App and software localization services for products sold abroad
Prepared for new languages before launch, so adding each market after that is a content job and the code stays as it is.
App and software localization that starts with the interface around the translation: longer sentences, right-to-left layouts and a store listing in the buyer's own language, so the product arrives ready for the market.
I have worked with Mike and his team on a variety of projects over the years. He is always friendly, quick to respond and offers valuable expertise in digital marketing and SEO.What you get from app and software localization
Interface text that reads as native. We translate and adapt your interface text, notifications and app store descriptions for clarity and cultural relevance, and adjust dates, currency and units of measurement per locale.
Store listings found in each market. We optimize app store keywords per target market, so each listing supports discoverability in the language people search in.
Layouts that hold in every script. Interface text that fits comfortably in English routinely runs longer in German, so we test the layout against that expansion to keep buttons whole, labels complete and navigation aligned. For right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew we adjust the layout itself, along with the text direction, and we set character encoding so accented characters and non-Latin scripts display as they should.
Testing on the devices your users have. We test across the operating systems and devices actually used in each market.
Video and audio in every language. We provide subtitling and voice-over across standard formats, with accurate transcription supporting both localization and accessibility compliance.
Where localization pays off for a product sold abroad
A product ready for every next language. Once the groundwork is in place, adding a market becomes a content job and the codebase stays closed.
A store page that speaks to each market. People searching in Spanish find a listing written in their own words, with screenshots showing the interface in Spanish.
A clean launch in every language, with the overflowing label, the misread date and the rejected postcode found in testing and fixed before your users meet them.
Open what you need
The work, in the order we run it
Internationalization, store listings, testing and media, run in the order that keeps each new market affordable.
Internationalization groundwork, done first
We prepare the software with your developers: strings pulled out of the code, whole sentences kept whole in the string files, dates, numbers and currency formatted by locale, sorting that follows each target language's rules, and layouts with room for text arriving longer than the English.
With the groundwork done first, adding a language is a content job, and every market after the first leaves the codebase closed.
App store listings written per locale
We write the title, the subtitle, the description and the keyword field for each store and each locale, using all the room the character limits give, in the words people in that market type when they search.
We plan the screenshots per locale too, so a store page showing the interface in Spanish tells a Spanish browser the app is for them before they read a word.
Testing across language, device and operating system
We test each language on the devices and operating systems your users have, and look for the defects that sit outside the translation: a label that overflows its button in German, a date that reads as the wrong month, a form that rejects a valid local postcode, a right-to-left layout that mirrors everything except one icon.
Each one goes into a single report, ready to fix before release.
Subtitling, voice-over and transcription per language
We work out with you which of the three each piece of video or audio needs, then produce it per language. Subtitles carry most of the value at the lowest cost.
A transcript does double duty: it makes the content accessible and it puts words on a page that search and an answer engine can read.
From the brief to the reporting
What happens after your first message
- A free localization assessmentWe look at your app or software and its store listings, and show you what each new market needs, from interface text to layout, formats and store keywords.
- A written scopeAfter the first call you get a written scope naming the languages, the screens, the store listings and the deliverables, so the project is clear from the start.
- Internationalization groundworkWe prepare the product for new languages with your developers, from strings and locale formats to layouts with room for longer text, so each later market is a content job.
- Translation, store listings and mediaWe translate and adapt the interface, notifications and store listings per market, and add subtitles, voice-over or transcripts where your video and audio need them.
- Testing per language and deviceWe test each language across the operating systems and devices used in each market, and you get every layout, format and text issue in one report before launch.
Who does the work
Mike Bastin and his team, working from Valencia in your buyers’ languages
Mike has worked in multilingual search for over two decades and founded BeTranslated, the translation agency he has run for twenty years, whose ten country sites each compete in their own market. He works natively in French, fluently in English, Spanish and Dutch, and well enough in German, Italian and Portuguese to run SEO projects in them.
We run our own sites the way we run yours. See how we built ValenciaMove, our removals site in five languages.
Mike leads the team on every engagement, so you deal with him from the first call to the monthly report.
The next step
Find out what app and software localization could be worth in your markets
Thirty minutes on which markets matter, what already ranks, and what has been tried before. A written scope naming pages and deliverables follows. Engagements continue one month at a time.
The whole scope
What else we take on for you
Order decides the cost here: internationalization is what you do before launch, localization is what you do after.
Software built to take another language costs far less than software retrofitted to it, which is the whole argument for doing the groundwork early. Apps then go to market with their store listings translated too, since the listing is what gets found before the app does.
Video, audio and podcasts come with the same expectation. An audience that finds you in its own language expects the media in it as well, with subtitling or voice work depending on what the format can carry.
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