Multi Lingual Web Sites
- 1 year, 2 months, 15 hours, 27 minutes ago
- Posted by Florian Auckenthaler
When the purpose of having a business website is to increase exposure and expand business in a global market, having a site that has a multi-language capacity is essential. Having an online presence offers the potential of reaching people all across the world. A site that only communicates in one language only reaches those people who use that language - not everyone.
Single-language websites effectively screen out potential business before potential clients/customers even get the chance to know what that business could offer them. When a business does not have the capability of reaching the whole global market with a multi-language site that business is not using its site to its fullest potential. Any website can offer exposure. A multi-language capability can turn mere exposure into genuine presence.
Potential business isn't just a matter of having individuals click on a site and be able to understand the language of that site. A single-language site will lose those individuals, but it will lose more than just their immediate business. Business is about word-of-mouth, referrals and contacts, as well as those individuals who search for a product or service and click. The person in the US who speaks Spanish and may do business with a Spanish-speaking site will know not to refer that Spanish-language site to his colleagues who use only English or another language. The business contact of someone associated with a single-language site may be someone who could help bring in substantial business, provided a company has a website that can be used by those who require it to be in their own language.
A business site offers the opportunity to collect names and addresses for future mailings and possible future business. When the wrong language causes a visitor to leave a site before ever really seeing it a business doesn't just lose that visitor's immediate business. It also doesn't just lose potential, immediate,"spin-off" business as mentioned above. It loses the future business and future "spin-off" business of just that one visitor.
Whether a substantial percentage of competitors are already showcasing their business to the world with an effective, mulit-language, site; or whether the majority of competitors have not yet come around to taking full advantage of today's global market; when the goal of a business site is to reach as many people as possible the only way that goal can be achieved is by having a site that is capable of communicating in more than just one language.
The site that cannot be used by people who speak a language other than the one that site offers tells potential clients/customers that the business is a smaller, local, one. The single-language site essentially says its owner is satisfied with the clients/customers it has and is not interested in more business. It says that even though the site showed up on a global online search they have reached it by accident - because this site/business does not apply to them. When a single-language site is not saying these things to the visitors it loses it is - perhaps more significantly - saying nothing at all.
- posted in: Marketing
