How important to conversions is proper English on a website?

[debi_zyx]

Many websites - especially those done in foreign countries by non-native English speakers - have many grammatical and idiomatic errors in the English copy. How important is that to conversions (actually convincing the customer to buy, etc.)  Is the poor English a turn-off, a cause for distrust or discomfort - or do people not care?

I'd be interested to hear people's personal opinions (the more the merrier) and if anyone has a more global perspective backed by research, testing, etc - that would be great,

Thanks in advance!

[goodnewscowboy]

Hi Debi:

This is strictly my opinion, not backed up by any research, but if you have an ecommerce site  geared towards sales in English speaking countries, you want to get rid of any barrier in front of your customer. Poor grammar would definitely be a barrier.

I were a prospective customer I would be asking myself, will they get the order correct? If I have a problem with the order will I be able to  communicate it easily with them or will there be a language barrier?

I think it would be an important trust issue.

For that matter, I think poor grammar negatively affects native English sites.

[Dr-Pete]

I haven't seen much in the way of data on this. Since many usability studies and A/B tests mean that a site has solid investment, it's rare to see someone test "bad grammar" vs. "good grammar". Plus, if you've invested in good grammar enough to have a "B" version, then why not just use it. So, practically, you just don't see this in the research very much.

I agree with GNC that it's primarily a trust issue. Are you going to give your credit cart to a company with dozens of typos, spelling mistakes, and bits of bad grammar? If they offshored their copy for bargain basement prices, is that where you want to put you money?

I saw a good international SEO talk once about the importance of writing copy for your target audience and NOT just translating. So much is idiomatic that it's easy to lose important details in translation. When your competitor is a click away and especially if you're an unknown quantity (and not a big brand), these details can matter quite a bit.

[TellThemEverything]

It's a matter of trust - I wouldn't buy from a site spelling mistakes (or any one of a number of problems; bad design, technical errors, broken links, no SSL, etc, etc)

In order to pull out my wallet I need to trust the people running the site are competent enough to keep my info safe, and deliver the product. Unfortunately, a simple spelling mistake in a conspicuous place would be enough to put me off.

Rightly or wrongly, I think there is an inherent distrust of foreign websites - they are tainted by stories of scammers, spammers and organised crime...

..so YES, use a spell checker and check the grammar too!

[Burgo]

Hmm... all depends on your definition of "conversion". On several sites, a "conversion" is farming visitors off as quickly as possible to another site/partner; and sometimes having an ugly site, with poor grammar and a single link leads to a user leaving the site through the link out of sheer desperation... and there's your conversion.

If you're talking directly about selling as a conversion though, then that's a completely different matter. Many users won't part with their money on a site where the "service quality" is implied to be inferior... as it is when communication (a part of service) breaks down.