Free Excerpt from World Business
Resources.com by Garrett Wasny
CHAPTER ONE: BORDER BUSTER TOOLKIT
WEBSITE DESIGN
Start from Scratch. Are you a complete website design novice? If so, a must-read is A Beginner's Guide to HTML. Developed by the University of Illinois, the site provides an easy-to-read primer on HTML or hypertext markup language, the coding program used to create Webpages.
Find a Home. Need a webpage for your organization? The Free Homepage Guide is a directory of 100 homepage providers who offer free websites. Most provide between five and 25 megabytes of space at no charge.
Spread the News. Create your own free online newsletters and mailing lists with ListBot. The service offers three types of mailing lists: announcement, discussion, and moderated discussion.
Chat It Up. Interested in a chat room for your website? Chatrooms Online provides a directory of free chat software that can be added to virtually any webpage. After your chatroom is up and running, schedule regular chat sessions, say once a month, and invite customers to participate. Appoint a moderator and have a different company representative each month as a guest to discuss a particular product or business segment of your business. For more details, visit How to Make Business Chat Work for a free tutorial on how to run a chat session.
Grab a Surf-Board. Messageboards Online is a directory of free message board services on the web. Add one to your site and run your own virtual discussion forum.
Count Your Hits. Counters and Trackers provides a directory of online counters, which count the number of visitors to your site. It also lists trackers, which monitor how many visitors you get, when they came, and other information.
Get a Sponsor. Sponsors Online is an index of companies which sponsor websites, and pay an amount based on the number of clicks on a banner or link on a site.
Pop the Question. Add a quizlet -- a pop informal survey -- on your website. BeSeen offers the quizlet service at no charge.
Go to the Polls. Add a little fun and interactivity on your site with a web poll, a multi-choice question and answer feedback tool. Free Web Polls allows you to create full customizable polls at no charge.
Watch Your Expressions. Familiar expressions in one culture may be confusing or even offensive in other cultures. To avoid misunderstandings, remove ethno-centric idioms from your web content. According to Dave Zielinski, an international business consultant, the word piggybacking can be inflammatory in Israel, where the pig is considered a lowly animal. Other idioms such as "dog-and-pony-show" or "shotgun approach" may be common in North America, but unknown in Middle Eastern and Latin American countries.
Mind Your Metaphors. Minimize golf, football, and baseball metaphors in your web content. While popular in North America, these sports are less known in other regions of the world. If you must use a sports analogy, talk about soccer or the World Cup which are universally understood.
Axe the Acronyms. Avoid acronyms on your website. Many of your online visitors will not speak English as their first language, and be confused by the abbreviations. When in doubt, spell the phrase out.
Dab Your Palette. Be aware that colors have different connotations around the world. Green is considered a religious color in Islamic countries. Purple is the color of funerals in Latin America. A liberal use of red still carriers a negative stigma in some Eastern European countries. Check out Web of Culture for details on which colors are appropriate for which cultures.
Hit the Links. When you link to another page from your site, you are making an implicit recommendation, and effectively saying "this is a good page: check it out." Regularly inspect and update links to ensure they are of the highest quality. Overnight, content and competence can change, and reflect poorly on you.
Eyeball the Icons. While icons and other symbols on a website can improve communication and navigation, used incorrectly they can be confusing and even insulting to the intended audience. Review Monitoring Your Cultural Presence in Cyberspace for advice on taboo-proofing your website visuals and icons.
Don't Play Hide and Seek. Make it easy for visitors to know what's on your website. On your front page, list all the major sections and key content with clearly marked hyper-links, buttons, or other navigation tools. In all too many cases, valuable material is buried within websites, and difficult to find. In one instance, a bilateral trade association in Canada posted an excellent newsletter deep within their site, but made no mention of it on the front page, or even on their second or third level section pages. Unless a surfer stumbled upon the newsletter by accident, they most certainly would have missed it. Don't make the same mistake. Similar to a department store window, highlight your best material on your front page, and encourage visitors to come in and browse.
Leave Forwarding Address. Moving your website? Switching servers? Reorganizing your content? If so, list the URL of the new location on the old pages for at least six months after the change of address. Also re-register the new addresses with the leading search engines. This will minimize frustrations for online visitors who want to reach you, but can't using your outdated URLs.
Post RFPs. Planning a major purchase for your organization? Looking to cut costs? Post requests-for-proposals and requests-for-information on your site for the major goods and services you buy. You may be surprised at the results. In virtually all product and service categories, vendors worldwide -- sometimes from a place you'd least expect -- are constantly scanning the Internet for such opportunities, and may be able to deliver superior price, service, or delivery.
Detect with Inspect. Quickly inspect the quality of your site with Website Garage Site, a free service which checks the browser compatibility, spelling, popularity, and load time of your website. Simply type in your URL in the designated form and hit the Inspect button. Wait 30 or so seconds for the service to conduct a diagnostic test of your site, and -- presto -- an overall rating and detailed performance report is provided for your webpage at no charge.
Lose the Logo Intro. On some websites, the opening page shows only the logo of the organization, and the instructions "Click on Logo to Enter." Scrap this. Turn this into your true opening page, and save your visitors the hassle of an extra click. Depending on connection speeds, the logo can take up to 30 seconds or more to load, and will frustrate your visitors who want immediate access.
Be Upfront. Make it easy for visitors to know what you do and how to contact you. Somewhere on your homepage, list your organization name, street address, city and country, phone and fax numbers, and web and e-mail addresses. Also provide a brief description -- no more than 20 words -- of your product or service offering. On many homepages, this basic contact information is omitted. This frustrates users who are forced to either dig around the site for contact details, or simply move on to the next webpage. The listing of the web address is especially important. In some instances, visitors connect to a webpage through a framed site which does not show the web address of a site within the frame. If a web address is shown on the homepage, a surfer can key in the URL on the location toolbar, escape the frame, and connect to the site directly. Otherwise, they will have to go through the framed site to access the site they really want.
Break the Code. When listing your telephone and fax numbers, be sure to list your country code and area code. International callers may not know how to call overseas, or dial your particular country. Check out International Dialing Codes for a directory of country codes around the world.
Mark Time. Do you have customer service hours? If so, consider that countries around the world mark time differently. Some use a 12-hour clock (such as 2:00 PM) and others a 24-hour clock (14H00). For international customers, spell it out. List your office hours using both a 12-hour and 24-hour clock, and also their relation to Greenwich Mean Time, an international time system. Example: say you're based in Los Angeles in the Pacific Time Zone. On your website, write "Office Hours 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (9H00-19H00 GMT -8)". Calculate your time zone's offset from Greenwich Mean Time at World Time.
Get a Date. Just as time is expressed in different countries, so are dates. Some express dates in month-day-year or day-month-year. A date written as 11/5/98 can mean either November 5 or May 11. To avoid confusion, write out dates in full such as November 5, 1999 or 5-Nov-99 which are universally understood.
Forget Frames. High-priced web designers may love them, but web surfers for the most part loathe them. They are framed sites: sites partitioned off into two or more separate scrollable screens. In many instances, framed sites are crash-prone and difficult to navigate, bookmark, print, and search. Don't use them on your site. If management powers beyond your control insist on a framed site, at least give visitors a choice and offer a no-frames version of your webpage.
Start the Presses. When you design a webpage, you naturally look at how the site will look on a screen. You should also consider how the page will look when printed out in black and white. Many surfers print out paper copies of websites to share with colleagues and include in reports. If possible, avoid dark background and colored text combinations that may look fine on a color screen, but wash-out in black and white and make the text illegible when printed.
Speak in Tongues. For ideas on how to translate your site, check out Global AMP. Homepage of a Pennsylvania-based electrical supplier, the award-winning webpage features special online services and language options for customers in some 50 countries.
Talk the Same Language. An easy way to show consideration for international visitors on your website is to say welcome in different languages. Somewhere on your homepage, say Bienvenue (French), Willkommen (German), Benvenuto (Italian), Boa vinda (Portuguese), and Bienvenida (Spanish). While simple, the gesture shows you're at least thinking about prospects in other cultures. As a next step, prepare a 100-200 word report in English on your organization. Briefly describe who you are, what you do, and the goods and services you provide. Translate this summary in the five languages using resources such as AltaVista Translation and Free Translation. On your homepage, create active links from the one-word greetings to the translated summaries. Don't worry if the translations aren't perfect. You'll still win points for your effort, and set your site apart from the millions of English-only webpages. In time, add other languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian to further expand your global reach.
Parlez Vous Internet? When you create any non-English pages for your website, register those pages in an appropriate international search engine. Non-English speakers search for keywords in their own language, and may not even use English web navigation services to scan the web. When shopping online for, say, shirts, French consumers type in the word "chemise" -- French for shirt -- not the English word. In this case, shirt manufacturers targeting the French market should register in French search engines such as Voila and Weborama. Similarly, if you plan to sell to Germany, register your pages in a German search engine. Register your Spanish pages in Latin American and Spanish web navigation tools, and so on. Check World Business Resources.com for a list of leading online search tools in your target markets.
Cut and Paste. Spice up your site with everything from forms to calendars to clocks at the JavaScript Source. The site is a collection of hundreds of free JavaScripts that are available for use on your webpage at no charge.
Know Your Limitations. If you wish to restrict offers to customers in certain countries or don't wish to ship overseas, say so up front. Note "we don't export" or "this offer good only in the continental United States and Canada." This will save time and aggravation for your non-resident visitors.
Think Metric. List the dimensions and descriptions of all your merchandise in imperial and metric measurements. List weights in pounds and kilos, dimensions in inches and centimeters, and temperatures in Fahrenheit and Centigrade. While the United States still uses the imperial system, the rest of the world is largely metric. Visit Metric Internet Links for a directory of measurement conversion tools and calculators online.
Provide Details. Sell electrical items? Plugs? Wires? Phone jacks? Stationery goods? Consider that standards for these and other products vary around the world. Provide as much information as possible on the size, shape, thickness, color, weight, voltage and other details. You'll minimize misunderstandings and surprises, and let the buyers know exactly what they're ordering.
Make Global Comparisons. Budget a morning or afternoon to search the web for products and offerings similar to your own. How does your offering stack up in terms of quality? Price? After-sales service? Prospects online are doing just that, and couldn't care less if the supplier is in Canada or China or Chile. If the right product is offered at the right price, they'll buy. To keep pace, start comparing yourself against your competition on the web, not just in your home city or region. You'll gain a big-picture perspective on your strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats in the digital marketplace.
Highlight Success Stories. Received any thank-you letters or glowing e-mails from satisfied customers? Share this with the world. On your website, consider developing a "success stories" section which highlights the benefits gained, savings achieved, and profits made as a result of your products or services. If you've received praises from customers in different countries, make a special effort to post this positive feeback. Testimonials are powerful marketing tools in any culture.
Show a Human Face. In both the real and virtual worlds, people like to know who they're dealing with, and how a vendor is qualified to deliver a product or service. Address this need by posting pictures of your senior management on your website, along with brief biographies. You'll improve your credibility and rapport with online visitors.
Pay Up. Even if you accept payments online, also invite payments by traditional methods such as fax, telephone, and even snail-mail. While web-based payment systems are highly secure and confidential, old buying habits are tough to break. Many web users are still hesitant to transfer money over the Internet, and prefer traditional payment options.
Improve Your Form. When designing online forms for ordering or capturing data, make the lines long and the fields plentiful. Around the world, contact information -- names, titles, street addresses, phone and fax numbers, and zip codes -- can vary widely. Provide lots of text-room to ensure visitors have space to write out their complete address and other key data in full.
Do Your Duty. On any order form, clarify who will be responsible for any customs duties, value-added taxes, transportation costs, and other fees when shipping across borders. If you, factor these expenses into your final price. If the customer, let them know upfront. Say "shipping and customs charges not included." This will minimize misunderstandings over tariffs and freight costs.
Aim High. Gain and maintain high placement for your website on search engines. Visit the Webmaster's Guide to Search Engines for tutorials on how search engines work, and how to improve your site's ranking on web navigation services.
Take a Load Off. Keep the load time of all your website pages to less than 20 seconds each using a 28.8 modem, the current speed of most Internet connections. To speed up downloads, cut or minimize graphics and overly-complex Javascripts. With so many choices online, surfers demand rapid access, and will skip over slow-loading sites.
Submission Hold. Use Submit It to announce your webpage to seven search engines including AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, and Lycos. Simply type in your URL and e-mail address, hit the submit button, and your entry is complete.
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