Internationalization of websites presentation

On Monday evening we did a presentation about international webpages aimed at non technical staff, it was held during a well attended meeting (40+ people) of South London Export Club. This presentation went through the various steps required to build an international online presence, including what research is usually required, the various build phases and some thoughts on international SEO.

Some pictures and more details about the event will follow soon, on this page.

Building International websites presentation

Internationalization of webpages, presentation minutes

The notes below here should be read along side the slides in the above presentation, this shows the additional conversation that went along with each slide.

Slide 1: introduction

Thanks for attending our discussion about internationalization.
Before we start a little about me, My name is Dave Cherry, Technical director of SEO-Web services Croydon; I’ve been working on web tech since 1997.

Q: how many people have an international presence now.
<about 3 hands showed>
Q: how many have i18n site
<one hand showed>

Slide 2: user by country

As you can see, we have just over 40 million web users in the UK, but the global reach of the web is much greater than that. What is interesting is that in many countries there’s still less that 30% coverage.

Slide 3: step by step approach

We believe that in order to internationalize a site, one has to go through a multi step process, similar to the steps shown on the slide.

Slide 4: research - basics

1. no additional notes
2. this step is really important, knowing what people are searching for and what they want is crucial.
3. There have been many examples in time where brands and product names have not translated, make sure your brand does not sound mediocre or poor.
4. this is basically keyword analysis on a global scale.

Slide 5: research - laws

1. you may wish to get legal advice either locally or from a specialist here.
2. its often cheaper to partner with someone in the country than setup an entire presence. For example partner with an online shop who sells your products.
3. Colours can have meaning - be careful what you choose. Further images can inadvertently offend, for example imagine a furniture retailer who had an image of somebody with their feet up without shoes on, this would be deemed offensive in several countries.
4. Again seek legal advice to see if this applies.
    

Slide 6: research - store front

1. How to handle currencies on your site, how often will you change exchange rates - what collar or tolerance will you use? Will it cost more to transact abroad?
2. Taxation issues may well apply when selling abroad, customs issues could also present themselves. Background research and legal advise could be required.
3. This is a serious issue these days. You can go to jail in some countries for failure to protect information.
4. This may include third party companies that provide this information for you. They will need to be included in your plan.

Slide 7: getting started - website

1. starting with a microsite is often good. Just enough for users to transact. Product pages, contact and support information are crucial to infer trust.
2. Stick with convention as people are used to it - think that this person does not speak english, how will he find the language button.
3. CMS gives the ability to edit pages live, even with more than one author. These can provide an international site quickly. We are very familiar with Weceem CMS.
4. If you’ve got desktop software that you distribute, this may need to be translated too.

Slide 8: getting started - analysis

1. using online tools such as google analytics makes this process easier.
2. same way as you do now for the UK, its just more important at the moment as we need to compare conversion rates across the various regions.
3. There is no substitute for local presence.
4. Use surveys and even contact larger clients directly if you can. Give them something for their time. This information is critical to success.

Slide 9: fully involved

1. At this point you have to decide how to build a global site. Often having a common base with local versions of each site is popular.
2. Having a localized twitter account and facebook pages for example. Joining local groups and community sites
3. basically as per SEO
4. If you open a local office, then even internal software needs to be translated

Slide 10: local business

1. for example google is not the largest search engine in Russia or China.
2. you want your business to sound local at a minimum.

Questions asked by audience:

Q: I have been using a free translation service, what do you think of such services

A: We think there is some mileage in such services, even though the best option is always to provide proper translations of pages, written by a professional author, these services are better than not doing anything.

Q: Where could I gather more information about international search optimisation and general SEO

A: A good book on general SEO that we recommend is Get to the top of Google, it has some text about international issues. Another source that we recommend online is search engine watch. Further you can subscribe to our face book and twitter feeds (left) where we often post up interesting articles. There are a wealth of plugins for the

Q: What is the fee charged for international use by credit card providers.

A: We did not provide an answer for this as our past work has been for large companies where this information was not made available to us.

Online life's all about sharing: