Nike has launched a new Web site design and, with it, a splash global gateway…
I don’t have time tonight to dig more deeply (I’m packing for an extended trip). When I return, I will spend some time on the site. Nike has for several years scored poorly in our annual Web Globalization Report Card. This change alone is a big improvement. By greeting users in their native language, you ensure that they first know that there is content available in their language and, second, you stand a pretty good chance of getting them where they need to go.
It may seem pretty obvious but, trust me, selling a global gateway to upper management is not always the easiest thing to do.
Kudos to Nike for making global navigation a priority.
PS: For more information on global navigation, check out our Art of the Global Gateway.
UPDATE: We’re featuring an in-depth analysis of Nike’s new global navigation in the November issue of Global by Design
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Ive been reading your information about Global gateways and I must have missed something. How do you handle SEO concerns with global gateways? I can see if you are marketing a well known brand and have a gateway at yourdomain.com, but how does that work for smaller companies who depend on traffic through search engine optimization?
If we take off all the words on the site and use a global gateway for 7 languages our site rankings will dramatically decrease. Why cant the site be setup so that the server knows which country or region the site visitor is coming from and direct them to the site that is localized for that country using country extensions? I realize inner pages can be optimized too but when youre in a competitive market with a limited budget and Google favors the home page over inner pages you need to use every tool available.
Thanks, Patricia
http://www.eplusm.com
Patricia,
I’m not sure what you mean by taking off all the words off the Web pages. I certainly don’t mean for that to occur. And you can use the Google Webmaster tools site to ensure that your site is properly indexed. A global gateway page by itself does not necessarily have to result in decreased SEO performance.
One thing I should mention though is that geolocation can play an important role in global navigation, though there should still be a backup visual solution in place as well.
When I say take off the word on my home page I mean take off content that the page is optimized for and that Google LOVES and replace it with a map and country names in their language like Phillips.com. I believe this is what you are referring to as your global gateway.
A smaller company that is not as well known will lose their rankings in Google if they change the content on their page. Believe me, I create and manage several sites and Ive seen a site go from being between first and third rankings to being dropped to 20th overnight due to the change in words on that page. Google Webmaster tools will not do anything if the page is not optimized for the correct keywords in text, H1 tags, links, etc.
What we discovered in usability test is that more often someone from another country will first wipe out the .com and replace it with their country extension even when there is a map or links in their language on the page. If that doesnt work for them they go back to the .com and look for a map icon or language button.
I do think that it is nice to have some sort of world icon or something that will then go to a global gateway like Caterpillar. But isnt the best solution to have the server first display the localized site? So, if youre in China and go to a site that youre shown the Chinese version first?
Thanks,
Patricia
http://www.eplusm.com