Looking to launch your product in Sweden?

Before you try to win over Swedish customers, it’s essential for you to understand how Swedish localization is unique from other markets.  

Compared to other regions in the world, Swedes are quite internet-savvy (with 95% regular internet usage) and have high expectations for user experience and brand transparency. Even the way they search and shop online is extremely specific, which means your brand must cover all your bases. 

To successfully break into the Swedish market, here are eight best practices to craft digital-first and user-oriented English-Swedish localization. By following these steps, your company will have a better grasp on how to capture new Swedish customers. 

8 Best Practices for English-Swedish Localization

1. Create an early, robust localization strategy

Your brand should plan ahead with a Swedish localization strategy for best results. So often companies leave localization as a last step for a product launch. Ideally, localization should be incorporated early into the content creation process, so that it can be completed in tandem with original language materials. 

In addition, your strategy should include preparing key information for Swedish linguists, including a style guide, SEO checklist, localization workflow, etc.

2. Complete UX and SEO research for Sweden

Your team should also complete UX research for the Swedish users you’re targeting. Cultural differences have a huge impact on the way users browse and shop online. Don’t make assumptions! Instead, test often and iterate your product as needed. 

In addition, a professional English-Swedish translator (like me!) can complete SEO research to align content with how users search for your products. Your Swedish SEO strategy should be created by native linguists who know how Swedes actually look up information online. 

3. Make your strategy mobile-first

According to user trends, Swedes do the majority of their browsing and purchasing on mobile. For this reason, your localization strategy should be specifically tailored for mobile, so that Swedes have a seamless experience on their cell phones. For example, you’ll want to focus on how your product page displays on mobile and test it on the most common devices. 

4. Be candid and informal with language

In general, Swedes aren’t fond of fluffy content. They prefer candid, informal language that gets to the point. 

To that end, your English-Swedish linguist should use informal forms (such as “du”) and straightforward language. Avoiding flowery or formal language can go a long way toward building a productive relationship with Swedish customers. 

5. Incorporate cultural values and visuals

What’s more, Swedes value transparency more than other regions. To cater to their cultural values, you’ll want to avoid exaggerated claims and/or products behind a paywall. Any click-bait headlines are also a no-go for Swedish customers. 

Be cautious about the visuals you include, too. The icons, images, and colors you select should reflect Swedish cultural values, such as equality, sustainability, and “lagom” (not too much, not too little). 

6. Check your formatting conventions

Next, you’ll want to take a careful look at your formatting for Swedish. A key element of localization is ensuring that formatting follows users’ expectations. For Swedish, this may include:

• Naming conventions with proper Swedish letters (i.e. Björn not Bjorn)
• Date and time conventions (24-hour clock, YYYY-MM-DD, etc.)
• Telephone and address structure 
• Currency and number format

Think with Google has put together an extensive guide to Swedish formatting for localization, which you can check out for in-depth instructions. 

7. Be careful about space planning

Keep in mind that Swedish typically takes up 10-15% less space compared to English. This means you should plan for your interfaces to have more white space than the English version. To get the optimal user experience, you may need to adjust sizes and layouts.

Additionally, Swedish words can sometimes run longer than English on average, meaning that you may need to modify lines so that longer words like “affärsförhandlingar” (business negotiations) look properly positioned on the screen. 

8. Leverage stakeholder feedback

Finally, localization for the Swedish market should always go through rounds of feedback with real users and stakeholders. This will help you 100% guarantee that the webpage or product is in tip-top shape. Collect feedback, iterate features, and continue the cycle to achieve the best Swedish localization in the long term.

I Can Help With Your Next English-Swedish Localization Project

As a professional English-Swedish linguist with 18+ years of experience, I’m the perfect pick for your next localization project. I’m well-versed in Swedish culture, digital formats, SEO research, and more, and can achieve user-oriented localization for your Swedish product launch. 

Learn more about my English-Swedish localization experience by checking out my client portfolio and case studies, and get in touch today! 

Also check:

• https://swedishtranslationservices.com/6-keys-to-localizing-your-software-from-english-to-swedish/
• https://swedishtranslationservices.com/web-localization-seo-tips/
• https://swedishtranslationservices.com/how-to-market-to-swedish-users-with-digital-marketing/

It’s important to ensure translated Swedish materials aren’t just high-quality, but also digital-ready. Swedish customers today expect brand interactions that are user-oriented, keyword-optimized, and transparent. 

Here are five ways I help create world-class results for Swedish digital markets. 

What English takes a sentence to say, other languages can manage in a word. Recently, I’ve seen several blog posts pointing out these gaps in the English lexicon. Famous examples include bokusetto, a Japanese term for the act of gazing vacantly into the distance, and backpfeifengesicht, a German word describing a face in need of a punch. Sadly, many these lists seem to be sleeping on the richness and diversity of the Swedish language. As someone who prides themselves on their English-to-Swedish translation skills, I’d be remiss if I didn’t stand up for my mother tongue and show off some of its more unique phrases.

17 Swedish Terms with No English Equivalent

*For a full list of Swedish words with no English counterpart, check out this thread from Eunoia.

Looking for Someone to Translate Your English Marketing for the Swedish Market? Even If You Don’t Know the “Lagom” Words?

As our mini vocab lesson shows, English and Swedish are distinct languages shaped by culture and history. This can make it hard for US-based businesses to hit it big in the Nordic markets without the use of a English-to-Swedish specialist translator and transcreator. Transcreation can be the difference between a text that misses its mark and one that makes customers act.. Because, while 90% of Swedes speak fluent English, most of them prefer content to be delivered in their mother tongue. While the languages are closely related, it takes a true maestro to bridge the differences between them.

If you need a marketing expert to help you find the right words for your online content or ad, contact me to schedule a no-obligation consultation.

Check also:

• How I Became a Language and Grammar Nerd
• My Focus on Improving My Writing Skills in Swedish
• 6 Tips for Writing English for a Global Audience

We all know the horror stories that come from “hiring” Google Translate to do your translations or relying on low cost firms to get the job done. That could be why Pepsi once became a tool of necromancy in China and Schwepps advertised itself as “toilet water” in Italy. Such mistakes can frighten off thousands of customers and drastically reduce sales in the process. Today, we’ll be looking at 14 other common translation pitfalls, mostly internal, that can stagnate your company’s global growth and reduce translation efficiency:

1. FAILING TO PINPOINT THE SOURCE OF VALUE CREATION

Once all the costs have been sorted, you will be asked the most important question: Why? While not pausing to consider your end goal may get you translating quickly, it will result in a localization plan that’s disjointed, aimless, and lacking demonstrable results. Present, maintain, and adhere to a goal driven plan.

2. BEING TOO TIGHT LIPPED

While security is important, it’s vital that information be shared with other stake holders: sponsors, project managers, software designers, and web designers. To promote greater engagement, ensure each person understands his or her role in the translation process. This will ensure you avoid some of the most common translation pitfalls.

3. LAUNCHING WITH AN UNCLEAR TARGET MARKET

Designing a marketing plan based solely on language and country of origin would result in something overly broad, disjointed, and irrelevant. As a result, audience engagement would suffer. Make certain that your localization plan includes plans for market penetration and accounts for your target audience’s customs, trends, and values.

4. FAILING TO CONSIDER YOUR COMPETITION

You’re not the only business going global. Benchmark yourself against the competition and adjust your marketing positioning strategy accordingly. Doing so after you’ve entered a market wastes resources and may leave you unprepared to face the competition.

5. DEMANDING FULL TRANSLATION OR NONE

Don’t think of website translation as an all or nothing approach. Doing so will either force your company to absorb a large upfront expense or delay your launch until resources appear. Consider providing your multilingual audience, at first, with a scaled back version of your content. As time goes on, you can add features, web pages, and services.

6. DEMANDING UNNECESSARY EQUIVALENCES

Don’t treat all markets the same. For some markets, your Mexico-centric press release means nothing. Allocate your workflows to prioritize the most important pieces, for the most vital markets. In doing so, you’ll lessen the workload and better justify your company’s investment.

7. FOCUSING SOLELY ON YOUR WEBSITE

Go beyond the website and work to provide your international customers the complete brand experience. For mobile markets, you should prioritize application localization.

8. PICKING AN OPAQUE TRANSALATOR

The translation industry is not known for its clarity. When starting your hunt for a translator, it’s advisable to add “translation transparency” to your search criteria. This will give you a clearer understanding of fee structures and just who you’re working with and help you avoid common translation pitfalls.

9. NOT HAVING THE NUMBERS

You need to create a team that focuses on managing, measuring, and improving, your translation results. You should be able to quantify your average turnaround time and failure rate. Data grants you a subjective window into how your project is progressing from month to month.

10. NOT HAVING A COLLABORATIVE SPACE

Don’t even try to run a translation project out of your inbox! Find a modern collaboration space you, and the translator like, and stick to it. This will cut down on translation time and make it easier to stay on track. Additionally, as you can easily keep track of project milestones, you’ll be able to see where jobs are getting stuck and quickly determine the source of any delays.

11. POOR TRANSLATOR-CLIENT COMMUNICATION

A lack of meaningful dialogue is at the core of many unsuccessful translation projects. Provide your translation team a clear process for relating questions and suggestions to your team.

12. A LACK OF VISUAL CONTEXT

Don’t let your translation team work blind. If the company permits it, supply your vendor with a mock-up of your website beforehand. Granting them visual perspective helps to limit judgment calls regarding page formatting and semantics.

13. WORKING WITHOUT TRANSLATION MEMORY

If set up with the proper technology and software in place, localized content could be something that earns your company compound returns. Select a translator that offers a translation memory tool. That way, you’ll never have to translate the same page twice.

14. BECOMING COMPLACENT

Translation is not a project; it’s a process. Listen to your analytics and follow the tides of the evolving media. Never let your localization work become mundane and dry. Never stop experimenting.

For professional translations into Swedish, please contact Swedish Translation Services.

Check also:

• Top 4 Common Business Translation Errors
• 9 Things to Do Before Launching a Translation Project
• What Is Localization and How It Can Help Your Business?
• To My Favorite Client Among LSP’s

Entering a market with different language requirements necessitates a well-developed SEO strategy designed to fully exploit market opportunities. A 2014 study by the Common Sense Advisory, 85.3-percent of respondents the availability of pre-purchase information in their own language as a critical factor when it comes to buying items or services. Regardless of if you call it multilingual search engine optimization, or geolocational targeting, mindful SEO localization can alter both site structure and design. Please see our 10 web localization SEO tips on how to maximize the results of your localization project:

1. DON’T EQUATE LOCALIZATION TO TRANSLATION

While similar, it’s a mistake to think of the as equals. straight translation of your text typically brings a lower ROI than a translated, and localized, version of your web content. To make your content truly attractive to non-English speakers, you’ll need to bring an SEO expert on board that can make your new content attractive to both potential clients and foreign search engines.

2. DO YOUR KEYWORD DILIGENCE

Create a keyword list for all the pages you’d like to translate and have them translated separately. When that’s done, ask an SEO expert to localize the list for you. The result will be a highly-targeted version of your keyword list that will perform exceptionally well in your given market. Once you have the list, you can optimize to your heart’s content.

3. KEEP YOU WEBSITE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT IN MIND

Be careful in selecting pages you wish to translate. Some of your content may be outdated and inappropriate for a successful localization strategy. Additionally, to avoid duplication issues with search engines, avoid copying original language pages to the local website; use links or redirects instead.

4. CREATE A GLOBAL GLOSSARY

Create a global glossary for your keywords and specific terminology. Share this document with all of your offices, and stakeholders, so that appropriate, language-specific versions of these words can be found.

5. DON’T FORGET ALL YOUR WEBSITE ELEMENTS

While some website elements may be hidden from visitors, such as META and TITLE tags), it’s important to also adjust these items to local requirements. You should also take the time to consider whether you wish to localize your URLs, or create a sub-domain of your original website. Many companies choose to indicate language changes in the URLs text.

6. PROMOTE LOCAL CONTENT

Train your local teams on using the resulting website and encourage them to create up-to-date local content. Develop a brief editorial guideline to ensure all resulting pieces reflect your organization’s morals and culture. This will help to boost your SEO ratings.

7. MAKE CERTAIN SERVER LOCATION WON’T HURT YOU

The location of your company’s servers gives search engines a good idea of your location. In the age of the cloud, this typically becomes a non-issue. Consult with a local SEO expert to ensure that’s the case.

8. BE SMART ABOUT YOUR LANGUAGE MARKERS

The best way to show language choices on your site is a simple, localized dropdown. Using flags, as some companies might, can result in confusion for polylingual nations. Detecting the browser’s language, and automatically selecting a localized version of your site, presents its own pitfalls. Regardless of your chosen method, make it simple to choose and switch between languages.

9. DON’T FORGET THE COMPLEMENTARY CONTENT

Localize everything you can; this includes your applications, data feeds, and social media content. Also, be sure to register for all local directories and services.

10. REMEMBER YOUR SITEMAP

Update your sitemap to include the localized version. Consider creating a new, local version for anything being run locally. You should also consider creating a new footer to hold links to all your international websites.

By following the web localization seo tips above, you’ll help your business to stand out in search engine results and make a smoother transition into new markets. Tess Whitty and Swedish Translation Services can help you localize your website for the Swedish market.

Check also:

• Going Global? Translators Can Help You Break the Barrier of Language!
• Translation Services – How It Helps to Improve Today’s Global Economy
• 6 Tips for Writing English for a Global Audience

Successful web localization efforts require careful planning and execution. If done correctly, your investment will result in a notable ROI and boost your organization’s global image. In this piece, we’ll look at six fundamental website localization tips that make it easier for both you and your chosen translator to get the job done:

1. GET TO KNOW YOUR TARGET MARKET

Before you begin shopping for a quality translation and localization specialist, you need to get to know just who your audience will be. If your site’s typically visited by Swedish speakers, for example, you’d add little value by choosing to translate your website into Japanese. To gain better insight into the countries and languages you should focus on, make use of statistics’ tools like Google Analytics or Alexa.

2. PICK THE RIGHT TRANSLATION COMPANY

Poorly translated content can create bad impressions and foster customer confusion. While utilizing automated tools like Google Translate can save money, the resulting piece will reflect the price tag. Choosing a reputable, human-based translation company, such as Swedish Translation Services, will give you your best chance at localization success.

3. CHOOSE PAIN-FREE CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Don’t rely on e-mails, or clunky manual processes, to get the job done. Find a company that can give you the cutting edge in efficiency. Any efforts to create a collaborative space, or simplify data transfer, will pay off in the end. Also, consider selecting a translation vendor that offers up-to-date memory tools. By doing so, you’ll avoid translating the same content, into the same language, multiple times.

4. MAKE LANGUAGE SELECTION A BREEZE

A user should not have to be Sherlock Holmes to uncover the translated version of your website. Make it easy to determine and switch between the languages you offer.

5. KEEP THE IMAGES IN MIND

A picture can be worth a 1000 words. Therefore, not localizing your images to match your new website can be worth dozens of lost customers. Make certain all images have appropriate translations and that they have been adapted to fit the needs of the end user. Additionally, make certain that links, headers, and titles don’t break when users switch between languages.

6. DON’T LET A LANGUAGE CHANGE RUIN THE USER EXPERIENCE

No matter what language a customer chooses, they should be offered the same user experience. Make certain that all interfaces account for changes in the length of certain words and phrases. By ensuring your foreign customer has a great experience, you’ll be telling them one thing: you care.

By adhering to the above website localization tips, you’ll give your company a better chance at higher profits, more overseas customers, and an obstacle-free translation process If you’re looking to break into the Swedish market, and need a translator who checks all the above boxes, contact Tess Witty at Swedish Translation Services.

Check also:

• 4 Keys Steps For Translating Your Website From English to Swedish
• Swedish Localization and Website Translation: 4 Ways Your Business Can Benefit
• Why You Should Localize Your Website to Swedish?
• Things to Avoid When Translating a Website
• Things to Think of When Developing Localization Ready Websites