Introduction

The optimization of international websites is the direct result of the proper management and implementation of the web globalization value chain. The required people, processes, capabilities, documents, and technologies must be managed in a way to allow the four primary activities of the web globalization value chain (see Chapter 7) to be undertaken in a collaborative and effective manner. A well-optimized international website is one that achieves the following:

1. international sites and pages are easy to find and navigate;

2. the site is easy to understand and loads quickly;

3. the site has a desirable user experience and flow;

4. Unicode is enabled to depict various languages seamlessly;

5. the site is locale-sensitive and culturally customized;

6. the site is well internationalized, allowing for adjustments to the user interface for language and locale requirements;

7. the site is well tested, in order to enhance its navigation, content, and functional quality;

8. the site achieves content synchronization, currency (i.e., it is up to date), and relevancy across multilingual websites for various countries;

9. the turnaround for deploying multilingual content is fast; and

10. multilingual search engine optimization is enabled by proper global content management.