Three Basic Steps to Globalize Your Web Site for International Visitors.

The future of large companies depends on them capitalizing on a growing global market online says John Yunker, President of Byte Level Research.For example, more than half of Google's traffic is from outside the US and roughly a quarter of Google's revenue is generated outside the US -- and that number is rising.

Yunker, whose clients include John Deere, Wal-Mart, and Intel, points out, "If you don't learn how to successfully go into other markets, you risk them coming into your market." Yet often, even US companies with global sales lack a truly global Web presence.

We asked Yunker for three basic steps you can take to begin globalizing your site this year.

-> Step #1. Start small

"If you try to do six markets at once you can make a lot of mistakes," says Yunker. Try following these steps:

A. List your strategic markets for next five years

Explore who your competitors will be, consider potential ROI, and choose a list of perhaps 30 strategic countries. Once you have a basic list, register domain names in those countries so you don't lose out on them, even if you don't plan to use them immediately.