5 Tips for Hosting an International Website for a Global Audience

international website

Over half the world’s population now use the internet — there’s a huge global audience out there for your website. We’re talking billions of people.

If you’re looking to reach a wider audience, why not host an international website for a global audience? 

If this is something you might be considering, check out our top five tips below — you’ll have your global-friendly website ready in no time!

1. Use Country Extensions

If you can, it’s ideal to build sites at various domain extensions for specific languages or countries — of course, this will depend on which countries you’re targeting. 

For example, you may decide to build a .co.uk site or an .au site. An alternative that would save you plenty of time would be to buy the domain extensions you want and redirect them to a subdirectory.

2. Translate and Localize

You might think it’s simple to have the text on your website translated into another language, but it won’t always be ready to go straight away.

Every market will be slightly different, with various norms and tastes, so make sure that everything is relevant, and inoffensive, to consumers in their respective markets; you don’t want to inadvertently anger or upset a potential customer. Ensure that site translation is the best it can be.

You should also tweak your SEO strategy to each market. Websites considered relevant to local users will be ranked higher by Google, so bear in mind local keywords as well as dialect and even currency.

3. Ensure Speed

This is something that perhaps goes without saying, but you should make sure your website runs fast. If it takes a while for your content to load, customers aren’t going to stick around — even if they’re on the other side of the world.

It may be worth investing in a content delivery network, or CDN. This consists of web servers located across the world, so you might be based in New York, but be able to serve content from London, making your site run faster for British visitors.

4. Adjust Your Shopping Cart

Are you selling anything through your website?

If so, and you’re offering international shipping, you can make life easier for customers by giving them the chance to convert prices into their own currency.

There are a number of tools that offer this service, including the Exchange Rate API. It’s free for a maximum of 1,500 queries every month, so your customers can easily work with the currency they’re used to.

5. Consider Color

Something to be careful with when launching a global website for an international audience is color.

The meanings that you might associate with a particular color could differ from the meanings people in another market associate with that color. For example, many cultures consider blue to represent freedom and peace, but in some places, it can represent mourning. 

Like with translations, you don’t want to accidentally offend anybody.

Your International Website

How you set up your global-friendly, international website will depend on the services you offer and which markets you’re aiming at, but our tips should provide a good starting point so that you can get your website started! 

If you’re after more business advice, don’t forget to check out the rest of our posts.