Last week, I talked to a SaaS founder who spent $80K translating his site into 8 languages.v

His traffic? Up 12%.

His revenue from those markets? $3,200.

He's not alone. Everywhere you look, someone's shouting "Go multilingual or die!" They'll hit you with scary stats: "75% of customers won't buy if it's not in their language!" Or the classic: "You're leaving billions on the table!"

Here's what they don't tell you: Most founders waste more money on bad translations than they'd ever make from good ones.

According to recent data, 60% of shoppers rarely or never buy from English-only websites. That stat is real.

But here's the contrarian truth backed by the data: Businesses with properly localized websites experience an average 70% conversion rate increase – but that word "properly" is doing Olympic-level heavy lifting.

Think of translation like fishing. Everyone says "throw more lines in the water" (more languages = more customers). But if you're using the wrong bait in waters with no fish, you're just wasting money on fishing licenses.

The big idea? Translation is cheap. Localization is expensive. And most founders confuse the two until they're $50K deep with nothing to show for it.

Before spending a dime on translation, prove the market wants what you're selling.

Here's your validation checklist:

Check Google Analytics: Filter by country and language. Look for organic traffic from non-English speakers. If you're not seeing 500+ monthly visitors from a region, don't translate for them yet.

Run a $100 ad test: Create Google Ads in your target language using Google Translate (yes, really – just this once).

If nobody clicks at $0.50 CPC, your product doesn't have demand there. Save the $10K translation budget.

Survey your waitlist: If you have international signups, email them. Ask: "Would you buy if we launched in [Spanish/German/French]?" Anything below 30% positive responses = red flag.

Think of this like speed dating. You're not proposing marriage (full localization). You're just asking "coffee?" (market validation).

Where Most Founders Go Wrong: They translate because a competitor did, or because "everyone says Spanish is huge."

Studies show that around 75% of hreflang implementations have mistakes in them, which means most multilingual sites don't even register properly with search engines. You can't fix bad strategy with good translation.

STEP 2: Start With "Hub" Languages, Not "Vanity" Languages 🎯 Big Bet (High Effort, High Impact)

You don't need 15 languages. You need the RIGHT 2-3.

Here's the founder's language hierarchy:

The Vanity Trap: Most founders pick languages based on "we might want to expand there someday." That's how you end up with Italian and Dutch versions getting 12 visitors a month.

A study from DeepL showed automated translation tools led to 345% ROI and workflow cost savings of €227,430 over three years – but only when companies focused on high-value markets first.

Action step: Pick ONE language. Get it right. Prove the ROI. Then scale.

Think of languages like hiring employees. You wouldn't hire 8 people at once before knowing if one works out.

Here's the secret: 96% of companies that use automated translation technology reported a positive ROI for localization projects.

Pro move: Space Ape case study highlights a 20% reduction in turnaround time due to increased efficiency of the localization team. That's 20% less cost for every update.

Think of hybrid translation like cooking. AI is your food processor (fast, consistent). Human review is you tasting and adding the secret ingredient. Both are needed.

The 80/20 of localization (focus here):

Don't waste time on:

Where Most Founders Go Wrong: Literal translation leads to loss of meaning from the original text. I've seen "Sign Up Free" become "Register Without Cost" in Spanish – technically correct, but nobody talks like that.

It's like wearing a tuxedo to a BBQ. You're technically dressed, but everyone knows you don't belong.

Flowchart: "Should You Translate Your Site?"

Quick Poll: "What's stopping you from going multilingual?"

Here's what nobody talks about: Research indicates that businesses experience an average increase in revenue by 23% when localizing their websites – but that's AFTER doing it right.

Most founders treat multilingual like a growth hack. "Just translate and watch the money roll in!"

It's not a hack. It's a commitment. It's expensive. It's ongoing. And if you half-ass it, you'll damage your brand faster than you'll grow revenue.

But if you validate first, focus on hub languages, use hybrid translation, and localize what matters? You're not just adding languages. You're adding markets. And that changes everything.

Community Question: If you've gone multilingual, what was your biggest "I wish I'd known that" moment? Reply and let me know – I'm collecting war stories for a future deep dive.

Abdulla Al Noman
Founder, BzOpa News Pop