Internationalising websites for mainland Europe

The web is perfect for trading internationally and the world truly is the webmaster’s oyster.  It may be much easier and less costly to gain at least a foothold in a foreign market using the web than using any other method (such as finding a local distributor) but it does require some thought and planning if it is to be done properly.

Geotargeting websites, ie getting search engine visibility in different countries with one website, has been one of the major problems confronting both search engines and webmasters since search engines were invented.  Google has plans to enable a webmaster to specify the country a site, or more importantly the part of a site, is targeting but that technology is still being developed and is not yet available.  If and when (and I suspect it will come one day) such geotargeting technology is developed, it will remove the problem but until that time, targeting diifferent countries takes careful thought. 

 

For UK websites, internationlising for Europe means translating the site into at least the four main European languages, French, German, Spanish and Italian.  So let’s look at the process and what is involved at each stage.

There are three levels of internationalising a site

•  Translating individual pages of the site

•  Developing a sub domain for the country within the site

•  Developing a specific domain and site for that country

Translating individual pages

www.mydomain.co.uk/francais/index.html

This involves simply translating the copy for each page of the site (or perhaps the main pages) and putting a link on the home page to the different language pages.

Pro’s	Con’s
It can be effective if the product has a geographical content, eg holidays to the Isle of Mull	Pages will not be able to outrank local pages in local searches
It can be fairly successful for niche products	The pages may not even appear on local searches as the domain and hosting will be foreign
It provides support to local distributors	It is unlikely the text will be ‘localised’, ie however well the translation is done, the page will not be accurately targeting the local audience
It may be enough to indicate the potential offered by a particular country	Visitors are far less likely to buy or contact a foreign domain
It is inexpensive to set up

 

Developing sub domains for each country

www.francais.mydomain.com

The main advantages this provides over simply translating individual pages are that it is tidier in terms of organising the site and is slightly more attractive to visitors in the target country.  However, it only makes sense if a .com or .eu top level domain is used and that could adversely affect UK rankings.

 

Developing country-specific domains for each country

www.mydomain.fr

Pro’s	Con’s
Search engines favour sites in the local language hosted in the local country.	It’s more expensive but if you are serious about penetrating a foreign market, the investment is well worth it.
Visitors much prefer to visit sites that are, or appear to be, local.

Developing country-specific domains is the recommended option, and with the site hosted in the target country.  It is vital for a site to be listed in the natural, or organic, lisings that the search engines recognise the site as belonging to the country in question since local searches always feature first. Search engines detect the geographical location of the searcher and return searches identified as local. This means that the results for any particular search will be different for different users throughout the world depending upon where they are located, ususally determined by the location of their ISP.

In theory, it is only necessary for a domain to be hosted in France or for the domain to be .fr for the search engines to understand that the site belongs in search results for France.  However this could of course change, and a belt and braces approach of both a country-specific domain name and hosting in the country itself leaves no doubt on the issue.

To deliver traffic, the country-specific domain must be promoted and optimised and this includes developing incoming links from the target country.  In other words, our French site needs links from French directories etc. 

Providing local contact details will also help to improve conversion rates.  Not only do people often feel uncomfortable buying from overseas, it also shows commitment to the marketplace again increasing the confidence of the buyer.

 

Buying country specific domain names

Beware that different countries have different rules on eligbitlity to buy country specific domains and rules may vary for individuals, businessess and public sector organisations. Some countries of course have no eligibility restrictions at all, as with .com which is technically aThere are details for some countries at http://www.register.com/domain-extension-rules.rcmx.

France is particularly strict, further details at http://www.afnic.fr/data/chartes/charter-fr-2008-07-22.pdf.

Germany requires a representative to be names with an address in Germany.

 

Notes on translations

Always ensure your translation agency will be using a native speaker (with a knowledge of your market) who will be translating the copy into his mother tongue.  If possible, ask your local distributor to read through the translation.

Localisation is a major issue. This refers to writing copy in a linguistic and marketing style suitable for the target country.  It is easy to see how important this is by considering the different writings styles between US and UK website, particularly when it comes to sales letters.  The long pages that work like magic in the States do not have the same effect on a UK audience that is using the same language (more or less!)  It is vital to give the translator free reign to translate the overall message as well as the individual words.

 

And finally - how to deal with enquiries

It might sound a slightly silly point, but don’t overlook how you will deal with enquiries from your foreign market.  A visitor to a contact page in Spanish is not going to send their email in English!  This is particularly often overlooked with sites that are selling an essentially English product into a foreign country, for examples holidays in the UK.  All the investment in the internationalising a website is lost if the enquiries stay in the in tray – not understood.

If you are looking for translations from any language to any language, try http://www.idiomatic.net

 

15th March 2007, updated 26th September 2008