SEO

3 Resolutions to Help You Reach a Global Market Anne Kennedy , Beyond Ink - Jan 11, 2011

January is the month we make resolutions We look back to assess and look forward toprepare for what's coming.

What has been coming for a long time is globalization, in particular, globalization in web marketing. The Internet has made country borders irrelevant. Indeed, you can reach halfway around the world to attract visitors to your website, and engage them to respond, that is, if you make the effort to relate to them in their own culture.

Global Growth of Internet Users

Why should you bother to reach outside your country? Consider that 86% of the people using the Internet around the world are outside the US, quite a drop from 1996 when two-thirds of the world's Internet users were US-based. Indeed, Even if you include Canadian and Latin web visitors, Europe is home to more of the world's online population than all of the Americas combined. Add the burgeoning Internet use in large populations in Asia and it becomes clear the best opportunities for website marketing will be outside the US.

Indeed, US search engine searches expanded only 18% last year. But China's searches grew 32%, Korea's 34%, and Brazil's 38%. The biggest gainer was the Russian Federation with a whopping 92% increase in search engine use.

What's more, the percentage of Internet shoppers in the US has been edged out by South Korea, Germany, Japan and the UK, where virtually all those with Internet access shop online.

Moving Toward an International Customer Base

Do you need a separate website to do business in another country? Ideally, yes. This is not a simple task, but it is not impossible either. With the right help, you can communicate effectively with readers and customers in other countries.

It really is all about communication. Have you ever found your way to a website in a foreign language and attempted to buy something on it, or even simply navigate it? If you think about how confusing that would be, you may understand how confusing your US-based English language website could look to visitors in other countries. And "confuse them, you'll lose them" is as true around the globe as it is at home.

So if you want to take advantage of business opportunities overseas, here is your New Year's Resolution #1.

1. Write Content in Your Customers' Language

Obviously, you will have better luck attracting customers in their own language, but there is more to it that simply translating your content. Every country has its unique culture that responds to websites differently. In fact, some countries have several micro-cultures within their own borders, some even with different regional dialects.

Stay away from automated translation tools. The web is littered with awkward results from these tools that shoot wide of the mark. Many have been parodied across comedy channels -- surely not what you are hoping will happen to your content.

Your best bet is to find a native speaker to help you by reviewing your translation for whether it makes sense in the culture of the visitors you are trying to attract. Even better, have a second review done by someone who speaks the language you are targeting and also knows search engine optimization basics.

For basic keyword research, a good place to start is with Google's keyword tool, but be aware you may be missing some important local jargon. For example, in Sweden, searchers use a local word for "laptop" nearly half the time --which includes a character or two not used in English. While they do use the term "laptop," if you were to optimize only for that search term, you will miss half the queries. Similarly, in Germany, many searchers call a cell phone a "mobile," some a "mobilefon," but a great many also use the term "handy."

These are examples of the reasons you need to engage a native speaker, familiar with the culture, who can help you avoid what you would otherwise miss.

You also want to help search engines avoid confusion about in which country your website should be displayed. The language of your content is, of course, a primary indicator, displaying, for example, German content to searchers in Germany. But what if your target market is Austria, or the German speaking part of Switzerland? If you are writing content in Portuguese, is it intended for people in Portugal or Brazil?

Your website's domain is the first clue as to the region you are targeting for search engines. Therefore your New Year's Resolution #2 is:

2. Use Country-Specific Top Level Domains

For each country you want to reach, you can avoid confusing the search engines by using an individual extension in the URL, such as .pt for Portugal or .br for Brazil. You can also use subdomains or directory extensions to indicate the country you are targeting; each has individual characteristics and one may work better than the other in your website's architecture. The country domain is the first thing the search engines "see," and weighs heavily in determining which sites to rank for in-country searches.

You can further identify your target geography in your Google Webmaster Tools account in the space provided.

Locally sourced links in the local language provide invaluable guidance for search engines as well. Links are just as important overseas as they are at home. Identifying linking opportunities is another way your native speaker can help, as well as making link requests, which are best done personally and individually.

Every culture will have a different spin on what is appropriate or even available for linking. For example, in India there are many directories that provide links, while in Hungary, successful linking depends more on syndicated content. In general, try to get links from sites inside the country you are targeting. If you have a lot of websites for different countries, avoid making the links among them your primary link building effort. It won't do you much good in your target country.

Where your website is hosted is much lower on the list of factors search engines weigh to identify the country you are targeting, as long as you have a country-specific top-level domain. If, however, your domain is a .com only, with no other country-specific identifying factors, then where it is hosted becomes one of the few remaining identifying factors. This could lead to some confusion, and to less visibility for your website in the market you seek.

Last, your visibility in an individual market depends on which search engines are actually used by the customers you want to attract. Make your New Year's Resolution #3:

3. Learn the Leading Search Engines in the Markets You Target

Google is top dog many places, but not all. While its market share is near 100% in many countries in Europe (much more than in the United States), there are significant markets where local favorites are more popular.

In Russia Yandex, named by shortening "yet another index," is the leading search medium. In China, it's Baidu. In fact, Google withdrew from mainland China last year to serve Hong Kong and Taiwan only. In Taiwan, Yahoo! has more than half the market share, and Google slightly more than a third.

Yahoo! has long been the dominant search engine in Japan, and is expected to remain so -- but, curiously, using Google's search results! In South Korea, local favorite Naver holds about half the market share, slightly ahead of Google.

Going global with your web marketing is likely to provide you with greater opportunity for success than marketing in the US alone. When you do, use the following methods to make the most of your effort:

1. Create individual sites for different countries.
2. Engage a native speaker to review your content to make sure it fits the target culture.
3. Be sure to find out what are the local search terms for popular items so that you can reach the widest market.
4. Use country-specific top-level domains and locally sourced links to help search engines identify the country you are targeting.
5. Target the leading search engine in each market; it may not be Google.

Anne F. Kennedy, is an international search strategist, and the found of US-based Beyond Ink, with international partners in Iceland, China, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, and the UK. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Search Engine Strategies Conferences. Clients have included hundreds of companies, both large and small.