It's often said that your website is your shop window to the world. But let's take a closer look at that analogy.

Yes, it's true that anyone with an Internet connection can connect with your site from anywhere in the world. But would these potential international customers find anything to interest them once they clicked on it?

The answer to that might have a lot to do with how you address them. Did you know that 70 per cent of Internet search is not in English, for example? So a non-UK visitor might be an ideal customer, but if he can't read your site, he's not likely to become one.

Also, if your site isn't optimised for overseas search engines, that non-UK visitor might never find your site anyway. For instance, the Chinese search engine Baidu now takes 5.2 per cent of all worldwide queries each month. (And with 210m Chinese Internet users already, that's a big market.)

This is particularly acute for companies that operate in different countries, or are keen to expand their global presence.

So the question is, how to get round this. What many companies did in the past was simply to get their websites translated. And many are still doing so.

In our view, though, that's of limited effectiveness, because people in other countries will often be looking for different things. When searching, they will use phrases that might not be anything like a literal translation of English words but are based on their own culture, experience and ways of doing things.

Even in the same language, words don't always have the same meaning in different countries. A Spanish word may mean something different in Argentina or Mexico to what it does in Spain.

At LimeTree, what we do is make websites truly multilingual. And though we say so ourselves, we're pretty good at it.

We handle each of your target markets differently, applying our experience and expertise to make them truly relevant and engaging. Both to search engines and human beings.

If you're operating in or expanding into worldwide markets, talk to us. We'll help make the world your oyster – whether it's spelled ostra, huître or auster.