Prepare For International Markets

Last Updated 17 August 2008

Today you are limiting yourself if you are not reaching all of your online audiences.

All of the leading global websites reach more people by using more languages. How many languages should you translate your website into? And is the expense really worth it?

There is a definite trend in increasing the number of languages available for business websites. If you want to reach 80% of all internet users today, you will need to have your website translated into at least 10 languages. This is due to rising internet penetration and business globalization.

Translating your website into different languages alone will not make it a good global website. You will also need to localize your websites in each of the targeted countries.

A website’s globalization is done step by step. Translation and localization of websites takes time. Often local translated websites appear to be little more than brochures at first. Companies then move towards localized websites targeted to each market with more translations of the deeper web pages.

Navigation techniques are also vital. Localized websites are only good if they can be found. The challenge is to find the best way to direct local traffic to the appropriate website.

Don’t forget to plan for global consistency or branding. It may be hard to imagine you will need many localized websites some day. But this is definitely the online business trend today. Easy-to-globalize web templates are key to making the transition quickly and painlessly into more local markets.

To reach your full global market potential you need to spend some time on strategy right from the start. A little time invested in planning in the beginning will save you lots of time and money in the long run.

Study what other businesses are doing online to communicate beyond their own borders and you will find the techniques to use for your business.

Prior planning for your website’s globalization will facilitate your international development.