Geo Pulse #61 — 'They all speak English' is leaving money on the table

Geo Pulse #61 — 'They all speak English' is leaving money on the table
Theme: the high-English-proficiency GEO trap.

→ Skipping localization for Nordics/Netherlands. Yes, English proficiency is sky-high — but people convert in their native language, especially on money and trust pages. Fix: localize at least checkout, pricing, and guarantees even where English 'works.'

→ Search behavior is local. Dutch and Swedish users search in Dutch and Swedish. English-only pages miss the local-language SERP entirely.

→ Trust signals are cultural. A Dutch user expects iDEAL and local-language T&Cs; an English-only page reads as 'foreign vendor.'

→ Cheap test. Run a native-language variant against English for just the Nordics and measure checkout completion, not top-of-funnel. The gap is usually bigger than expected. Credit: EF English Proficiency Index — high scores, but conversion still favors native.