subject: Web Design North East: Localizing A Business Website [print this page] When a business thinks of setting up a website it will usually look for a design that just looks and feels good. The owners of the business will mainly be focused on making sure that the site will perform as it is supposed to. A design will be selected, its features will be tested, the content will be added and then it is time to go live. But the website design North East UK residents see shouldnt always be the same as the one that the visitors from the other parts of the country see, and on a grander scale the website that the visitors from one country see needs to vary from the one that the rest see.
We are, of course, talking about localizing your website design. Although the internet was meant to enable anyone from anywhere in the world to access it, a businesss main focus area should be narrowed down to cater to only those that can actually generate an income for it. For a business that is based in the north east of the UK, the website design north east residents see should cater to their unique needs as opposed to the one the rest of the world sees (its corporate website).
So, what should a local website include? Here are a few tips:
The Language: The first thing that needs to change is the language. If the business were located in a country that has more than one local language, like say Switzerland (French, German and Italian), the websites should be localised into these three languages.
The Colors: Different colours mean have different meanings in different colours. While it might be OK to use white as a sign of purity, virginity and marriage in most western cultures, there are countries in Asia (Japan and India, for example) that consider it the colour of mourning, sadness and death. A business would therefore have to make sure that the colours and themes of its sites convey the right message and not the exact opposite.
The Orientation: Languages like English are written from left to right. But there are those like Arabic and Hebrew that start from the opposite side of the page. While designing a localised version of a website care must be taken that everything is oriented in the right direction. Buttons that are used to navigate the website or clicked on to make sales should always be placed on the opposite side of the page. It wouldnt make sense to have a Buy Now button before the description of the item or service that is being bought.
Keywords: When considering SEO (search engine optimization) keywords may have various meanings in various parts of the same country. Care should be taken to include both the various translations of the words and the unique versions of them to cover all bases. This way, the SEO campaign will be able to push the rank up for all versions of the page.
