How to Make Your Business Web Site International

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March 3, 2021 Business, Web development

When it comes to businesses, no matter how niches may differ, the goal always lies in the same factor – growth. So, one of the biggest obstacles in that aspect is reaching potential customers that are far away. Nowadays, there are a lot of successful strategies curated to tackle this exact problem. Now, are you looking to branch out and make your business website international? If that is true, the probability is high that you are looking for those strategies.

All that is why, in this article, we have prepared a guide on how to reach international audiences with your website. If you want to learn more about what it takes to achieve that goal, keep on reading.

Language is the largest obstacle

When you choose to go global, the fundamental part of this process is to make communion with your audience possible. You should do this by making your content accessible in different languages. As pros on website globalization and translation solutions from Lingarch explain, this process is focused on the translation of the website to the target language. But, there’s more to it. They go on to explain that you also need to focus on product descriptions, publications, promotions campaigns, and similar aspects.

The most prominent issue with language barriers is incorrect interpretation. This heavily affects how your global audience perceives you. The thing is, it also affects how the Google algorithm perceives you, but we’ll be talking about that later in more detail. Ultimately, you need to adapt all your marketing and communication channels appropriately. While Google translate may sound like a quick and easy solution, using it can be problematic. The main reason for this lies in the fact that such websites struggle with creating a fluid, accurate representation of your texts. This is why it might be a better option to go with professional translation services.

What languages should you focus on?

There are two angles here that you should focus on. Firstly, if you already know in which countries you want to branch out, you already have an answer to the question in the subtitle. Still, it might be a good idea to focus on the second angle as well. The probability is high that you already have some international traffic on your business website. It’s a good idea that you utilize this traffic if you have it already!

Now, the best way to do so is to utilize Google Analytics. This tool gives you the possibility to track the languages of the people that visit your website. So, how can you find this information on languages? You just have to go to the “Geo” tab. There, you can click “Location” or Language, which will show you the statistics on relevant information. You should know that this option isn’t something that only Google Analytics offers. A large number of even more basic analytics software can provide you with the same information.

After you have learned where your website draws traffic from, focus on the languages in question!

Avoid text incorporated in images

Oftentimes people tend to overlook how some text can’t be translated, even with Google translate. The main mistake that leads to this issue is incorporating text into images. This leads to a problematic scenario. Even though everything else gets translated, images still contain the original language.

Now, some things are difficult to translate and don’t read well in a different language. If you’re incorporating your catchphrase into an image and it’s in a widely used language, it’s fine. Just try not to use too much text in images. Especially if the information is important and contextual to your potential customer. If that’s the case, it can make the difference whether you will close a sale or not. Don’t risk using potential customers by overlooking this aspect. Especially considering that the whole point of putting effort into all this is to draw more people in. Make sure that you use this tip to make your global web design better and more helpful for your foreign audience.

Redirecting your visitors to the right version of your website

After you have put your efforts into translating your website and everything relevant that comes with that, you should focus on the following step. This step consists of ensuring that the people that click on your website can see the right language when browsing it.

The first step that ensures that you do this is adding a link element. You need to specify the language with an appropriate HTML link element. This element is ultimately going to point to all the language options that your website offers. You should make sure that you add a different link element for every language translation. This is important because it ensures that all the search engines index and show those pages to relevant people.

You also need to provide these link options to the people that visit your website. The easiest way in which you can do this is by adding a series of manual links. Your visitors can further click on these links and manually access the proper language version of the website if they aren’t automatically directed.

It’s a good idea to avoid strictly localized options

Oftentimes, website owners tend to choose the default website domain and language. This way, the dynamic Geo tracking sets the language and the domain for your website instead of you choosing it. This means that the language version of your website purely depends on the location from which it is being accessed. This can be useful at times, but it can also be limiting. For instance, not all people that are currently in a country from which they are accessing the website speak the language associated with it. Ensuring that different language versions of your website aren’t heavily restricted on the physical location help with this issue.

In the end, it all boils down to you assessing all the relevant parameters both for your business, and your target audience. In the beginning, your strategy may be a bit vague and broad. As the results start showing, you will be able to shift your directions toward the strengths of your strategy. At some point, your previously manual efforts can even be automated.

The road to going international is indeed paved with trial and error. Still, don’t let yourself be intimidated if things don’t go your way immediately. Focus on your goals, regroup, assess the reasons that have led to the outcome in question, and try again! Re-assessment is going to lead to a new level of understanding of your business. That is always a positive thing! If you stay vigilant, keep doing your research and follow all the things that we have been talking about, there’s no limit to what you can do. Good luck!