International SEO agency, OBAN Multilingual, has launched GlobalMaxer, which it describes as ‘the first cultural multivariate testing tool available on the market’. 

The tool allows marketers to test combinations of web design elements, such as colours, fonts, graphics placement and page size, in order to pinpoint which elements provide the best conversion rates in different cultural markets.

GlobalMaxer uses elements from OBAN’s Cultural Database, which contains cultural norms in web design and conversion behaviour from all 26 countries that OBAN currently covers. The company then advises which elements are best to test in each region so that businesses will only trial the variations most likely to succeed in the target market. Currently, more than 25,000 combinations are being tested.

The tool is currently testing one of OBAN’s client sites and has already thrown up some interesting results. For example, different website versions were preferred across the Spanish, French and Italian markets. The product image placement which saw the best results in France actually saw the worst conversion results in Spain. The experiment is bringing in an estimated €15,000 extra per month on the product line and will give the company information on how to market their product successfully to international audiences.

Greig Holbrook (pictured), MD of OBAN Multilingual, said: "The key to a successful international marketing strategy is to understand how your target market uses the Internet. The GlobalMaxer tool provides marketers with a simple and efficient way of gaining this information."