So, you're ready to expand the horizons of your online business to include international buyers, but you're not sure exactly how to go about it. Well, guess what? That's completely understandable, because just establishing a successful online presence can be difficult enough without adding the complications associated with marketing, selling and dealing with search engine optimization to attract foreign customers. Add to that, the question of whether or not the investment involved in setting up your website to accommodate the international buyer will bring a decent return considering how fierce online competition can be. So, here are a few things to consider before making a decision to extend the boundaries of your website storefront overseas.

**Website Translation**

First, if you wish to appeal, for example, to customers in France, then your website will obviously need to be translated into French. For however many countries or languages that you wish to target, you will need to offer your website content in those potential customer's languages. This will require some market research to find out if your product or service would have a considerable demand in the countries that you wish to enter. Without this information, you may be just spinning your wheels. You will also need to determine whether website translation into different market languages would be a practical endeavor or not. Analyzing different factors like the number of website pages that need translating, translation provider costs and the expected return of investment will help you make this decision. In the event that a full website translation is not feasible in your particular business situation there are interesting alternatives that you can persue.

Another good tool that is available is a translation widget. Google has a great translator widget. Get it here - http://translate.google.com/translate_tools'hl=en. The problem with the Google translator is that it does not validate to W3C coding standards and this can hurt your SEO efforts. However, no need to fear as a fellow blogger has worked it all out for you. See his article here - http://cutewriting.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-translation-widget-for-blogs-w3c.html where he provides the code to achieve validation. Please note I cannot attest for this validation, and just wanted to share it with you.

**Getting found on international search engines**

Another thing to consider is the necessity of making your website search engine friendly now that it offers your products or services in foreign markets. You've invested time and money into accommodating to these international buyers, why wouldn't you want to be found on their search engines? Using sub domains when setting up translated versions of your website pages is a fantastic idea. It's all about working smarter, not harder when it comes to expanding a successful online business. So that at the end of the day when it's time to tally up your tickets, you can confidently say, "thank you, or merci, or gracias, or...the sky's the limit!