The tekom Year Book 2020: The most common web globalization mistakes

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On this last day of 2020, I wanted to be sure to mention a book that I contributed to which is now available — the European Association for Technical Communication Year Book 2020.

My article is titled The Most Common Website Globalization Mistakes — and How to Avoid Making Them.

Here’s an excerpt, one of the more common mistakes that I still come across today:

Launching a “local façade”
Simply translating the home page of your website does not a local- ized website make. If all you do is translate the home page of your website, you’re going to make a painful first impression on visitors – and make it much more difficult to ever lure them back.

That’s not to say you can’t start small. And many companies suc- cessfully do just this, but they manage their users’ expectations from the beginning. That is, they localize a portion of website content — a small product selection or the names and contact information of in- market salespeople — and this is something not only that visitors to the site can benefit from, but the extent of translated content is clear.
If visitors arrive at your site expecting a fully translated website and are disappointed, you’re going to have to work extra hard down the road to convince them to take a second chance.

You can purchase the book here.

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John Yunker

John Yunker

John is co-founder of Byte Level Research and author of Think Outside the Country as well as 19 editions of The Web Globalization Report Card.
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