Localization and Proofreading - So Your Product Sounds Local in Every Market, and Your Text Reads as if Written There

What localization is, and how it differs from translation

A translated website says in Georgian what the English site said; a localized one says what a Georgian site would say. The difference is in a hundred decisions that a translator working from a text does not get to make: whether a headline is rendered or rewritten, whether an example, a testimonial or a joke survives the border, whether prices show in lari with the local format and tax treatment, whether dates, addresses, phone numbers and units follow local convention, whether a form asks for fields the market has (a Georgian personal number, a Turkish kimlik number, a Chinese ID), whether legal texts refer to the right law and regulator, whether payment methods and delivery options are the ones the market uses, and whether the tone - formal or familiar, exuberant or plain - is what the market trusts. Localization is translation plus those decisions, made by native editors who live in the market, working from the source but writing for the reader; it is what Georgian companies need to sell abroad and what foreign companies need to arrive in Georgia, and it is what we do for websites, mobile apps, SaaS interfaces, e-commerce stores, marketing campaigns, product content and the documents that go with them.

Websites, apps and software: working in your files

Localization happens inside the product's own files, not in a document that someone then pastes back. For websites we work in the CMS - WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, Magento, custom systems - through their translation plugins or exports, so that pages, menus, forms, metadata and images with text are localized in place; for mobile apps and software in the resource files - iOS strings, Android XML, JSON, YAML, PO, RESX, XLIFF - with string keys, placeholders, plurals and length limits respected, so that the build works; for SaaS interfaces in the platform's localization system, with context screenshots for every string; and for design and marketing files in InDesign, Figma, Illustrator and video subtitles. Every project starts with a terminology database agreed with the client - product names, features, the words for the buttons - enforced with translation memory across the product and its documentation, help center and marketing, so that the term in the interface is the term in the manual and the ad, and updates are localized as deltas at proportionate cost.

SEO-aware localization: found in the language the market searches in

A localized site that nobody finds has failed, and search behavior does not translate: the terms a German types for a product are not the German translation of the terms an American types, Georgian users search in Georgian and Russian and often in Latin transliteration, Chinese users search Baidu and not Google, and Kazakh and Uzbek users search in two languages. We localize titles, meta descriptions, headings, URLs, alt texts and structured data with keyword research in the target market's search engines and language, write the localized page to rank for the terms the market uses rather than to mirror the source's, keep the site's hreflang and canonical structure correct across languages, and, where the market runs on other platforms - WeChat and Xiaohongshu in China, LINE in Thailand, VK and Yandex in Russian-speaking markets, Telegram in Central Asia - adapt the content for those. Our own site is built this way, one page per language and per document with distinct content, and we apply the same discipline to clients.

Linguistic QA: checking the live product, not the spreadsheet

Strings that read well in a file break on screen: text overflows a button, a placeholder lands in the wrong place, a plural form fails, a date shows in the wrong order, a right-to-left language mirrors the layout, a font lacks Georgian or Chinese glyphs, a truncated string hides the verb. Linguistic quality assurance is the pass in which a native editor uses the localized product - clicks through the site, installs the app build, runs the checkout, submits the form, reads the email that arrives - and logs every defect with a screenshot and a fix, in the client's bug tracker or ours; it is followed by a regression pass after fixes. We include linguistic QA in every localization project rather than offering it as an extra, because it is where localization is judged by users, and we test on the devices, browsers and locales the market actually uses.

Proofreading and editing: text you wrote in a second language

Georgian companies, universities, NGOs and professionals write English, German, Russian and other languages every day - grant applications, academic articles, business correspondence, presentations, reports, tenders, websites - and foreign companies in Georgia write Georgian, and a text written competently in a second language still reads as foreign: word order, articles, prepositions, collocations, register and the rhetorical habits of the writer's first language give it away and cost credibility. Native editors proofread for correctness and edit for naturalness, structure and register, returning the text with tracked changes and comments so that the writer sees every edit and learns from it, at a level the client chooses: light proofreading for typos and grammar, standard editing for fluency and clarity, or substantive editing for structure and argument. Academic editing is done by editors with the field's background and the journal's style; grant and proposal editing against the funder's criteria; marketing copy by editors who write for the market; and legal and technical texts by the specialists who translate them. Monthly retainers serve organizations that produce foreign-language text continuously.

Process, pricing and how to start

A localization project begins with a scoping call, an inventory of the content and files, a terminology database and style guide agreed with the client, and a schedule; it proceeds in sprints aligned with the client's releases, with native editors localizing, a reviewer checking, the client's market team approving where they wish, and linguistic QA on the build; and it continues under a framework agreement for updates, new features and campaigns, with the memory and terminology maintained. Localization is priced per word or per string with translation memory discounts, plus QA and engineering hours; proofreading per word by level of editing, with same-day rates for urgent texts; retainers monthly. A website is localized on an agreed schedule, typically one to four weeks per language depending on size; an app in sprints with the release; a document proofread in one to three days.

To start, send the site URL, the app or file inventory, the target markets and the deadline on email, WhatsApp or Telegram, or the text to be proofread with the level of editing you want; we reply within the hour with a fixed quote, the editors assigned and a schedule. Delivery is in your CMS, resource files or design files, ready to publish, or as a document with tracked changes.

Frequently asked questions

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