The top multilingual website stats and website localization trends for 2023

Deciding whether to expand your business reach to a global audience is challenging, right? After all, going global requires website localization and multilingual capabilities, and that’s no small feat.

At first glance, making the transition may seem impossible, and it can feel like navigating utterly uncharted territory. 

However, armed with knowledge and the right tools, it’s easy to make the transition.

This article will provide insight into global foreign language stats, customer preferences stats for multilingual websites, and business growth data from website localization.

Here is a closer look at some of the multilingual website stats and localization trends, which include data captured from 50K+ users of the Weglot multilingual platform, and other stats from sites like WordPress, Shopify, HBR.org, Statista, and more.

While most internet users speak English, English isn’t the only highly popular consumer and business language. 

Here is a quick look at the top stats that show the most spoken worldwide languages, the languages different websites and e-commerce platforms use, and popular language stats from website localization services like Weglot.

• As of 2022, English was the most spoken language worldwide (1,500 million speakers), followed by Mandarin Chinese (1,100 million speakers), followed by Hindi (602.2 million), and so on. (Source)

• The most popular languages Weglot translates to is English (35%), Spanish (12%), French (11%), German (8%), and Arabic (6%) for website localization and multilingual websites. (Source)
• In 2020 alone, Weglot served more than 3 billion translated pages of multilingual websites for its customers. (Source)
• On an average day, Weglot delivers 1 billion+ translated words for its clients. (Source)
• 60% of Weglot users use WordPress, 25% use Shopify, and 15% use another platform. (Source)
• 61% of Weglot customers are making their website available in one other language, 13% in two other languages, and 26% in more than two languages. (Source)
• English reaches only approximately 25% of global internet users. But, 52 percent of websites are written in English. (Source)

Key Takeaway: If your website only exists in one language, you’re missing out on sales opportunities from other audiences. Multilingual website services like Weglot make it possible to quickly translate your WordPress, Shopify, Wix, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and other types of websites into at least one additional language.

Not only do stats show a wide audience for multilingual websites, but they also show that customers prefer websites in more than one language. 

Here’s what customers have to say about website localization:

• A survey of 3,000 online shoppers across ten countries found that 60% of shoppers rarely or never buy from English-only websites. (Source)
• Nearly 73% of customers prefer to purchase a product or service from a site that provides information in their own language. (Source)
• 65% of respondents prefer reading content in their language, even if it’s of poor quality (Source)
• 73% of customers prefer reading product reviews in their native language (Source)
• 9 out of 10 internet users said they always visited a website in their own language when they had a choice. (Source)
• 40% of respondents said they wouldn’t buy products in another language. (Source)

Key Takeaway: If you’re looking to connect with consumers and boost your sales opportunities, then making your website a multilingual website is the way to go.

The best news about investing in a multilingual website plugin is you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. The results speak for themselves.

Here are some of the top results from online industry leaders and Weglot customers:

• The owner of Quick Sprout translated his website into several different languages and saw a 47% increase in search traffic. (Source)
• Jimmy Fairly 6X their international conversion rates and boosted their website visits by 70% after using multilingual website services from Weglot. (Source)
• Net Media Planet had a 20% increase in conversions after localizing its content and paid ads. After the website localization of the whole site, the percentage went up to 70%. (Source)
• Ron Dorff increased international sales by 70% and increased traffic by 400% with Weglot. (Source)

Key Takeaway: Making the transition from being a one-language website to a multilingual website can seem daunting when you don’t have the facts. The truth is, companies that have made the transition have experienced an increase in sales by at least 25%. Some websites have seen a 70% increase in sales.

The multilingual website stats and website localization trends for 2023 provide an abundantly clear message. Websites that are translated into more than one language and that provide localized content outperform single-language websites on every front. 

Additionally, stats and case studies show that when companies start using the automated translation plugin by Weglot, their company sales and website traffic improve.

Curious about how it works? Try Weglot’s 10-day free trial to see just how easy setting up a multilingual website can be.