Getting a website done, exclusively for a foreign audience is not a bad idea. However one needs plan his moves carefully, in this relatively unknown territory to stand a chance of survival. Here are some tips on how to go about it.
Knowledge about the legal Issues
If you have the knowledge of the law of the land, it can save a lot of money and time. You need to know about the below issues beforehand:
• The law of that country doesn’t allow your website or product to be sold in their homeland
• In countries like China, you actually need to setup a physical office in their country, to start with.
• Some countries are not internet savvy and still have a long way to go.
• Some states of the same country allow a product to be sold, while others do not.
Do Research on the Keywords
We need to conduct a keyword research to see, which combination of words can be used successfully in SEO and Google Ad-Words campaigns. There are many keyword research tools available online. You need to know the kind of audience you are targeting, like their age, sex, interests, profession etc. A keywords research tool may not give you the exact results. You may hire locals to do the job for you. They will have more knowledge about the country’s culture. They will have a better understanding of the common search terms used by their fellow countrymen.
Know your Competitors
You must be aware about your competitors in the foreign market. They will certainly be more challenging than your local competitors. Once you shortlist your new competitors, you can research about their market share and strategy. Find out how they have built up their current positioning. This is very useful; it will in turn help your online and offline strategy accordingly.
Localize your Site
Have a local version of the site made. You can adapt it to reflect the target country’s culture, within the confines of your company or product’s color scheme. You could use the country’s flag wherever you find it appropriate. If you are selling products to that country, then use trusted and reliable payment methods like Paypal etc. You may also opt for their localized URLs like (1) .au for Australia (2) .uk for England etc.
Checkout Local Search Engines
In South Korea, Naver is more popular with a market share of almost 50%, while Google can manage only 30% of the market share. It is more suitable for the South Korean audiences and it caters to their local needs in the best possible way. Naver contains lots of images and flashy banners; in fact it may look too cluttered to the western audiences. Similarly, Baidu in China and Yandex in Russia are revered by the local audiences. Therefore, if you are thinking in terms of Google SEO for foreign countries, think again. Check out the ways in which you can utilize the local search engine to your advantage.
It is a good idea to reach out to the customers in another country by starting a local website. As long as you are flexible and adapt your site content and
Web design to the right audience. You will still need to compete mostly with local players. However, there are no shortcuts to success. You will learn to craft a successful path from your own mistakes and experience.
