Website Localisation in the Corporate Context: A Spanish Perspective

According to its most popular definition, put forward by the now defunct Localisation Industry Standard Association (LISA), localisation in translation is the activity that involves making a product linguistically and culturally appropriate for a locale, that is, the target country and language in which the product in question will be used and sold (LISA, 2003). Localisation is part of the set of interdependent processes known by the acronym GILT: Globalisation, Internationalisation, Localisation and Translation (Cadieux and Esselink, 2002). If observed individually, translation can be defined as the process by which the meaning of a text written in a source language is communicated through an equivalent text in the target language. Internationalisation comprises the identification and isolation of all local information that appears in a product (for example, dates, numbers, currency or contact information) in order to make its localisation faster and simpler. Finally, globalisation combines the processes of internationalisation and localisation. It involves changes in the organisation of the business structure so that it is possible to serve any customer and offer them products or services regardless of their language, region or culture (Lommel, 2007). This definition of globalisation is more ABSTRACT: Diverse factors such as the development of globalisation processes and an ever-changing economic environment are encouraging companies to access external markets. Localisation, the activity that makes a certain product –for example, a website– linguistically and culturally appropriate for a particular country and language, is an extremely valuable tool for companies who want to pursue internationalisation strategies. In Spain, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) make up over 99% of the country’s business structure. However, the localisation of their websites is often deficient. An analysis of 70 Spanish SME corporate websites was performed with the purpose of assessing the degree and characteristics of website localisation in the SME sector in Spain. It was found out that the web presence of Spanish SMEs presents serious deficiencies and that the contents offered on their websites are often poorly localised, if at all. The information gathered enabled us to put forward a series of practical recommendations for SME corporate website localisation.