Global expansion has been the goal of many Taiwanese brands, but only a few have successfully appealed to global markets such as Giant, Acer, and Foxconn (Hon Hai).
While most companies have taken the first step and established digital channels such as websites, social media, and e-commerce platforms to explore new markets overseas, many are not aware that their websites could seem overly complex and hard to use for foreign audiences. That could actually lead to a poor brand image, reduced site traffic, higher ad costs, and loss of prospective customers and revenue.
Having observed countless Taiwanese websites, we identified the 7 most common website issues that often hinder Taiwanese brands from resonating with global audiences.
A great website can do a lot of heavy lifting for your business and significantly streamline your workflow, but only if you define a clear purpose for it to serve.
For companies that target global markets, the purpose of your website could be:
But we found many Taiwanese brands seem to only think about “launching an (English) website” without any other plans to appeal to global markets. That alone will not do any of the above, instead, it often becomes the cause of a series of issues afterward.
A lack of website objectives and purpose can be dangerous for brands and possibly lead to a poor brand image and a lower profit margin because it leaves too many important elements unclear.
To achieve your business growth strategically, you need to set a clear purpose and a few success metrics for your website, evaluate the performance and make adjustments over time.
Another prevalent issue we found on many Taiwanese websites is that users cannot learn about what a brand does and the highlights of its offerings within seconds.
This is problematic because people’s attention span is short and web visitors will only spend about 55 seconds on a site, according to Contentsquare, a digital experience company. So if Taiwanese brands cannot effectively convey the best of their businesses and entice their audience to visit the desired pages right away, they might lose a substantial amount of prospective customers.
Below are some possible causes of this issue and some suggestions for Taiwanese companies to improve.
If you have visited some Taiwanese websites such as PChome and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, you probably recognize the densely packed text, contrasting colors, and countless columns with tiny images all over the place.
These busy web designs are by no means a coincidence, but often stem from a common belief that space is precious. Some Asian customers also appreciate high-density information as a way for businesses to show honesty and credibility. As a result, many Taiwanese companies tend to squeeze as much content into their websites to maximize efficiency.
But research suggested such crowded web designs may not help users pick up more information, on the contrary, it tends to overwhelm and distract people from their original tasks. Many found these jam-packed pages hard to use, as they often miss features, spend more time navigating, and consequently feel more hesitant and anxious.
Taiwanese companies should also note that foreign audiences are reported more likely to be annoyed and scared off by these usability issues, even though locals seem to be relatively tolerant. Thus, it may be better for Taiwanese brands, especially those targeting non-locals, to simplify their web layout and adjust content to accommodate users in local contexts.
Even though many businesses in Taiwan have turned to digital technologies such as websites and social media to interact with their existing customers amid the pandemic, many struggle to explore new markets due to poor website discovery.
Website discoverability or SEO (search engine optimization) is about creating content that is easy for search engines to understand and present in search results, so your target audience can find you easily online. To show up in searches, you need three things — authority, relevance, and user experience.
Authority deals with the quantity and quality of external pages linked to your site. If many people direct their audience to your pages, Google will consider your site more likely to be trustworthy and capable of providing accurate, reliable information, thus ranking you higher in search results. To earn those links, you need relevant content.
Relevance is about how relevant your website is to a topic. A Clutch survey showed that about 50% of users would leave a website permanently if they find the content irrelevant. There are many detailed tips you can take to increase the relevance of your site, including:
But we found the most common pain point that hinders Taiwanese companies from expanding globally is a lack of dedicated pages using a local language or well-translated English. Most businesses just google-translate or copy the whole design of their home country’s site, including the text and visuals regardless of cultural differences. And that often leads to weird wording or irrelevant content which lowers the site’s ranking and reduces traffic.
User experience is a more encompassing pillar that touches on:
In the previous section, we mentioned user experience is another pillar that has a great impact on SEO, and site speed is a key contributing factor. While Taiwan is among the top places in the world with fast internet, according to cable.co.uk, web design can play an even bigger role in determining your load times.
Google in 2018 found that 53% of mobile users will leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. But guess what? Mobile webpages on average need 15.3 seconds, and that can make online shoppers 62% less likely to make a purchase. Long response time also increases bounce rates, averaging at 13% for loads under three seconds and mounting up to almost 60% after nine seconds.
On the bright side, Deloitte found by just speeding up 0.1 seconds, consumers on average are likely to spend 9.2% more. A one-second improvement can even boost the conversion rate by around 27%.
If your site speed is above two seconds, here are some common web design issues among many Taiwanese websites that may be impeding your site speed.
There is nothing more embarrassing than having an unmaintained website — outdated company information or copyright date, obsolete products and services, empty or stale news section, broken pages and links, former employee profiles, and more. This happens to so many websites of Taiwanese companies as if it does no harm.
But in fact, outdated content not only damages the image and reputation of Taiwanese brands, it also hurts the companies’ visibility on search engines. Google’s latest Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines pinpointed that inaccurate, outdated, or meaningless information is all considered low quality, which in turn lowers the sites’ rank in search results.
We also noticed a common reason for many unmaintained websites in Taiwan is a lack of content management systems (CMS). As many Taiwanese companies do not consider how to maintain and constantly update their websites when they do web design, many brands end up having no access to CMS or encountering difficulties in providing updates and adjustments on their websites.
Have you opened a Taiwanese website and found a warning message saying "The site's security certificate is not trusted!" or "Your connection is not private"? This does not necessarily mean the site is malicious, but mostly happens if it lacks a valid SSL certificate, suggesting the information on the site is not encrypted. We have seen this warning message scare away visitors to some friendly Taiwanese websites.
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a security protocol that creates an encrypted connection between a web server and a web browser. It is important for businesses because an SSL certificate helps secure online transactions, keep customer information private, prevent hackers from creating a fake version of the site, and convey trust to users. An easy way to identify SSL-secured websites is by the "HTTPS" in their URL instead of "HTTP”.
Even though most Taiwanese websites nowadays do install an SSL certificate, many are not aware of the validity period and forget to renew it every one or two years. This is one of the common issues we observed that results in low traffic and poor online visibility for Taiwanese companies.
Consumers worldwide have growing concerns about data privacy and Taiwanese companies must address this need promptly by enhancing their web design to stay favorable and competitive.
According to the 2022 Consumer Privacy Survey by Cisco, a digital communications technology company, 89% of the 2,600 participants across Asia Pacific, Europe, and America care about data privacy, especially when it comes to AI applications. Most importantly, 37% of the respondents on average, up from 34% two years ago, have already switched to companies that better protect their privacy, with the highest percentage in India (68%) and China (53%).
This means that Taiwanese companies must create and actively maintain a safe online environment by complying with the Personal Data Protection Act and being transparent about their data practices.
Here are some web design elements that businesses in Taiwan can incorporate to enhance their data practices and build consumer trust.
Web design is all about being user-friendly — offering valuable information, streamlining users’ overall experience and protecting their personal data. From a business’ point of view, creating happy users ensures your business remains desirable, profitable, and competitive.
Therefore, we encourage you to start evaluating your website with the above checklists — not only to appeal to new markets, but also to provide a better experience for your existing users.
We would love to help you with your website. Get in touch with us and for a free website audit! In the report, we will cover:
