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Steps to website globalization

If you feel that your website is working well in the American sphere, but would like to enlarge your audience in order to reach more people, it might be time to look into website globalization. There are just a few simple steps to do this, which will make your website a lot more accessible to those who need and want what you are offering.

The first step in site globalization is to know your audience. You need to know what geographic areas you are targeting, who exactly your target audience is, what languages that the audience speak, and what opportunities exist for you in that market. Right along with this is the need to research keywords. Once you know who your target is, you can find out what words they search for the most. Google, for example, offers many tools for keyword research.

The next step is deciding on website structure. If you are designing a multilingual website, you have to decide if you want separate websites for each language, or one website translated into every language you would like to target.

The third step in website globalization is two fold. First, choose the content you want to include on your website. This should be fairly easy after all of the market research you have completed. Pay attention to the keywords you found that were most searched and make sure to incorporate them into your copy. Second, you need to translate this content into all of your target languages. Make sure to hire a professional translation service, not just someone who speaks both the source and target tongues. Translation is something that takes training and skills, not just knowledge.

The next step in website globalization is to localize your message and design. This means making your website to each specific country. Just because you have translated your content into Spanish doesn’t mean it’s good to go, as each Spanish speaking country has a unique culture and will thus probably need a unique and different website. If you are seeking the Asian market, you will probably need to hire a consultant, as their website design differs greatly from the western style.

The last step in website globalization is to learn a foreign language. It’s great to have a multilingual person on your team, but nothing beats knowing the language yourself! Don’t you want to be able to respond to inquiries from all over the world?