You did the translation. The English is clean. The hero still leads with company history, DIN, and ISO. The US procurement reader scans for category, peer set, and an outcome number in the first fold, does not find them, and clicks away. Translation is not US commercial architecture. They are two different builds.
BOUNCE.
If the bounce is on the homepage and not the product pages, the opening fold is the problem. If the bounce is on the product pages, the spec sheet is. Look at the path before you blame the translation.
The German homepage was built for a German reader who scans for capability, certification, and continuity before commercial outcome. ISO 9001, DIN EN, fifty years of family ownership, and Fertigungstiefe sit at the top because those are the load-bearing claims in the German register. The site converts in Germany because the buyer reads it in the order the page presents it.
The US procurement reader scans the same opening fold for four different things: which US category, which US installed base, which US service architecture, which USD price posture. The same filter the human buyer uses, an AI reader can now use. Your translated site fails both reads at the same time.
The volume problem compounds when the first page gives neither person nor model a clean file to extract. The buyer wants category, support model, commercial proof, and next step. A homepage opening with a Geschäftsführer letter gives the buyer a story before it gives them a buying frame.
The four-question filter is mechanical. The US buyer is not being unkind. They are sorting files fast. A site that does not surface the four signals above the fold gets sorted out before the buyer reaches the product pages.
If you have your sales head bring up your homepage on their laptop and ask three US procurement contacts what category you are in, will all three give the same answer?
"Translation is a language event. Conversion is an architecture event. The English on the page can be perfect and the building can still face the wrong street."House reading
Stage one: name the US category. One sentence, above the fold, written for the US procurement reader. Not the firm's home-market category translated word for word. The US category as the US buyer sorts it. The hero changes, the page changes downstream.
Stage two: surface the US peer set and the outcome number. If a US installed base exists, name it. If it does not yet, name the closest peer set with the European installations rendered in US format: customer, named throughput, named warranty cost reduction, named uptime. The DIN, ISO, Fertigungstiefe block moves below the fold as supporting evidence.
Stage three: ship the US service and price architecture. US-time-zone support hours, parts availability windows in US business days, USD price posture (fixed quote, not Stundensatz), warranty in US format. The German site continues unchanged for the German market. The US site runs in parallel under hreflang.
This work fits inside a Cross-Border Build (3-6 months for the full US commercial rebuild including the US-facing site, paid, conversion, sales enablement) or a Market Entry Sprint (6-10 weeks for one US category and the first US-readable materials stack including the US-facing landing pages). Groups running several US-facing brands can engage on a Group Partnership: monthly retainer, 12-month minimum. The price stays private and is set after fit is clear.
| Before rebuild | After rebuild |
|---|---|
| Hero leads with company history and DIN/ISO stack | Hero leads with one US category claim above the fold |
| Case-study wall: BMW, Siemens, Daimler, ZF (all DE) | Case-study wall: US peer set or European installs in US outcome format |
| Price reads "ab" or Stundensatz | USD fixed-quote anchor, US-format warranty and SLA |
| Geschäftsführer letter opens the page | Founder voice carries below the outcome layer, not above it |
| US bounce 72%, time on page 14s | US bounce under 45%, time on page over 90s within 90 days |
| AI buyer-agents cannot cite the firm | Structured claims, schema, named proof, clean route map |
Stage one and two are non-negotiable for a US-facing surface. Stage three is the operational layer the German team can run after handoff or under a Group Partnership for ongoing rebuild and run.
"The first fold has one job: tell the US buyer what category this belongs in and why it is safe to keep reading."
"If the page makes the buyer translate your proof, the buyer reads that as work. Work loses to the next tab."
The translation is fine. The architecture is wrong. The opening fold still leads with company history, ISO certificates, and capability matrix. The US procurement reader scans the top of the page for one category claim, one outcome number, and a US installed base. None of those are there. The same missing signals stop the human buyer and the AI reader.
It opens with one US category claim above the fold, names a US peer set or installed base on the same screen, states the US service and parts architecture in US-readable form, and routes the visitor to one inquiry path. The German credentials, family history, and DIN/ISO stack move to the supporting evidence layer below the fold.
Yes. The German site keeps running unchanged for the German market. The US-facing site is a separate locale or a separate domain calibrated for the US procurement reader. Hreflang separates them. The two carry different commercial architectures because they speak to different buyers. The principal voice carries across both, written natively in each language rather than translated.
Both. The US-facing site needs to read for the AI agent the way it reads for the procurement officer: clear category, service model, proof order, next step, and machine-parseable schema. A translated home-market site usually fails both reads.
Three engagement shapes. Market Entry Sprint covers one US category and the first US-readable materials stack including the US-facing landing pages in 6-10 weeks. Cross-Border Build covers the full US commercial rebuild including the US-facing site, paid, RFP architecture, and sales enablement over 3-6 months. Group Partnership is a monthly retainer with a 12-month minimum for groups running multiple US-facing brands. The price stays private and is set after fit is clear.
No. A US case-study page nested three clicks deep does not fix the opening fold the visitor already left. The bounce happens in the first fifteen seconds on the homepage and the top product pages. The case study is invisible to the buyer who bounced. The rebuild has to start at the fold the visitor sees first.
They can keep ownership of the German site. The US-facing build is a parallel surface with its own commercial architecture, its own conversion logic, and its own analytics. It does not require touching the German site. After the rebuild the German team can take handoff and operate it, or the engagement can continue under a Group Partnership for ongoing rebuild and run.
Inquiry through the contact form. Share the current US-facing URL, the German site for comparison, the analytics snapshot showing the bounce, and any US sales-call notes mentioning the site. Response within one business day.
No legal services. No US entity formation. No E-2, L-1, EB-5, or O-1 visa work. No US tax structuring or double-tax-treaty analysis. No US banking introductions. No fiduciary services. No regulatory licensing or FDA submission. No IP filing. No contract drafting. No M&A transaction work. These belong with German counsel, US counsel, and regulatory specialists. When a marketing decision carries legal or tax implications, the firm flags it and defers before execution.
This page matters when a real company enters a new market and the buyer reads the company, proof, offer, price, channel, or follow-up wrong.
| Buyer action | Use this page when an action is not happening: inquiry, quote request, RFQ, proposal, purchase, appointment, booked job, or sales handoff. |
| Wrong market read | The new market may misread category, proof, language, channel fit, pricing posture, or the seriousness of follow-up. |
| Proof and trust | The inspection step is to find which commercial layer breaks before adding more campaigns, pages, distributors, or sales activity. |
| Next move | If the failing layer is commercial, move toward /engagements/ or /contact/#inquiry. |