How to Build a Truly International Website

Image credit: Pikist

 

If you want to pick nits, almost every website is international. A basic request can easily bounce from node to node, pinging between systems, then sprint along undersea cables to locations far and wide. But most regular websites aren't truly international because they don't properly serve a global audience. They serve a local clientele, offering niche appeal and alienating those who arrive from elsewhere.

 

There isn't anything inherently wrong with that approach, of course. If you run a business that only operates in one in North Carolina, you've no reason to care much about how your website is viewed by the residents of Albania — and there are those who maintain websites for the fun of it, not being overly interested in seeing return on their investment.

 

But if you're selling something that can be shipped or exported overseas with relative ease, or you' like to spread a message throughout the world, you have every opportunity to expand your operation. You just need to build a website that merits the description of truly international. To that end, here are some straightforward tips for reaching a broader audience:

Invest in an accessible foundation

The first thing a global website needs is a strong foundation, and strength in this context isn't just about stability or consistency. It's also about accessibility. Having a worthwhile website doesn't mean much if people can't enjoy good user experiences. Keep in mind that testing your website locally can't give you a decent indication of what it's like for all users, particularly if you're using a powerful device connected to a fast Wi-Fi network.

 

Think about the variability of internet access. Even today, there are many parts of the world where most people get online through mid-range smartphones and 4G speeds are reasonably uncommon. This is why it's best to run your tests in comparable circumstances. Limit your connection speed and use an old phone with limited visual clarity. How does the site hold up? Is it still easy to use, or does the experience fall short of your expectations?

 

If it doesn't pass muster, look for ways to improve things. You may want to different CMS, choose a new theme, compress your images, adjust font sizes — there are plenty of options for improving performance, plus there are things you can do to make life easier for people with visual impairments (such as changing your color palette to accommodate colorblindness — Secret Stache has some good suggestions to consider).

Commit to extensive localization

In the context of the online world, localization is the process of ensuring that a website (or even a brand) is fully prepared to perform well in a given area. Extensive localization, then, is making tweaks to create a website that can yield great results in many such areas. This is challenging, of course, but it's far from impossible — and the first step is translation.

 

Instead of having a one-size-fits-all website, you can have multiple versions, with each one geared towards a particular . Many top companies do this to great effect, often with a distinct team in charge of each version. You likely don't have the resources to do something like that, but you can still adapt your main version to create a decent selection of options.

 

But while you'll need to ensure your pages are translated into multiple different languages relative to the regions you're targeting, your content equally needs to be culturally appropriate, with the understanding that simply translating something from one language to another doesn't mean it will make sense or resonate with users in other cultures.

 

If you want to get really granular with your targeting, consider that even cities and states have their own cultural quirks and slang terms. This guide to hiring in New York through Remote, for example, would likely fail to engage its target audience if it were written from the point of view of someone from Texas who had no comprehension of the Big Apple's unique culture.

 

You even need to think about the impact of culture on factors such as design preferences. Colors mean different things in different places, and a tone that goes down well in one area might be somewhat objectionable in another. The key is research. It will help to hire residents in every area you target as consultants, then have them review your content to see how well it fits.

Deploy a suitable technical SEO plan

Having numerous international versions of your website can cause problems if you're not careful, particularly when it comes to SEO. It's important to rank well, as websites that don't generally aren't found very often, but it isn't unheard of for several versions of the same site to compete for ranking places because they haven't been properly distinguished.

 

Each version must be appropriately tagged (Ahrefs has a great guide to hreflang tags) so Google's crawlers can rank it correctly and prevent any traffic cannibalization from taking place. You also need to think about elements such as alt text: every image needs alt text that fits the intended audience, and it can take some time to get this right so you need to get started.

 

Vitally, check that you have a comprehensive analytics configuration in place. It makes little sense to put so much time and effort into improving your website if you're incapable of telling whether your work is bearing fruit. Couple your tracking of metrics with a proactive approach to gathering feedback (sending out regular surveys is a good idea) and you'll end up in a strong position to tell precisely what's going on (and how close you are to international perfection).

 

In the end, these three tactics are really all you need to deploy a website that works well on the global stage. Polish the foundation, localize the content, and nail the SEO: you'll soon see impressive results.

 

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