Hi, I'm very new to website design but i am doing alot of research but havent found the answer to the following question, hope someone can help.

I dont have a website yet but say i design a site to sell rare artistic prints and i am based in the UK, alot of potential customers would live in France, Germany or Spain etc if my site was called 'artisticprints.com' and i registered this domain with Google, how would a potential customer in Europe find my site in a Google search given that my domain name is in English?

Do i have to register my domain in different languages? Because when i translate the above domain say into French its 'artistiquecaracteres.com'
Thanks for any info

Have a French language site on a .fr hostname.

People in most countries can search on Google.....
Many can even buy "stuff".......

If you set up your SEO properly for your site, you shouldn't have a problem with people finding you. It would make sense to create a multi-language website and use meta keyword/description and page titles translated into each language for the respected site. What would be best if you find other French, Germain, Spanish, etc.. artists and to a link exchange with them. Google favours site with links from other sites pointing to them.

Thanks for replys even the obligatory condescending one! So i think i need to create multiple sites with an extension for each country like .fr so in France and on French Google my sites domain would be- www.artistiquecaracteres.fr is this correct?

Another senario to try and make my question clearer- if there was say a rare book that i was looking for and a man in Germany had it advertised on his German language website for me to find his site and the book, he would have had to register an English version of his site in the UK. Is this correct?

Originally Posted by jonty10

Thanks for replys even the obligatory condescending one! So i think i need to create multiple sites with an extension for each country like .fr so in France and on French Google my sites domain would be- www.artistiquecaracteres.fr is this correct?

You seem to be labouring under the misaprehesion that only Google is going to send traffic! SE referrals should be bonus traffic, "la confiture de votre pain"! rather than being the mainstay.

If you are targeting French speaking users generally including Google users in France then French language pages on a .fr domain (the domain name is immaterial) is part of that marketing campaign.
Similarly with all international marketing campaign, having correctly translated pages and on a ccTLD (country code top level domain) will go a long way in assisting those campaigns towards success, with or without search engine assistance.

Originally Posted by jonty10

Another senario to try and make my question clearer- if there was say a rare book that i was looking for and a man in Germany had it advertised on his German language website for me to find his site and the book, he would have had to register an English version of his site in the UK. Is this correct?

Give that the English (uncluding myself) have a abysmally poor record on learning languages other than English and simply prefer to speak L O U D E R AND S L O W E R so "johnny foreigner" can U N D E R S T A N D us that may well be the case

However ther are FAR more ways of reaching potential and targeted customers than relying on the vagiaries of Google rankings.

Originally Posted by WinchesterLyon

If you set up your SEO properly for your site, you shouldn't have a problem with people finding you. It would make sense to create a multi-language website and use meta keyword/description and page titles translated into each language for the respected site. What would be best if you find other French, Germain, Spanish, etc.. artists and to a link exchange with them. Google favours site with links from other sites pointing to them.

Hello Jonty,

I agree with Winchester Lyon about a multi-language website, you would only need one domain name, and definitely use the meta keyword description. I am not sure if Google is still doing this, if you did a search for something, I noticed if it was in another language, along side the website url there would be a translate option.

Thanks for replys, but it cant be that complicated, I have a website ready to go, its in English, i have a fantastic product that will jump off the shelves, i want to sell to people in France, Germany , Spain etc (e.g but they wont understand my website!)

JUST TELL ME WHAT I HAVE TO DO TO SELL MY PRODUCT TO THESE PEOPLE- If you were in my position WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I have webpages in English for a good many years, no multi-languages offered on the welcome pages or in the meta keyword description, however I still receive correspondence from all over the world in the English language, might not be perfect English, but who cares.

If I was in your position I would put up the English written website for now, and offer the multi-languages later on, which would be nice. Also my understanding is, English is a universal language and is taught as a second language, especially in Europe.

Thanks, will do

Create a website preferably in English on .com domain or on domain of your "major market" (.fr, .de, .es). Use multi-language widget on your website which will include all the languages you need (French, German, Spanish). If you need html code for such a widget, feel free to ask and I will provide you with it or just search google