When a company from Uzbekistan moves into a foreign market, the website stops being a brochure and becomes a solvency check. A buyer in China, Turkey or Europe almost always opens the site before writing. They are not looking for beauty — they are looking for grounds to reply.
We have built sites for logistics, PCB manufacturing and shipping with overseas clients, and the brief there is always the same: make them believe us. Here is what that consists of.
The English version is not a translation, it is different logic
The most common mistake is translating the local site word for word. The result is formally English text that answers the wrong questions.
A local customer cares that you are nearby and reachable by phone. A foreign one cares that you exist, that working with you at a distance is safe, and that you have shipped abroad before. Those are different conversations, and the page structure differs with them.
What they are actually looking for
-
What exactly you make or move, in units they understand: range, volumes, capacity, lead times. Not "high quality and an individual approach".
-
Evidence you have done it before. Shipments, routes, certificates, photographs of the production floor. Not renders and not stock photography.
-
Who you are legally. Company name, address, registration details. Their absence is the fastest way to close the tab.
-
How to reach you in their time zone. Email on your own domain, not a free service. A messenger they actually use.
Email on your own domain is not a detail
A message from a free mail service, sent by a company asking for payment up front on a consignment, reads badly. An address of the form name@yourdomain costs very little and removes a question nobody will ask you out loud.
Speed and reachability from another country
A site that opens quickly in Tashkent may open slowly from Guangzhou or Rotterdam. Hosting sits somewhere physical, and distance costs time. If export is the main channel, test it with a measuring service from the region that matters rather than by how it feels on your own laptop.
Separately: make sure the site opens in the buyer's country at all. That is not always obvious and not always true.
Languages: how many versions you really need
English is mandatory. Beyond that, go by actual markets rather than ambition. One honest English version you maintain works better than five languages of which four are abandoned and half machine-translated.
If there are several versions they need a technical relationship between them, or they will start competing with each other in search — there is a separate piece on the blog about that.
What not to do
-
Hide pricing while writing "contact us for a quote" with not one number anywhere. Give a range or the terms at least — otherwise there is nothing to compare you against.
-
Claim certificates you do not hold. They get checked.
-
Put up a form demanding ten fields before the first contact.
Checklist before going to export
-
The English version was written fresh, not translated literally.
-
The site carries a legal name, an address and registration details.
-
Email is on your own domain.
-
There is at least one confirmed case of shipping abroad.
-
Speed was tested from the buyer's country, not from your office.
-
It says which time zone you are in and when you reply.
If the site already exists and you are heading into a foreign market, we can look at it through your buyer's eyes and say what gets in the way.
