What’s the difference between localization and translation?
Translation converts content from one language to another. It prioritizes accuracy and making sure the words are technically correct in a different language.
Localization goes a step further. It adapts content for a specific region or audience, so it feels natural and relevant to the people using your site.
That might involve changing images, modifying the tone of voice, adjusting layouts for text expansion, formatting dates and currencies, or avoiding terms and visuals that don’t resonate culturally.
If you’re building a multilingual website, translation alone might get the message across but localization makes the experience feel familiar.
What should companies consider when localizing a website?
When localizing your website, start with your target audience. Consider their language and how they use it online. Are there dialects or regional slang you should be aware of? How formal is the tone?
You’ll need to account for regional language differences, tone, formality, and even how people search for products or services in that market.
From a technical side, your site needs to support different character sets, longer strings, and possibly right-to-left languages.
The layout should adapt without breaking, and performance needs to stay strong across global regions, including fast load times and reliable hosting, no matter the location.
Legal requirements vary by region, too. You may need to comply with data privacy laws, cookie consent standards, or accessibility guidelines specific to that country.
Localization also impacts SEO.
Your content, metadata, and URLs should be optimized for local search engines and keywords, not just translated versions of your original site. This helps people actually find you in their market.
How does Webstacks support multilingual CMS implementation?
Webstacks is a B2B localization agency that implements multilingual CMS platforms and makes it easy to manage content across regions.
Using platforms like Sanity, Contentful, and Storyblok, we structure your CMS to support multiple languages within a single interface.
As a result, your team can toggle between language versions, manage translations, and launch updates quickly.
We also configure translation workflows that integrate with external services or internal teams, depending on how you localize. You can manually manage content, use translation memory tools, or connect with services like Smartling or Lokalise for automated sync.
From the start, we model your content to support localization, handling things like language-specific slugs, alternate navigation, and localized SEO metadata. This prevents bottlenecks later and gives your marketing team the flexibility to add regions and edit content as you grow.
Can Webstacks help with localized content strategy and governance?
Definitely. Launching a multilingual site is both a technical project and a content challenge.
We support your global website strategy by helping you figure out what content should stay the same everywhere and what needs to be tailored for each market. That might mean adjusting your messaging, swapping in local examples, or even creating unique content for specific regions.
What tools and workflows support global website scalability?
Scalable multilingual websites need a tech stack and workflow that support fast updates, language flexibility, and content accuracy.
At Webstacks, we use headless CMS platforms because they offer structured content modeling and native support for multiple locales. That makes it easier to manage content across languages in one place, instead of duplicating pages or building separate sites.
We also integrate translation management systems (TMS) like Smartling, Lokalise, or Phrase to streamline localization workflows.
These tools allow your content to sync automatically between your CMS and translators. For larger organizations like enterprises, we can set up workflows where content is reviewed, translated, and re-imported automatically.
To support internal teams, we create preview environments for each locale to give your stakeholders the ability to review translated content before it goes live.
We also implement pre-launch quality checks across languages, including visual reviews, functional testing, and SEO audits to make sure each experience meets your standards.
