How to Improve Your Website for International Customers

June 26, 2025

So, your website’s doing fine in your home ground. Great, but what about the rest of the world?

Here’s the thing: your next customer might be in Berlin, Tokyo, or São Paulo. And if your site isn’t built with them in mind, they’re probably bouncing before you even know they were there.

Expanding globally doesn’t mean simply slapping on a language switcher. It means thinking about how people over there experience your site, considering things like load times, local payments, cultural fit, and legal compliance.

This ten-step post is your no-fluff guide to making your website work for international customers.

1. Start with Market Research

Before you go global, figure out where you’re getting traction. Open up Google Analytics or GA4 and check your traffic by country. You might be surprised as maybe you’re already getting hits from Mexico or India.

Once you spot potential markets, dig deeper:

What languages do they speak?
What devices do they use?
What are their buying habits?

Don’t assume everyone converts from leads to customers like your local audience. For example, Japanese shoppers expect super-detailed product pages. Brazilians might prefer WhatsApp over email. Germans care a lot about data privacy.

Even in the context of B2B purchases, your website should ideally cater to the thought process of enterprise decision-makers from a particular country and acknowledge the variation in sales cycle length. For instance, if you’re selling accounting software with payroll, your sales cycle length may differ for enterprise buyers in the US vs Europe vs Canada. The more you know, the better you can tailor the experience.

2. Implement Multilingual Support (Beyond Google Translate)

Google Translate is fine for a quick laugh, but not the best for building trust.

If you’re serious about serving international customers, you need real translations. That means hiring pros or using tools built for localization like Weglot, WPML, or Lokalise. For any audio content on your site, you can use an AI-powered voice translator.

But don’t stop at swapping words. Localization goes deeper:

Currency: Show prices in local currency.
Date & time formats: Use what’s familiar to them (e.g. DD/MM/YYYY vs MM/DD/YYYY).
Units: Metric vs imperial. Don’t make people convert.

And here’s a pro tip: avoid auto-redirecting users based on IP. Let them choose their language or region with a clean, obvious selector. No one likes being pushed into a version they didn’t pick.

3. Optimize for International SEO

If you want people abroad to find your site, you need to speak Google’s (and Bing’s) language.

Start with hreflang tags. They tell search engines which version of a page to show in different countries or languages. Without them, you risk confusing search bots, or worse, serving the wrong version to the wrong user.

Next, structure your URLs properly:

example.com/fr for French
fr.example.com for France
example.com?lang=fr (is not great. Avoid that.)

Also, localize your metadata: titles, descriptions, alt tags. Then, use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues if multiple pages have similar info in different languages.

4. Ensure Global Payment & Currency Support

Nothing kills a sale faster than a checkout that doesn’t feel local.

If your customer’s ready to buy, but your site shows prices in a foreign currency—or worse, only accepts Visa—they’ll bounce.

Here’s what to do:

Show prices in local currency by detecting their region or letting them choose.
Support popular local payment methods—think Alipay in China, iDEAL in the Netherlands, Paytm in India.
Make taxes and shipping costs crystal clear. No surprises at checkout.

And always test the experience from their side. If your cart throws an error when someone tries to use their local card, that’s game over.

Make paying easy, or they’ll find someone else who does.

5. Enhance Website Performance Across Regions

Your site may load fast at home, but what about for someone in Sydney or São Paulo?

Speed matters everywhere. A slow site feels sketchy and drives people away. Here’s how to fix that:

Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Cloudflare or Fastly. It delivers your content from servers closer to your users.
Compress your images and use modern formats like WebP.
Check Time to First Byte (TTFB) from different locations using tools like GTmetrix or WebPageTest.
Host your site with a provider that scales well internationally.

Bonus: Don’t overload international pages with third-party scripts that slow everything down. Trim the fat. A global audience expects a global-level experience. Don’t make them wait for it.

6. Simplify Cross-Border Shipping & Returns

Want more international sales? Make shipping and returns a no-brainer.

People hesitate to buy if they don’t know how long it’ll take or what it’ll cost. So:

Show estimated delivery times based on country.
List international shipping options clearly. Don’t make them dig.
Be upfront about duties and customs fees, or at least link to info.
Offer local return addresses where possible (or work with partners who do).
Keep your return policy easy to understand, in plain language.

And whatever you do, don’t hide this info. Put it where people can actually see it—on product pages, carts, and FAQs. Trust is everything when someone’s ordering from another country. So be clear, fair, and easy to deal with.

7. Comply with Local Laws & Accessibility Standards

Going global also means playing by the rules in every region.

Start with privacy laws:

If you’ve got users in Europe, you need to follow GDPR.
In Canada? PIPEDA.
California? CCPA.

That means getting proper cookie consent, explaining how you use data, and giving users control over what you collect.

Now let’s talk accessibility. Your website or online store should work for everyone—including people with disabilities. That’s not just ethical. It’s the law in many places.

Follow WCAG guidelines:

Use proper contrast and font sizes.
Add alt text to images.
Make sure the site works with screen readers.

It’s not the sexiest part of going international, but it’s crucial. The last thing you want is legal trouble or turning away people who want to use your site

8. Cultural Sensitivity & Visual Localization

Design isn’t universal. What looks normal to you might feel totally off to someone else.

Colors, images, even emojis—they all carry different meanings around the world. A thumbs-up? Great in the US. A bit rude in parts of the Middle East.

Here’s how to stay on the safe side:

Use neutral, inclusive visuals. Avoid culture-specific assumptions unless it’s intentional.
Localize imagery where possible. A winter coat ad with snow scenes won’t click in Singapore.
Avoid idioms, slang, or jokes that don’t translate well.
Show local testimonials or case studies if you have them. Familiar names build trust.

Bottom line: try to make sure your site feels familiar, not foreign, to whoever’s using it.

9. Test the International Experience

You can’t fix what you haven’t seen.

If you’re expanding globally, verify how your site behaves in other countries. Not just in theory, but actually test it.

Use VPNs to browse your site as if you’re in Tokyo, Berlin, or Dubai.
Check things like: Is the language switcher obvious? Are prices in the right currency? Does the site even load fast?
Try user testing tools like UserTesting or Maze with real users from those regions.
Ask someone in that country to walk through the buying process and give honest feedback.

It’s easy to miss issues when you’re looking at your site from a comfy home base. So get out of your local bubble and see what the rest of the world sees.

10. Use Localized Marketing & Support Channels

Once your site is international-ready, don’t stop there. Talk to people in their language, on their terms.

Start with marketing:

Run region-specific campaigns. Focus on holidays, seasons, and shopping habits vary by country.
Localize your email flows, pop-ups, and CTAs.
Use local social platforms (WeChat, LINE, WhatsApp) if they’re popular in your target market.

And don’t forget support:

Offer live chat or helpdesk in local time zones.
Add FAQs in different languages.
If you can’t do 24/7 support, be clear about when help is available.

Customers feel way more confident when they know they can reach you and that you get them.

Wrapping Up

Your website doesn’t need a total overhaul to go global. But it does need some solid adjustments.

From translating content and tweaking your checkout to showing you care about local laws and cultural norms, small changes can make a big impact.

Start with one or two high-potential markets. Test. Improve. Repeat. When international customers feel like your site was built for them, they convert and come back.

FAQs

Do I need to translate my entire website to go global?

Not necessarily. Start with key pages—homepage, product pages, checkout, and support. Focus on languages used by your top international visitors.

What’s the difference between translation and localization?

Translation changes the words. Localization adapts everything—currency, images, tone, cultural references—to feel native to the user.

How do I know which countries to focus on first?

Use tools like Google Analytics to see where your current traffic comes from. Combine that with market research to find high-potential regions.

Is a VPN enough to test how my site looks in other countries?

It’s a good start, but real user testing from people in those countries is better. They’ll catch things a VPN can’t, such as unclear language or cultural missteps.

What’s the easiest way to support multiple currencies on my site?

Use an e-commerce platform or plugin that automatically converts prices based on location. Make sure it updates rates in real time and handles rounding properly.

How do I implement hreflang tags for international SEO?

You can manually add hreflang tags in your HTML or use SEO tools and plugins that support international versions. Each tag should match a language-region pair (like en-us or fr-ca).

Can I use Google Translate as a temporary solution?

Only as a short-term patch. It’s prone to awkward translations that damage credibility. Invest in proper translation or localization as soon as you can.