As a Canadian E-Marketing Manager, I have worked as a Canadian
sub-division of large American companies, and a Multinational Marketer
for the International head office for a Canadian company. Since
Canadians speak American (I mean… English) the question about whether
or not a Canadian site should be exists, when there is a perfectly good
American site, frequently comes up. I am sure that this is encountered
in other regions of the world that share languages as well.

The main reason why you want a local site is if you can offer something that no one else can offer.
The first question that you have to ask is “would my users and/or
advertisers benefit from having a local site”. Reasons can include:

1. Advertising space is limited. For example, on a high-traffic site, Canadian advertisers can be drowned out by American ones.
2. Product offerings differ by country. A central
   site does not account for differences in distribution or customization
   by country. This can frustrate users who keep seeing what they can’t
   have.
3. Local content is useful. In my experience, I have
   seen a lot of effort put towards creating local content, with rarely a
   reward. One good example of local content that I experienced was
   Canadian healthcare cost savings case studies, since our healthcare
   reimbursement system is dramatically different from the US, it made
   sense to have local studies instead of leveraging theirs.
4. Regional Languages. Sometimes languages differ by
   region. Anyone who has tried to create one site for Quebec and France
   understands this (French is a very rule-bound language, but it is not
   only one set of rules!)

Ultimately I believe that one day new technologies will obviate the
need for local sites. For example, advertisements, content and product
offerings could be served dynamically depending on the location of the
IP address (or language settings), modified slightly to account for
regional language differences. For now, this is still an important
issue.

Leave a Reply