Should I Blog in English or in my Native Language?

Should I Blog in English? - Maybe you have questions like should I write my blog in English or my own native tongue? Or is English the best language for my blog? Or what language should I write my blog in? If you have these questions, then this article is for you. This article discusses the considerations that must be taken into account before deciding to write articles on a blog in a particular language. This discussion may be important for those who want to write their blog in English while they are not native English speakers.

English is an international language that is now taught, studied, and used in various sectors of human life. Its status as an international language makes English no longer belong to the British or Americans but belongs to the world. This means that there are more and more English speakers and users. Does that mean we will have many opportunities (increase in traffic, increase in the number of blog visitors, increase in opportunities to get income from blogs)? The answer can be yes or no. Therefore, every blogger who is interested in writing a blog in English should pay attention to the considerations that I will describe in this article.

What is your blog about?

The first thing to consider is the main content of your blog (your blog niche). In general, the content that we write on our blogs can be categorized on a scale. Three scales can be used to categorize your blog content, namely local, national, and international scales.

I have a few friends who blog in their native language because their blogs are about local things like local news, motorcycle repair shops available in the area, shops selling pet supplies, as well as personal online shops. These are examples of blogs that should be written in their native language. If they write it in English, it is feared that no one will find the information they put on their blog.

If your blog contains information about national matters such as national news, tourist destinations in various regions of your country, airline, or train ticket sales, you can write your blog in English or your native language. However, I suggest writing it in your native language. Especially for blogs about tourist destinations, you can write them in English if your target readers are foreign tourists. If you are writing a tutorial blog on caring for plants that only exist in your country or are trending in your country, then write a blog in your native language. Similarly, if your blog is about traditional recipes, then consider writing your blog in your native language. Things that are only needed in your country should be written in your native language because in that language they are looking for information that is relevant to what you write on your blog.

Blogs that contain technology tutorials such as computers, smartphones, the internet, websites, can be written both in English and in your native language. Blogs about sports, travel blogs, story and history blogs, maybe written in English because the readership is quite wide.

By considering the main content of your blog, then you can decide in what language your blog should be written. If your blog is about things that are needed and will only be found in the neighborhood, then write in your native language. If your blog is about things that are also found in other areas and the information is needed by other people in your country, then write your blog in your native language. If the information is also needed by foreigners (tourists), then write your blog in English if your target readers are foreign. If your blog contains general information needed by anyone, or the problem you discuss in your blog is a common problem that occurs everywhere, then you are welcome to write in English. However, if you write in your native language, you may be able to get more readers than writing in English. Do you know the reason? Let's continue the discussion so that you find out why.

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Who is your target reader?

Still related to content categories as I have mentioned above, target readers are one of the important considerations before deciding to write articles on your blog in a particular language.

I know that many bloggers don't really want to help other people through the articles they write. Many bloggers create blogs just to earn money through advertising. They write (in any language) to be able to register in various affiliate programs especially Google Adsense. Google itself has advised that bloggers should write to help people and not for Google.

Whatever the main content of your blog, even if your blog contains tech tutorials, you will get more readers in your own country if you write in your native language. People around you or in other provinces in your country also need and look for the information you write on your blog. Most of them will type in the search box in your native language. Your blog has a greater chance of being found even though there are more senior blogs writing about the same thing. The richer your blog information (in your native language), the greater the chances of your blog being found.

If you write your blog in English, then you will be competing with more senior bloggers. The number of potential readers of your article is indeed a lot, but the number of competitors is also not small. If you are a new blogger, you will not be included in the list of competitors by search engines.

Therefore, consider who your target audience is. Realize that the people around you also need and seek the information you write on your blog. To make it easier for them to find you (and reduce the challenge of competing with senior bloggers), then write your blog in your native language. However, if your blog content is unique and more complete than international senior bloggers, then you may try writing your blog in English.

How good is your English?

Writing a blog in English certainly requires good English skills. Now many applications are used to write in English even if you are not very proficient in English such as Google Translate and Grammarly. Unfortunately, these applications cannot replace you as a blog writer.

A blogger has a characteristic in conveying information or writing articles on their blog. Some write articles with a humorous tone, others want to show their imperative side through their articles. These characters should not be sacrificed through the use of translator apps because these apps only translate language and don't translate authorial tones.

If you decide to write blog articles in English without using an auxiliary application, then you should be able to make sure that your English at least does not contain too many grammatical errors. The more language errors found in your article, the more unprofessional you look. If you don't look professional in your blog, then the quality of your blog will decrease and your visitors will run away from you.

It's different if you write in your native language. Grammar errors are not too risky especially if your blog is about general things that don't really need grammatical accuracy. But if your blog is about tutorials, then grammatical accuracy is important because if you use the wrong words, people will find your tutorial useless. I once wrote a blog about smartphones. I explained how to reinstall one of the smartphones. I've used the wrong words so many people accidentally break their smartphones (because of following poorly explained tutorials). Though, I wrote it in my native language.

Can you imagine if writing a tutorial article in the original language is still at risk because it uses words or sentence structures that are not appropriate, what if you write it in a foreign language while you are not very fluent in that foreign language?