Global reach with one website

Websites can be visited worldwide. If you want to market your website to the widest possible audience, there are a number of factors you can consider to create the most opportunities. In this blog post, we're going to look at how best to set up your website for this so you don't miss out on any opportunities!

Any website that is put online on the internet can, in theory, be seen anywhere the internet is offered. A website that you publish on your hosting package can therefore be accessed and used worldwide immediately afterwards. However, there are a number of things you can apply and fine-tune to make it useful to get traffic from.

Domain name and domain extension

The domain name itself and the domain extension play a big part in whether it is suitable for a global audience. A .com domain name is still king and can be recognized as an international website anywhere. However, a .com domain name is no longer the only option, and there are now many domain name extensions that can be used for a global website, depending on what industry you are in. As an example:

Modern and creative brands, .io, .ai, .me and .co are very strong.

Specific sectors (.app, .tv, .fm) a niche extension can be strong.

Take a look at our domain name configurator to see what best suits your needs here, and of course if it's still free to register.

Choice of language for the content

The choice of language is of course also important for a global audience, if you want to reach the largest target groups, the following languages apply:

English - the absolute number one for international reach.

More than 1.5 billion people speak it as their first or second language.

The standard for international trade, technology, science and tourism.

Mandarin (Chinese) - largest group of native speakers.

Essential for outreach in China (and partly in Southeast Asia).

Consider local platforms (Baidu instead of Google).

Spanish - very large reach in Latin America, Spain and the USA.

More than 20 countries officially use Spanish.

Increasing importance in North America due to growing Spanish-speaking population.

Arabic - spoken in the Middle East and North Africa.

Many countries, but with regional variations.

Relevance depends on your product or service (e.g. fintech, e-learning, travel).

French - widely spoken in Africa, Canada and parts of Asia in addition to France.

International language of diplomacy and education.

Portuguese - particularly relevant due to Brazil, one of the largest internet markets in the world.

German - largest native language in Europe, important for business.

Nowadays, there are practical tools for translating the content of a website using AI. Nowadays, this is also increasingly done by the visitor himself via the internet browser. This can immediately translate the content of your website into the desired language.

Do you need a CDN?

A CDN or Content Delivery Network is an external service that you can use to host your website at multiple physical locations. In this case, we often use a provider such as Cloudflare. In general, we advise against using a CDN unless you specifically need it.

In practice, Cloudflare certainly often works against you instead of with you, and with a .nl domain you have to disable DNSSEC security and many visitors have to perform a "Are you human?" test before they land on your website. This is often annoying and can lead to more visitors leaving your website before they have even seen it.

At MijnPartnerGroep.nl, we have a global DNS solution enabled by default for all our services and domain names, which ensures that your website's DNS can be loaded quickly from any location. DDOS protection is also included as standard, making your website less vulnerable to this.

Consideration of global and local content

With a global audience, you often strive to create content for as large an audience as possible. However, it often turns out that a mix of highly localized content and content for a global audience works better. And that's why they can also rank better in search engines and AI. This keeps your website at the top of both local and global results.

But also consider regional and global forms of content and even words, e.g. if you want to market a new trash can in the US, then "rubbish bin" is not the right term for it, because here it's called "trash can". So always research the country or region in which you want to market your content or products. This will help you create the most suitable guide for this.

Testing the website for performance and speed

It is important to make sure that your website works worldwide and especially on different screen sizes. In the western world, we almost all have the latest screen sizes on mobile and fixed devices, but this is not the case in many other countries. So check whether your website can also be displayed properly on smaller screens, but also whether all the functions of the website work. You can do this with a tool like Google Pagespeeds, but also with Google Search Console, and with Pingdom Pagespeeds you can also select different physical servers to test this.

Do you also want a solid and fast foundation for your website with a global target audience? Then get a hosting package from MijnHostingPartner.nl now!