Best Practices and Worst Mistakes Businesses Make on their Global Websites

In 2009, 1.6 billion people crowd the internet seeking news, information, entertainment, goods, services, social interaction, and more. These individuals are located in over 200 countries and territories, speak hundreds of languages, and have a combined spending power, both online and off, of more than US$35.7 trillion per year. How do the most successful online brands succeed or fail in reaching out to international visitors? Market research firm Common Sense Advisory answers this question in its new report, “The Top 40 Global Online Brands”. The report sets out best practices for creating the optimal customer experience for global visitors and reviews the most common navigation schemes, including which techniques work best and which ones should be avoided.

“To make content available to 80 percent of the total online population holding 90 percent of the world online wallet now requires a minimum of 15 human languages. Of the 250 sites examined, along with each language and country on offer, the company found only 58 that met this challenge,” said Benjamin B. Sargent, senior analyst at Common Sense Advisory, and the lead researcher for the study.

Common Sense Advisory collected data from the world’s top brands and most-visited websites, drawing on Interbrand’s “100 Best Global Brands” list of the most valuable global brands and a ranking of most-visited web properties worldwide, as tracked by alexa.com. The 42-page best practices report includes:

• A detailed analysis of site organization and metanavigation based on 250 websites of leading brands, including Budweiser, Facebook, Google, Louis Vuitton, Microsoft, New York Times, Twitter, and many others.
• Best practice recommendations on global gateways and zero-click metanavigation schemes such as geolocation and content negotiation.
• A method for evaluating unnecessary clicks and navigational “bad practices” that hamper international and multicultural visitors.
• A scored ranking of the top 40 global online brands.

“Global brand managers, designers, and web strategists can use the information in this report as they combine invisible site logic and clear navigational signposts to guide each visitor without delay to country-specific and language-appropriate content,” explains Sargent. “By understanding the best and worst navigation schemes, they can improve their own sites’ customer experience.”

“The Top 40 Global Online Brands” is available as part of a Common Sense Advisory research membership.