When we type something into Google, do we wonder about the results coming back in a foreign language? Or do we assume that everything will correspond in English? The language we like to think everyone speaks and understands.
It is estimated that of the top 10 million websites, a huge 55.5% are written in English. The next highest percentage falls to Russian, at 5.9%.
While these stats are incredible regarding the simple numeric, what is more surprising is that the estimated native language of those searching the web is quite different.
The largest does still fall to English, at 28.6%, however, close behind is Chinese with a substantial 23.2%. These stats seem somewhat bizarre with the lack of correlation to their counterpart, detailed here W3Techs.com.
So what does this highlight, apart from the fact that we all hope everyone speaks English because we are beyond being able to pick up a new language now? Well, it is of vital importance to be mindful of your audience – particularly if you are a global business or are within a multilingual and multicultural area.
Can’t Think Where This Would Apply?
i3MEDIA does.
Having recently launched the new Peterborough City Council website, we knew that the citizens would require the site to conform to their lingual requirements.
We integrated with Google Translate to ensure that this could be achieved; both efficiently and effectively. Also, we made the decision of going one step further by adjusting the website’s structure to include languages that can be read from right to left.
If you want to see what else the site is capable of, take a wander over there now!