First things first: we’re excited to announce that we’re on track to deliver our first release of Localization to all customers this fall.
Localization is a product with a ton of depth so there’s been a lot to research, build, and test. On the whole everything is progressing as planned and we couldn’t be more excited about what we’re building or more eager to get it into your hands.
Our product team has been working closely with customers and partners throughout development — and today we’re going to share a bit more detail about why we’re investing in localization to begin with, the specific problems we’re solving, and what to expect from our launch.
Why we’re building native localization
The main reason why we’re working on localization is simple enough: customers want to tailor their digital experiences for customers in different regions. But beyond that, we also know that solving this problem will be something that benefits all of our customers, regardless of size, and will dramatically expand the impact our customers can make with the websites they build with Webflow. In today’s day and age business is borderless, and the need to adapt your website and “meet your visitors where they’re at” is more important than ever.
And while third-party tools and JavaScript-based workarounds have been an option for customers that really want to use Webflow, we know that these solutions have come at the expense of what really makes Webflow unique: namely, the ability to design and build visually with your content in the Webflow Designer.
Our native solution solves this problem by letting customers work directly in the Designer with their translated content, previewing and understanding exactly how the site will look before going live — just as they’ve come to know and love when building in Webflow.
Wait — is “localization” the same as “multi-language?”
You might have noticed that last fall we called this project “multi-language” but in this update we’re referring to it as “localization,” which begs the question: are these the same thing?
The answer? Yes and no. The reality is that “multi-language” is only one part of “localizing” your website for global audiences. Our research underscored that customers want to do more than simply translate their website text. They also want to personalize their whole website experience for the different regions they serve — from images and what content is displayed and even down to the styles and layout.
With all this in mind, we renamed our efforts on this front to more accurately reflect the full scope of what we’re building, which we’ll dig into below in more detail.
