Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Rilind Elezaj
How many of us knew that app localization can increase the download count by gazillion fold? Just as the thought of the feature being costly popped up in your mind, we have counted on tips to localizing your app in an affordable budget. Before that, let us understand a bit more about the “whats” and “whys” of localization. The probabilities that the users of your app do not speak your regional language are high. With over 4.8 billion mobile users on the planet, projecting to 5.7 billion by 2020, only 15% of them speak English, according to what the statistics have to say. Majority of these users belong to the Asia and Pacific regions. Let’s take a moment to think about the number of languages spoken in these regions.
If the plan is to reach a huge audience, then localization should be your ultimate strategy. In the pool of 342,000 apps being downloaded every minute, you don’t definitely want to take a chance of losing your current download metrics.
What Is Localization?
Let us consider that your native language is English and you are a book lover. You are looking for your favorite book, a long-awaited edition. You reach out to the bookstore only to find it in French. Think about it. Would you rather buy it, have it translated to understand it, have someone read it to you, or give up buying this version? Undeniably, the latter is what you’ll choose and then, you’d prefer some other books that are written in your native language, which has a plot closer to the one you were looking for. That’s what not localizing your app does to your users. Likewise, we see the movies being dubbed to regional languages. Why? To reach more audience in an easier manner.
More Specifics
There are around 28 regions present in the app store and each has its own app store. It would be naive to take this for granted and expect the users to search the apps only in English. We bet that the time you invest in localizing your app will all be worth it because you never know the different dimensions of the target audience you can potentially attract until you reach out to the masses. Also, there are several other companies that had their revenues turn into millions due to their decision of localizing their app, doubling the number of downloads in a wink.
What to Localize? Some Tips!
Here are some sections you need to focus on while localizing your app. The keyword “First Whoever” has been in the industry for a year or more and this must have already shown the power of keywords. So, the first step is to localize your keywords. You can use Google Translate or other tools to get a direct translation if you have a budget set. If you do not have a budget and you have a one-word keyword and not a phrase, free tools must work just fine. Note that you have a 100-character limit. Unbelievably, keyword localization can increase your app download by 767% as it enhances the target boundary.
App Name
If you are setting a hierarchy for app localization, this should top the list. The content in the app is secondary. The users relate to your app with its name first. If the name of the app is in their regional language, they relate to your product/service pretty easily. Considering how crucial it is, make sure to recheck your app name before you update it. The accuracy of your translation matters the most, else, you would get a 1- to 2-star rating from the users who found the name misleading.
Screenshots
When one opens an app on the play store, the human brain automatically directs the eyes to see the pictures as they tend to be colorful and appealing. Localizing your screenshots can have a huge impact of 70% on your downloads. The screenshots show how the game would be and if there is regional language present in it, the user would not be confused, thus, won’t have second thoughts about downloading your app.
All of the Rest
Starting from the description to promotional text, everything needs to be localized, regardless. Now, if the aim is to get more users, an investment of a little time and money will all be worth it. If you are not good at this, hire an expert who can do it; if not, hire an editor who can check their accuracy.