Here’s an interesting article about how to internationalize your web site. Internationalization is fast becoming more and more important as a standard practice. Writer Huiping Iler has seven suggestions in this article called Digital Web Magazine – It’s in the Details: Seven Secrets of a Successful International Website
“When it comes to creating a successful international website, language isn’t everything. Many other factors come into play, all of which require knowledge about your target market. If, for example, you know you will be translating your website into other languages, its a good’ idea to keep this in mind during the initial design phase. Why? That way you can design it in a way that accommodates these changes without affecting the website’s core design.
The process of designing a product (in this case a website) so that it can be adapted to other languages without engineering changes is called internationalization. Within the framework of internationalization, localization can take place. In website design, localization is the process of adapting a website through language, content and design to reflect local cultural sensitivities.”