Your online store is booming and it’s time to get more customers abroad. Whether you’re selling vintage t-shirts or garden gnomes, you know that it’s time to translate your ecommerce site.

Today, there are over a dozen reasons to translate your corporate website: to boost sales, to reach new markets, to raise your credibility, etc. However, it’s important to create a multilingual site properly, without rushing into it, for risk of creating duplicate content, which is heavily penalized by Google.

Localization involves translating a website, app or software for different regions. Not only do you need to handle the translation, but you also need to store all this text somewhere. Don’t forget, online content includes whole pages, but also small snippets of text called strings or translation keys (ex: “Learn more” or “Instant quote” buttons).

As more and more companies feel the need to expand internationally to stay competitive, the question isn’t if you should translate your website, but when. With global online sales surpassing $1 trillion in 2013 (eMarketer, 2012), companies are missing out if they are limiting their audience to one language group. Nevertheless, translating an entire website requires a fair amount of linguistic and technical skill, not to mention a good dose of common sense.