments can make your value proposition resonate much more with the local audience.
Elements that require localization
Localization touches nearly every part of your product experience:
| User interface content | Navigation menus Buttons and call-to-action labels Tooltips and helper text Error messages and notifications Onboarding flows Settings pages Form labels and instructions |
| Product content | Product descriptions Feature explanations Tutorials and walkthroughs User-generated content moderation guidelines |
| Language and communication | Tone and voice of messaging Idioms and expressions Microcopy (short interface text) Push notifications and in-app messages |
| Formatting and regional conventions | Date and time formats Number formatting Measurement units (metric vs imperial) Currency display Address formats Phone number formats |
| Visual and design elements | Images and illustrations Icons and symbols Colors with cultural meanings Graphics containing embedded text Video subtitles or captions |
| Functional and technical elements | Payment methods Pricing models and currency conversion Tax calculations Local integrations and APIs Character encoding and fonts Right-to-left language support |
| Legal and compliance content | Terms of service Privacy policies Data protection disclosures Cookie consent banners Regulatory notices |
| Customer experience | Help center articles FAQs Customer support responses Chatbot interactions Email templates and automated messages |
| Marketing and growth assets | Landing pages Marketing copy SEO metadata and keywords App store descriptions Advertising creatives |
The process in a nutshell
The first step to localization is internationalization. In short, it a process where developers structure the code so that text strings can be easily extracted and replaced with translated versions. They also ensure that layouts can handle languages with longer words or different writing directions. We’re not going to go over i18n again, but you can check out our article on localization and internationalization to gain a better understanding.
Now that the product is technically ready, you can begin the translation and adaptation process. It’s time for the professional translators to work with extracted text strings to create localized versions. These versions should maintain the meaning while sounding natural in the target language. During this stage, we can’t stress enough how important context is. Your translators need to understand where each phrase appears in the interface to avoid confusing and awkward translations.
Naturally, once you’re done with translation, you have to integrate all that content back into the product. Your designers and developers will review the interface to make sure that layouts remain functional and visually appealing. They’ll sometimes have to do some adjustments to spacing or button sizes because of the text length variations.
No localization process is complete without quality assurance. Localization testers have to review the product in each target language to verify that translations are accurate, that the formatting appears correctly, and that the user flows remain smooth. Many issues that weren’t visible during translation alone usually get revealed during this stage.
Now, having completed the localization process, you have to launch your product in the new market(s). However, that doesn’t mean your job is done. As your product evolves, you’ll have to localize any new features and content to maintain consistency across all target languages.
What will elevate the process
It’s important you realize that localization starts before translation (remember internationalization?). Smart teams use pseudo-localization during the design phase. They’re essentially filling their UI with long, accented strings of junk text to see exactly where the buttons break or the text overflows. You also have to be careful with how you code your strings.
Once you’re moving text into the hands of translators, context becomes most valuable. You’ll likely need to attach screenshots or provide live UI previews within the translation interface. Your translators have to see where a phrase will appear and how it will functions.
The aim with localization is to make the process invisible and automatic. You should be moving toward a continuous localization model where your codebase and your translation platform are in sync. When a dev pushes a new feature to the code hosting platform, those new text strings should fly over to the localization tool immediately. Once the translations are approved, they should sync back into a pull request automatically.
Mistakes to avoid
We keep going back to internationalization, but this is simply because it’s so important. Some companies neglect it during the early stages of development, but when the product architecture isn’t designed to support multiple languages, localization can become extremely difficult. You may encounter issues like text overflow, character sets not displaying properly, or layouts breaking when translated into longer languages.
Another mistake you might risk doing is over-relying on automation. Sure, automation is very helpful, but machine translation or AI-powered translation may lack the cultural nuance required in localization. You still need human review to make sure there’s no awkward phrasing.
Different countries, different cultures. So why are some companies ignoring cultural differences? Don’t make this mistake. There are so many things (e.g., images, symbols, colors, expressions) that have different meanings across cultures. Be culturally aware and review your visual and textual elements carefully.
Tools and platforms used in product localization
We have plenty of tools today designed to help with various aspects of localization. Localization platforms are the most important ones, because they help teams extract translatable text from the product, organize translations, collaborate with translators, and deliver updated language versions back into the application.
Most systems include translation memories and terminology databases. When the same string appears again, translators can reuse the approved version. No more starting from scratch. Plus, this way, the terminology remains consistent across the entire product experience. But a major advantage of these platforms is that they allow localization to happen continuously alongside product updates.
Localization platforms also provide context for translators (you get more accurate translations) and collaboration between the members of the team is much easier when localization tools are used effectively. Another benefit: these platforms have quality assurance features so you can check for many issues like missing translations, formatting inconsistencies, or placeholder errors, among other.
Here something you really need to know: regardless of the platform you choose, the most important factor is integrating localization directly into your development lifecycle. You can support new languages and markets more quickly when your localization tools are connected to your product infrastructure.
Choose POEditor for your product localization
POEditor is a collaborative localization and translation management platform designed to help teams translate and maintain multilingual products: apps, websites, games, and software interfaces. If you’re doing localization, this is exactly the tool you need!
Your translators will work directly inside our platform, where they can see each string and provide localized versions. Everything is stored within the same system, so your developers, localization managers, and translators can collaborate in real time.
At POEditor, we focus on automation. Through integrations, APIs, and developer tools, you can automatically push new strings from your codebase into the platform whenever you add features. Your translators can then do their job, and the localized versions will be synced back into your product environment. We also support webhooks and callbacks.
As you’d expect from a TMS, we offer features like role assignment, translation progress tracking, translation memory, quality assurance tools, contextual information options. Plus, we support a wide range of localization file formats. And when it’s time to scale, we can provide the structure and automation to do so.