The single most wonderful thing about the Internet and the World Wide Web is that they allow (for the most part) anyone, anywhere, to access the information you make available. For that reason, the Web is a perfect tool for reaching out to foreign markets and expanding your business around the world.

But too many small companies think that simply putting their information online in the form of a website and letting search engines like Google do the rest is all it takes to make sure people across the world are aware of them. Unfortunately, that's just not the case. In fact, Google and other search engines deliberately limit search results to sites that are local to the searcher. That means that someone in Asia searching for a product or service you provide (assuming your website is hosted in North America) won't find you unless they alter their search parameters to include your location. And most people don't do that on a regular basis.

So what can you do on your end to make sure that people searching all over the world will get an equal opportunity to see your website?

The first thing to realize is that although English is among the most spoken and read languages in the world, it is in no way universal; the vast majority of the global population don't know a word of English. In addition to that, even those people who do speak English as a second language spend more time browsing websites that have content in their native tongue. That means that one of the best things you can do to increase your website's exposure to foreign markets is have your content translated into the language of the market you are targeting.

Be careful when shopping for website content translation services. The "best deal" you find may not give you everything you need to reach a foreign market effectively. A direct translation of the text on your website into another language isn't enough – many other things should be taken into consideration. Your content itself may not be ideal for the culture you are targeting. Different cultures possess different paradigms and will respond better to ideas that relate to different motivations than you are used to dealing with.

Seek out a translation agency that offers specific services in website content translation. Look for content localization as well as translation. Having your content localized will mean that someone who is familiar with your target market will work with your content and mould it to be more effective for that group.

Translating and localizing your website's content is only half the job, however. Search engines base the results they return on much more than what is visible to the human eye. A good website translation service will make sure to translate the meta-tags and keyword lists embedded in the coding of your pages. Translating meta-tags is the only way to be sure your site can compete with the other results a search engine may turn up when someone makes a search. Work with your translator to make sure you have the most effective keywords listed in your meta-tags. Make sure you are doing the proper research to determine what those keywords and keyword phrases are in your target demographic. If you want to sell socks in Italy, find out what Italians plug into Google and other search engines when they are looking for new socks. And if you really want to maximize your results, make sure you include all the common misspellings of those keywords and keyword phrases – that way, if somebody spells it wrong in their search, they'll find you anyway. And don't worry, your meta-tags and keywords aren't visible to anyone but you.

There are other things you can do to maximize your foreign market web exposure and increase your business's international profile.

Redesign your website to fit the tastes and expectations of your targeted foreign market. Similarly to how your content and keywords need to be localized to your target market, so should your design and layout. Again, do the appropriate research and find out what needs to change. If you have photographs of people on your site who are visibly different from the people you want to sell to, perhaps a change to a more multi-cultural set of photos is needed. Perhaps the culture you are selling to has a vastly different design philosophy – find out what drives your target's collective sense of aesthetics, and play into that in your website's redesign. You may not have to change much – but making a few small changes may be worth your while.

Register your website's domain name with foreign domains. When you do a web search looking for information or a product/service, are you more likely to choose a result within your local top-level domain (i.e. .com, .ca)? The same is true for people searching in other countries. If you are targeting potential clients in Japan, for example, register www.yoursite.jp and use it for the Japanese version of your website.

These methods may seem like a lot to manage, and that is true. But if you are serious about expanding your business internationally, these are the steps you need to take. If you follow the steps and advice laid out in this article, you will start to see that your website is getting hits from your target location, and your international sales will start to grow.