This is the fifth and final post of our five-part series around best practices to globalize your .biz website. Did you miss our previous posts? Start from the beginning here.

9.) Security
When selling your products and services internationally, the chances that your website will encounter online fraud are significantly higher. Luckily, you can prevent fraud by knowing how and from where your visitors are connecting to your website.

With the right IP Intelligence tools in place on your website, you will continue to enforce the trust that .Biz has instilled in consumers everywhere. Through the ability to detect online visitors who are concealing their location when visiting your website, you can better focus your time and energy on protecting and converting real global customers who are truly interested in what your business is offering.

10.) Web Performance
Internet connections, devices and browsers vary greatly from country to country. By effectively monitoring your website, you can help ensure that your customers are getting the same experience on your website, regardless of their location. Take advantage of advanced features to provide a seamless user experience for your visitors across the globe, including:

• Intelligent Alerts: Automated alerts are your first line of defense against problems on your website. Identify problems immediately as they occur, decreasing your time to resolution.
• Real User Monitoring: See how your site performs for real end users. Get the clearest views possible.
• Monitoring Network: Get a global view of your website performance across all global networks. See how it performs from Amsterdam to Albuquerque.
• Emulated Browsers: Watch your overall customer experience by browser. Compare how performance varies from one browser to another.

In the age of the rapidly growing worldwide web, investing in your international ecommerce success is a must. Your key to success lies in following these 10 tips to globalize your website. Don’t delay any longer – start globalizing your .Biz website today!

This is the second of a five-part series. Did you miss the first post? Read it here.

Below are tips 3 and 4 to help you globalize your .Biz website:

3.) IP Targeting:
IP Targeting provides a smart way for you to target and segment your website content and advertising to your customers based on their location and company IP address.  For example, you have the ability to deliver different products and pricing (via the same website address) to your customers in China vs. your customers in Europe. You can also redirect your website addresses to landing pages that are auto-translated−depending on what region your website is accessed.
Media, retail, gaming, travel and tourism businesses, among other industries, heavily rely on IP targeting to get the most ROI out of their website marketing efforts every day. Moreover, many companies tap into IP targeting to comply with local commerce laws and regulations – further described below.

4.) Local laws and regulations:
Different countries have very different laws and regulations when it comes to
websites and ecommerce. For small businesses looking to enter multinational markets, your market success is directly dependent upon following international rules with your website.

It may be worth the investment to hire a professional who knows international trade inside and out. However, if you are just beginning and lack the funding for a professional, the World Trade Organization offers great educational resources to help you start small. Don’t try to tackle every region at once, choose one or two regional markets to focus on first. Neustar’s IP Intelligence product is an example of many solutions available that can help small businesses like you stay compliant with online regulations. With IP Intel, you’ll avoid costly legal problems and negative publicity from accidently selling in countries or states that may restrict your products.

This is the first of a five-part series.

Today, we’re seeing more locally-based businesses rely on the global online marketplace for long-term sustainability and growth. According to a study conducted by Interactive Media in Retail Group, global ecommerce is expected to grow to $1.25 trillion by 2013. Now more than ever, it’s important for small businesses to globally optimize their website to resonate with international audiences everywhere.

Below are 2 of 10 tips for small business owners to effectively “globalize” their website:

1.)   Start with your .Biz Domain
A recognized and trusted name around the globe, .Biz is a great place to start internationalizing your business. When choosing your .Biz domain name, make sure to choose a name that represents your global brand. Take some time to research names across the worldwide web to ensure that your name is not easily confused with a competitor. You may even want to test the name among some of your international target audiences to ensure that it has the same meaning across cultures.

Regardless of the name you choose, make sure to keep it short and easy to remember for your customers and prospects.

2.) Visual appearance:
Following your domain name, your website’s visual appearance is the first thing your visitors will notice when they arrive to your web page. Certain colors and images have multiple meanings across cultures – so choose these very carefully and test, test, test. If you’re using photos of real people, be sensitive to the nationalities you are representing, in the regions you are representing them. Other elements to consider include user experience such as simple navigation (horizontal is recommended) and organized content, plain font (Arial or Calibri) and HTML5 (JavaScript is not supported on all platforms).

As more and more web users around the world are accessing the internet through thousands of different mobile devices, all websites should now be built with “responsive design” (a design that optimizes design of websites for each mobile device). With responsive design, small businesses can ensure easy readability and a consistent look across all devices and platforms, no matter the size or quality of screen.

Stay tuned for our next four posts in this series – covering additional tips and tools to internationalize your website, including IP targeting, “glocal” SEO, language translation, security and more.

>> Read part 2 here