Content to Attract an International Audience

With references to past discussions

[paynt]

Situation – Say you have a site that appeals to a United States audience, what would you do to open that appeal to an international audience? How far do you go in manipulating the content or the position/design of the content to open it to a wider audience? It appears from the following discussions that we have talked about specifics and I’ve included some of those to help others like me who may be thinking about these issues. I’m also interested in general ideas, in addition to these that follow, to formulate and idea on what I should be thinking about in terms of opening a successful US site to an international audience.

I found a great discussion Site going international [webmasterworld.com] from Nov. 2000 which approaches this from a translation view but I’m wondering about enhancing a site to appeal to an international audience without translation.

Tedster has some interesting tips in the discussion International Pitfalls for American Webmasters [webmasterworld.com] from June 2001. Do we have anything current to add to this list?

I found another interesting discussion, Transitioning to an International form [webmasterworld.com] that Bradley started in Dec. 2001 which makes specific points related to forms.

This also ties into the current discussion going on, What Date Format do YOU use on YOUR website? [webmasterworld.com] which appears to have drawn a lot of interest. Or this past discussion on the same subject, Interpreting Dates [webmasterworld.com].

I also found this information, Currency Converter [webmasterworld.com] provided by sugarcane. Has anyone tried this? It “converts from UK sterling prices into a configurable selection of other currencies”. What about US to UK and others? How would you address this issue of selling and pricing online?

On the issue of marketing, franklin Dematto started this discussion back in Oct of 2001 and I’m surprised it didn’t take off, Marketing to International Customers [webmasterworld.com]
"check your logs - you'd be suprised what percenatge are from overseas."

Business / International Business [webmasterworld.com] Tips and hints to help you by DrDoc offers some great tips.

Anything to add?

[Eric_Jarvis]

I've got an article on how we expanded our site into 12 languages and more than doubled our traffic in a little under two years...I'm away until Monday, but I'll try to put it online then (assuming I don't get time tomight)

things to note for anyone who hasn't tried working multilingually...we have a staff of one...my predeccessor spoke Rnglish, German, Hebrew and Arabic...I am only fluent in English, though I can cope in French, Italian and Russian...you don't have to speak the language to operate a site in it...to deal with customers directly to complete complex sales may require multilingual staff...but the web activity does not

I would recommend that ANYONE who has a site for a product or service that can be delivered internationally should be delivering content in Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, French, Portuguese and Arabic as well as English...it may well be THE most cost effective way of increasing sales

[Grumpus]

The first month I had my site up, I got about 90% of my google traffic coming in from the US, UK, and Canada. Then, I was playing with google and linked to my homepage through their translator - one link for each language they offered. Since then, I've got about 75% of my google traffic coming from English speaking countries, but I'm getting the other 25% in from .de .be and other non-English google domains. Granted, Google's only sending me a couple hundred hits a day, but that's 40 or so from other countries that I wouldn't be getting.

(To be honest, that foreign traffic I get is of little or no use to me, but if you've got something that you can make money with a foreign audience, it's worth a shot). I have no idea if putting those links in affected my ranking/placement in foreign googles or with specific language searches or not - it never really interested me enough to explore.

Speaking with folks who have sent comments to me and asking them about the translator, they say that it's a piece of crap, but it takes a page that would otherwise be unreadable and makes it so they can at least get the gist of what's going on.

G.

[Eric_Jarvis]

I've put a rough version of Breaking the Language Barrier [ericjarvis.co.uk] online...bear in mind this was not particularly intended for a technically minded audience with good SEO experience...plus I just web set it in a little under 10 minutes...so it isn't the finest example of the web designer's craft :)

[Mohamed_E]

Grumpus,

You write:

Then, I was playing with google and linked to my homepage through their translator - one link for each language they offered.

Sound interesting, but I am not sure how you do it?

My site deals with hiking in New England, and a lot of Quebecois regularly hike in the Northeast (New England plus New York). Would love to reach more of them!

Thanks.

[Grumpus]

I think I can post this here without getting yelled at - if not, first mod please cut it....

[google.com...]

Put your URL in the box, copy the URL that results and put it on your page. :)

G.

[brotherhood of LAN]

You also have to bear in mind the differences in UK and US spelling.

Usually, for generic subjects that I've seen, UK spealling variations are much less competitive...

I would go as far to assume that some UK spelling based webmasters would "do the switch" from UK to US spelling for traffic reasons but this would be less ofa case the other way around.

Either way, the spelling is different, and I doubt that SE's fully take that into account for "plain" english searches

[heini]

Well that's a very interesting report, Eric. Sound advice and dead on with stressing the importance of quality, native translations.

May I just point to some good discussions on translations for localization/globalization:

[webmasterworld.com...]
on usage of extended characters

[webmasterworld.com...]
a classic discussion on translations: Translations will get you top rankings in major engines.

The how, when and where of web translations.
[webmasterworld.com...]

Translations and customer support
[webmasterworld.com...]

---

Actually the thread started out with asking how to open a site to international audiences without translating it. Though I agree 100% that translations are the best way to about it, we should not forget that many sites do not have the immediate resources to do so - or, perhaps just want to try the waters first.

So what are the things to keep in mind, when opening your english speaking site to international audiences?

Two areas:
Business and infrastructural elements. Like: shopping cart set up, different currencies, shipping problems etc. Those things need addressing both on the site and off the site, as in clearing those problems beforehand.

Then there is the cultural field. One might want to stay clear of ultra patriotic references, which may sell well inside one's own country.
Generally the qustion here is: Is the site attractive and understandable for foreign readers?

[web_india]

Reaching international audience without translating means obviously you are restricting your audience to english speaking (or english understanding) countries. So what should help is - local domain name, local contact/mailing address (and phone support too), currency, local payment options etc.
welcoming your visitors by their country of origin could also be tried.
depending on your logs, you can also have a page or section of your site devoted to a specific country.

[shelleycat]

Coming from a small country in the middle of nowhere I have come to the conclusion that the internet is mostly a foriegn country. There are a few simple things that can make my experience better.

I occasionally buy from overseas.
When I'm looking to buy something from a website the first thing I want to know is "do you ship internationally and how much will it cost". While most sites set out an international shipping policy, it is surprisingly common for them to make me put in credit card details and a full order before giving me any indication of a shipping price. I realise how much I order will make a difference but often general price ranges are enough to let me decide if I will persue the order(and there is never an excuse for making me give credit card details before giving me a full shipping cost but that's a whole 'nother rant :)).

As far as I'm concerned if a site is on the internet it will always have some international audience. So if the site can't ship internationally, or only to some countries, I expect it to say so up front. Which saves time for everyone really.

I live in the future.
A big thing for places where I interact is that I often lose track of time zones etc. Being able to set the page to my time zone (like I can here) or having it clearly stated what time zone the website is in makes a big difference. This is only important for something which changes a lot, like an forum or possibly a blog I read regularly, but time zones are still one of things I find the most bewildering on the internet. I've been in a forum-type place where I had no control over the date setting and no idea what time zone was used, and it was horrible.

We don't use post codes.
I absolutely loathe address forms that force me to put in a post code, particularly when I have already selected a box that says "New Zealand". This is very common. Different countries use different address formats, this is not a difficult concept.

As for my own webpages, I try to include metric and imperial units where appropriate (particularly temperatures) and write the dates in full (ie 18 July 2002 instead of 18/7/02). These two simple things seem to go a long way towards helping my readers understand me :)

[paynt]

Well said shelleycat and thank you for your post. With so many coming here from all over the globe, I see we can learn much from each other as both the web site developer and as the end user.

web_India, I like your point about “you can also have a page or section of your site devoted to a specific country.” I find canonicals useful for those situations and I remember a discussion once where we talked about structuring a site for international themes. I might be able to hunt up that reference. That is a good idea, particularly for themes and drawing in a more specific and targeted visitor.

My main curiosity here is how to create a flavor or as Marcia recently mentioned a ‘voice’ that appeals to an international market without losing the flavor of the US. Perhaps lessons in diplomacy are in order and then discovering how to convert that diplomacy into a well optimized and content rich web site.