Maximizing Your Multilingual eCommerce Investment Tips to get the most out of your multilingual eCommerce site Choosing to expand your business internationally is a big step, but it is one that could really pay off for your business. According to a Common Sense Advisory survey, 72.1% of consumers spend all or most of their time on websites that are in their own language, and 72.3% of consumers said that they would be more likely to buy an item with information in their own language. By implementing integrated eCommerce solutions into your multilingual site, you reach more people and greatly increase your chances of making a sale. A multi-currency and multilingual eCommerce site is a big investment, but if it is done right, you will get a high ROI. Below are some tips and tricks to get the most out of your multilingual site. Handling SEO and Domains When running a multilingual eCommerce solution, you need to handle search engine optimization and the use of domains properly. To make your site optimized for search engines, stick with one language for each page. You need to research keywords for each language that you are targeting. You also need to research localized search engines that are used by potential foreign customers, not just Google, and optimize based on their criteria. When selecting domains it is best to have one top-level generic domain that is not specific to a country such as .com. It is then wise to have different subdomains or subdirectories for every language that your website is in. This helps search engines find your website in the language that the searcher is using. Translating Woes and How to Fix Them Translating your entire eCommerce site can be demanding, exhausting, costly, and time-consuming. Literal translation can be iffy because it usually won’t make sense to a native language speaker. To get the best translation, it is best to use human translation services, but that can be costly. To stay within your budget but still be effective, use human translation services for your most important pages. If you do use computer translation, make sure those pages aren’t allowed to be indexed so they can’t count against you. Researching Regions and Competition Researching is always the best idea when expanding your business globally. Researching competition, if there is any, will help you decide whether it is worth it to translate your site for different regions. In some areas, there may be little to no competition, and you could dominate the market. The market may already be saturated in other regions, and you would get a small ROI for translating your site. Researching regions, competition, and customers’ wants and needs will help you decide how much and whether or not to invest in translating your site. Clarity Can Help At Clarity, we know how exciting and scary it can be to expand your business internationally. Our team of experts has extensive experience creating multi-currency eCommerce integration and multilingual eCommerce solutions for our clients and is there for them every step of the way. We take the time to create an excellent multilingual eCommerce site that will give out clients a great return on investment. To find out more about multilingual sites and what Clarity can do for your business, call or click to contact us today!