Cultural Awareness

Whether or not you consider yourself an international practitioner, your web site is globally accessible. To make sure you are not losing a potential sale because of a cultural blunder, educate yourself on appropriate global marketing practices. Think about the pictures and colors you are using - in some cultures, photos of women or animals are discouraged. Likewise, green can symbolize hope and growth in some parts of the world while in others, it is associated with death, sickness, envy, or the devil. Similarly, in western cultures white is the color for the bride's gown, while in India widows wear white.

Another tip: translating is not as simple as getting the words right - for example Arabic is read from right to left, so a left justified Web page might not be visually appealing. Even the rules of bolding, underlining, capitalizing, and font selection vary between languages. For example, a font size of nine is less legible in some Asian languages. As always – do your research before you interact with a global audience and you will avoid some of these cultural faux pas.