GLD

I'm thinking of creating a website for a little idea I had and was wondering whether I should offer the site in several different languages. Do you think this is a good idea? The majority of people online are English-speakers, but I don't think it would be a good idea to forget about the German, the French and the Spanish speaking.
Would it be beneficial to do this? I realise it depends on what kind of site it is but, as a general rule, is it something worth thinking about?

Cheers.

ed

If you can get it transcribed professionally (i.e. not Google/Babelfish translation) then it will definitely open up your market. Of course, as you said, it depends on the site.

Josie

I think it depends on your site and who exactly you are targeting as your market. If you are targeting to the European market, then it does certainly make sense to have professional translations done. However, if you are targeting the North American market, about the only other language I might consider would be Spanish. The Hispanic market, especially in the US, is huge and is growing larger every second. Don't worry about translations into French for the French Canadians in Quebec though - anyone online is going to have pretty good English.

Unless you have a real target niche that speaks a different language though, I wouldn't bother with anything other than English. Lucky for us, most people have accepted the fact that US businesses, especially smaller ones, are going to have websites in English, so most people using the Internet to shop I think will have enough English to get by. Just IMHO .... may not be the case, but that's my impression.

Roshan N

It would definitely depend on the targeted viewers of the site. If once in a blue moon a non english speaker may come to your site you dont need to have translations. However if your site is based in a french speaking country, you should probably have that site in french and english.

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