At one time, and you would be surprised to discover how little time ago it was, it could take months if not years for a first class product or idea to transcend its immediate geographical boundaries, and reach an international stage. According to Charlemagne, the famous eighth century King of France , who was responsible for the unification for much of western and central mainland Europe an entire millennia before the internet was even thought of “To have another language is to possess a second soul.” To have access to as many languages that you require to transcend international borders means having all of the fire power to successfully conquer any market.

These days, that statement has never been more relevant, due to a combination of easing of import and export restrictions on a global scale, as well as the spread of rapid communication abilities. This combination means that companies, no matter what part of the world, they are situated in can be in contact with potential clients in a matter of minutes instead of months.

In the twenty-first century the possibility of doing business across a wide global plane has never been more simple.

However, that doesn’t mean that companies who have aspirations to expand their global network have to accept the fact that this is easy as pie, They should never make the mistake of assuming that each and every one of their potential clients speaks their language. Even though, if these days, most people speak English, it should never be automatically assumed that they feel comfortable in doing so. That’s the reason why it’s very important, at least for the initial stages of contact between a potential supplier and their client, that all written material should be exchanged in the native language of the potential client.

By starting off a global business relationship within this kind of framework, then any possible misunderstandings in the future can be alleviated, and an atmosphere of good faith rapidly established.

The first stage in any business relationship is to establish good faith.

In order to build and strengthen this atmosphere of trust and goodwill that will cement any business relationship in the long term, companies from all over the world who are interested in establishing international markets are coming to the realisation, and a wise one at that, that the only way of rapidly establishing a place on the global business stage is speaking the language of the people you want to do business with.

There are many routes that are required to be carefully mapped out on the way to success on the international business stage, each of them equally important.

However, for every story of companies who achieve higher levels of success in an international playing field, there is a long list of stories, some of them even tragic-comic, of companies who were so keen to rapidly establishing a global export presence that they cut too many corners along the way and fell by the wayside.

These corners generally included approaching the whole issue of business communication, and especially translation in an amateurish fashion. While they may, at least on paper, have saved themselves a percentage of their advertising and marketing budget, unfortunately they will never be able to calculate exactly how much it cost them in potential clients and lost turnover and profit by failing to approach the matter of translation in an effective manner.

Finding the right translation service company to work with you in establishing and export presence can be the key to success or failure.

What too many companies fail to grasp is that while there are a tremendous number of people are more than capable of making themselves understood and understanding both conversation and written materials in the major international languages, market research has shown that a very high percentage of the decision makers at the highest level of international business, consider it a form of courtesy to be approached by potential suppliers in their native language.

And not just a half-hearted attempt to make some fairly basic communications to break the ice, but instead, a serious and professional attempt to explain everything about the potential supplier, including their history, their marketing philosophy, their product ranges, the extent of their service networks, key members of company personnel and a few other similar important details.

Export orientated companies who make the effort in creating and presenting such key information to potential clients will undoubtedly reap the benefits.

Finding a professional translation company, forming a relationship with them will be among the most forward thinking investments that any company interested in making the breakthrough into the world of international business, and maintaining their presence there, can make,

Never forget that the global business world is like a stage and those who stutter and stumble over their lines will find themselves eliminated in the early stages of the competition.

The Situation

Expanding into new markets requires tech marketers to sharpen local marketing strategies. Buyers in emerging markets, shaped by distinct cultures, languages, and channels, buy according to local business criteria and information sources. Buyers gather information individually, collaboratively, and, increasingly, virtually — from peers to print ads or from vendor sales collateral to virtual events. Tech marketers are tasked with allocating the marketing budget across this complex matrix of audiences and tools — dealing not only with new audiences but also with increasingly influential social media tools. Forrester’s Global Technology Adoption Survey, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, And Africa, Q1 2009, provides insight into how IT decision-makers inform their technology purchases — and measures which tools resonate best across markets. Effective tech marketers understand local buyers’ behaviors and localize their marketing mix to best reach their new audiences.

Global Vs. Local B2B

Most of the debate around global marketing centers around consumer businesses. Companies like McDonald’s, Apple, Nike, and Volkswagen must figure out which marketing messages work for different audiences.

Mercedes, for example, uses different taglines in different markets. In North America, where Mercedes sells their C, E, and S class cars with big engines and leather upholstery, Mercedes is “engineered like no other car in the world.” In Germany, where cloth seats grace many of the cars, and the smaller A and B class cars are sold, the Mercedes star “points the way” (a very rough translation). But Volkswagen is “das Auto,” no matter the language of the target market.

What to do, then, for a smaller company that sells B2B software that goes global? The software buyer has different concerns in different markets, and reacts to different concerns. Between Germany and North America, for example, the NA buyer reacts much more positively to direct statements, while the European buyer reacts better to passive statements. Small companies often have marketing budgets that are smaller than weekly bagel runs for the big companies. How can a small company be competitive in different geographies with different product lines?

Often, a single global message will water down the effectiveness so much that it stops being useful. Does Volkswagen really think “das Auto” is a more effective marketing message than the U.S.-only “Drivers Wanted” it used several years ago? And in the B2B space, where the fight for budget dollars is even more pronounced, will a global message be the right balance between effectiveness and marketing cost? These answers will need a lot more research to answer.

Local Marketing Tips

2B marketers establish conversions – or desired actions – throughout their customers’ buying process. These actions may take place online, on the phone, or live at a specific location. Regardless, many occur at the local level. Local search enables marketers to capitalize on these interactions and differentiate your firm based upon one very important factor – geographic proximity.

Below are four tips to help B2B marketers reach prospects at the local level.

1)Test local PPC advertising Devising a well-laid plan for your search advertising program is a crucial step.

Are you engaged in a nationally targeted campaign now? Consider testing geo-targeted campaigns for select cities or regions. Many companies, even large national advertisers, experience superior results with local ad targeting due to increased differentiation, relevance and response.Consider placing ads on local mapping sites and local search sites (examples given below), as this can be a cost-effective way to reach business buyers locally.

2)Submit and manage your business profile

Proactively submit your business descriptions, locations, URLs and phone numbers to the big three search engine applications – Google Maps, Yahoo! Local, and Microsoft Live Search.

• Google Maps: Submit a free listing to Google Maps via the Google Local Business Center.

Searchers will be served your business information when querying Google Maps for local information. You can edit these listings as needed, and must provide confirmation details for business verification purposes. Note: Since Google’s launch of universal search (based on their comparative ranking & blending methodology) map listings, blog posts, images and other types of results are now returned within Google’s main organic search results. A local search listing, therefore, will be served along with other organic listings, not just within a Google Maps listing.

• Microsoft Live Search:

Submit your business’s listing for free via Microsoft’s Local Listing Center. Searchers will be served an interactive map listing that can include your address and URL, a bird’s eye view of your business, phone number, and even directions to your location. As with Google Maps, you can edit your listings after a business verification process.

• Yahoo! Local:

Similarly, submit your business information, along with category recommendations to Yahoo! Local via Yahoo! Submit. Searchers will see a map listing along with local search results that include your address, URL, phone number, user reviews, and a link to obtain directions. As with both Google and MSN, you can edit and enhance this information over time. Note: Be proactive about generating customer reviews on Yahoo. Consider soliciting customer feedback on your website and encourage customers to write reviews. Make a habit of regularly monitoring user comments on the web to better understand your customer experience.

3)Capitalize on local directories and search sites

Local business directories, IYP (Internet Yellow Pages) directories, and local search sites are all places customers go online to find a business close to home. Examples include: MerchantCircle, Localeze, Citysearch and SuperPages. Hire a good translator(s) and proactively submit your business profile information to these sites and keep it current and compelling. To maximize the search marketing benefit you receive from your listing, I recommend that you incorporate the following elements:

• Keyword-rich local business description
• Local images relevant to your business (such as photos of leaders and your building)
• Videos about your business and product/service offerings
• Address and local phone number
• Hours of operation

4) Consider a Mobile Search Program

As mobile technologies continue to evolve, so too does mobile search. Applications like Google Mobile, Yahoo! Mobile, and even GOOG 411 (Google’s free 411 application) are now available to searchers while en route.At first glance, mobile search may appear more applicable for the consumer market, but B2B marketers shouldn’t discount the potential benefits of mobile search marketing. Do your business customers need to access directions to your office, find hours of operation, or your phone number? If so, then mobile search should be a part of your program.Ensure your listings are included in the Google Mobile index by adding a Mobile Site Map to your account. Similarly, submit your site for inclusion within any Yahoo!-powered Mobile Search service via Yahoo! Site Explorer. Visit Microsoft Live Search Webmaster Center to add your listing to MSN Mobile Search.

In Conclusion

Local search marketing traditionally reaches a prospect at the closest point to sale, or conversion. After the initial search and research phases, local search results provide searchers who are ready to to action with that final bit of crucial information: Go here to get X.

As a savvy B2B Marketer, make sure your business has covered all of its bases in developing a comprehensive search marketing strategy that includes local search. Over time, evaluate web analytics data to verify that your local search program is indeed generating more traffic, conversions, leads and sales from these local sources.

And as always, use a reputable translation agency for your supporting documents and stay tuned for new trends in the search evolution.

The background

Google Panda was devised as an update based on mark-up languages in a useful way than the previous one.  It was devised by Navneet Panda to artificially search for websites exhibiting speed and reliable content.  When Google Panda was released in February 2011, the aim of this ranking algorithm was to lower the rank of low-quality sites in the search results and enable the higher-quality ones on top of the list. Now, Google Panda is functional in all searches except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.

The problems

However, last August, the Google Panda was utilized internationally yet it posed a number of challenges especially when the sub-domain or subdirectory structures are written in .com. While it could have been easier if companies were universally presented, the independent ccTLDs are not present to direct them to their targeted links say that the brands being searched or advertised are based outside US. EU, encounters the dilemma since international labels are present and can’t be trimmed down.

Multi-country and multilingual sites also posed problems since the translated contents were similar with little currency signal and differences in title tags. The Panda filter becomes stuck with similar-looking or duplicate contents which pave way for the poor visibility on low-ranking sites and more exposure on the higher ranking sites.

A solution

Google devised a solution to fix the mishap during the use of Google Panda. Repairs with several language website problems were presented with “hreflang” and “canonical”. Hreflang is a markup language used to identify the text used in the linked document which is likely taken from the href attitude. However, it is not used to identify the language of text contained in the element itself and only uses the Lang attribute.

Google elaborated that the use of a local subtag in the head tag applied on every URL will assist Google spider identify the content of the page and its intended location. After this, Google will already identify the content for that specific region.

Basically, Google is telling us that we should use a regional subtag in our head tag on each URL to help Google’s spider figure out what kind of content is on each page and where it is intended. Once this is done, Google will consider that the content is intended for that region.

Hreflang

The hreflang attribute (hreflang: rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x”) rules in a nutshell:

• Applies to any users from different parts of the world, with content translated in the native language to target that region.
• Used for multilingual websites using substantially the same content on all web pages (e.g., English pages for Australia, Canada, and the U.S.)
• Can specify the language, country, and URLs of content translated for multiple countries.
• Used when:
  • You translate only the template of your page (navigation and footer) and main content is still in a single language.
  • Pages have broadly similar content within a single language, but are targeted at different regions (e.g., English-language content targeted in U.S., UK, and Australia).
  • Content on the web page is fully translated (e.g., have Spanish, French, and English versions of each page).
• How to use rel=”alternate” hreflang =”x”
  • If there are multiple language versions of the website, each language must use rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” (e.g., a page in Spanish must have a rel=”alternate” hreflang=”x” link to the English and French version and the English and French version must include a link pointing to the Spanish site.

Canonical

The multilingual canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) tells Google that x URL is the preferred location and the most important translated version of the content of the URL.

Multilingual canonical is:

• Used in conjunction with hreflang.
• Can be used when web pages have the same content in the same language targeting multiple countries.
• Sometimes users are directed to the wrong language.
• The canonical designates the version of content that gets indexed and returned to users.
• Use rel=”canonical” tag on other versions of the webpage.
• When users enter content into search results, users will likely see the URL that corresponds to their language preference.

Putting hreflang and canonical together:

Spanish site is the canonical and contains the following tags:
link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”en” href=”http://en.example.com/” /

English site contains the following tags:
link rel=”canonical” href=”http://es.example.com/” /

French site contains the following tags:
link rel=”canonical” href=”http://es.example.com/” /

(**CAN ONLY BE USED WHEN SPANISH IS THE MAIN LANGUAGE AND ONLY THE TEMPLATE IS TRANSLATED TO ENLISH AND FRENCH)

So Why is This so Challenging?

Since it seems pretty clear that hreflang allows for geo-targeting and rel=canonical allows for de-duplication, why is this so challenging?

“With the canonical, you have to specify the settings on a per URL basis which involves considerably more effort and cost than just using Webmaster Central,” explains multilingual search expert and blogger Andy Atkins-Krüger of Webcertain. “However, the rel=alternate hreflang has an advantage that it can be deployed alongside ccTLDs or local domains which prevents people thinking they have to use a dot com to target when in fact ccTLDs achieve better results.”

In the end, if you’re an SEO in charge of international search efforts, you may find yourself very busy this year either adding tags, cleaning up translations, or converting websites into standard ccTLDs.

In Google, more than 60% of web searchers will click on one of the top three listings.

It is therefore crucial for a website to rank as highly as possible on the first page of search engine results and by choosing the right keywords, you’ll see a great improvement in your rankings which will in turn result in more traffic to your website.  When it comes to multilingual web pages however, things get a bit trickier.

In order for your global campaign to be a hit, you need to take the time to research local competition and user behaviour in each of the markets you are trying to crack, creating localised keyword lists based on your findings.  You also need to be aware that whilst Google remains king of the search engines, many country-specific search engines are growing in popularity since they offer better country-based search options and results.  In some countries, such as China (Baidu) and Russia (Yandex), these local search engines have actually surpassed Google in terms of popularity.

In order to obtain those vital top rankings in local search engines, your site must conform to their algorithms and these algorithms vary from search engine to search engine.  The easiest way to produce search engine friendly content is to start right from the start and build your site from the ground up, bearing in mind your global SEO campaign and ensuring that your site’s web architecture and coding strategy conform to the algorithms of the local search engine in question but for many companies with existing multilingual websites, it’s too late for that.

SEO Localization is more than translating keywords

SEO Localization is about optimizing the multilingual side of search. So when your Spanish, French, or German prospect, for example, is searching for what you have worked so hard to produce and communicate on your website – they can find you at the top of the heap of other related options.

Employing the right keywords in each language is essential and will make a huge difference to your natural rankings and PPC results in local markets. Using straight translations of your English keywords will not readily produce the correct set of keywords for your local market.

Whole site may be in danger

Taken to an extreme, when mistranslated, your “keywords” can help reduce Google’s relevancy score for your entire site. Much international business growth today happens because of the power of search, so you need to be sure your website  is optimized for the markets you are selling to.

Why shouldn’t you just translate your keywords?

Here’s why: Words have multiple meaning, as can product names and service descriptions.  If you were to consider using “Windshield repair” as a keyword from your English language website, the correct straight translation into French would be “réparation pare-brise”.  However, it may not be the best keyword to use on your French site.  By using the Google Keyword Suggestion tool, you will see that this translation has a lower local search volume than some of the alternative suggestions such as, “auto pare brise” or “moto pare brise”.  If you were trying to attract more traffic to your French web site, we would advise you to use one of these alternative French keywords since they produce a higher local search volume as well as having a similar meaning.

You would also want to make sure the name of the web page, URL, meta data and any other related text contains the right keywords for optimum Google indexing and ranking.

For your UK English version, you would also have to adapt your keyword to “Windscreen Repair” instead of “Windshield Repair”, since this term, and many other terms for car parts, have different English names in the UK and US markets.  Since Google gives your site an overall relevancy score for each keyword, if you are using keywords on your French sites and UK site which aren’t optimized it will bring down your overall score.

A successful global multilingual SEO campaign is not about simply translating your English keywords into the relevant languages and hoping for the best.  When it comes to internet search, each language and culture has very different search patterns.  Online shoppers in the UK and France may be searching for the same product or service but what may prove to be a popular and lucrative keyword in English may not have desired effect when translated directly into French.

In Google, more than 60% of web searchers will click on one of the top three listings.

It is therefore crucial for a website to rank as highly as possible on the first page of search engine results and by choosing the right keywords, you’ll see a great improvement in your rankings which will in turn result in more traffic to your website.  When it comes to multilingual web pages however, things get a bit trickier.

In order for your global campaign to be a hit, you need to take the time to research local competition and user behaviour in each of the markets you are trying to crack, creating localised keyword lists based on your findings.  You also need to be aware that whilst Google remains king of the search engines, many country-specific search engines are growing in popularity since they offer better country-based search options and results.  In some countries, such as China (Baidu) and Russia (Yandex), these local search engines have actually surpassed Google in terms of popularity.

In order to obtain those vital top rankings in local search engines, your site must conform to their algorithms and these algorithms vary from search engine to search engine.  The easiest way to produce search engine friendly content is to start right from the start and build your site from the ground up, bearing in mind your global SEO campaign and ensuring that your site’s web architecture and coding strategy conform to the algorithms of the local search engine in question but for many companies with existing multilingual websites, it’s too late for that.

SEO Localization is more than translating keywords

SEO Localization is about optimizing the multilingual side of search. So when your Spanish, French, or German prospect, for example, is searching for what you have worked so hard to produce and communicate on your website – they can find you at the top of the heap of other related options.

Employing the right keywords in each language is essential and will make a huge difference to your natural rankings and PPC results in local markets. Using straight translations of your English keywords will not readily produce the correct set of keywords for your local market.

Whole site may be in danger

Taken to an extreme, when mistranslated, your “keywords” can help reduce Google’s relevancy score for your entire site. Much international business growth today happens because of the power of search, so you need to be sure your website  is optimized for the markets you are selling to.

Why shouldn’t you just translate your keywords?

Here’s why: Words have multiple meaning, as can product names and service descriptions.  If you were to consider using “Windshield repair” as a keyword from your English language website, the correct straight translation into French would be “réparation pare-brise”.  However, it may not be the best keyword to use on your French site.  By using the Google Keyword Suggestion tool, you will see that this translation has a lower local search volume than some of the alternative suggestions such as, “auto pare brise” or “moto pare brise”.  If you were trying to attract more traffic to your French web site, we would advise you to use one of these alternative French keywords since they produce a higher local search volume as well as having a similar meaning.

You would also want to make sure the name of the web page, URL, meta data and any other related text contains the right keywords for optimum Google indexing and ranking.

For your UK English version, you would also have to adapt your keyword to “Windscreen Repair” instead of “Windshield Repair”, since this term, and many other terms for car parts, have different English names in the UK and US markets.  Since Google gives your site an overall relevancy score for each keyword, if you are using keywords on your French sites and UK site which aren’t optimized it will bring down your overall score.A successful global multilingual SEO campaign is not about simply translating your English keywords into the relevant languages and hoping for the best.  When it comes to internet search, each language and culture has very different search patterns.  Online shoppers in the UK and France may be searching for the same product or service but what may prove to be a popular and lucrative keyword in English may not have desired effect when translated directly into French.

In Google, more than 60% of web searchers will click on one of the top three listings.

It is therefore crucial for a website to rank as highly as possible on the first page of search engine results and by choosing the right keywords, you’ll see a great improvement in your rankings which will in turn result in more traffic to your website.  When it comes to multilingual web pages however, things get a bit trickier.

In order for your global campaign to be a hit, you need to take the time to research local competition and user behaviour in each of the markets you are trying to crack, creating localised keyword lists based on your findings.  You also need to be aware that whilst Google remains king of the search engines, many country-specific search engines are growing in popularity since they offer better country-based search options and results.  In some countries, such as China (Baidu) and Russia (Yandex), these local search engines have actually surpassed Google in terms of popularity.

In order to obtain those vital top rankings in local search engines, your site must conform to their algorithms and these algorithms vary from search engine to search engine.  The easiest way to produce search engine friendly content is to start right from the start and build your site from the ground up, bearing in mind your global SEO campaign and ensuring that your site’s web architecture and coding strategy conform to the algorithms of the local search engine in question but for many companies with existing multilingual websites, it’s too late for that.

SEO Localization is more than translating keywords

SEO Localization is about optimizing the multilingual side of search. So when your Spanish, French, or German prospect, for example, is searching for what you have worked so hard to produce and communicate on your website – they can find you at the top of the heap of other related options.

Employing the right keywords in each language is essential and will make a huge difference to your natural rankings and PPC results in local markets. Using straight translations of your English keywords will not readily produce the correct set of keywords for your local market.

Whole site may be in danger

Taken to an extreme, when mistranslated, your “keywords” can help reduce Google’s relevancy score for your entire site. Much international business growth today happens because of the power of search, so you need to be sure your website  is optimized for the markets you are selling to.

Why shouldn’t you just translate your keywords?

Here’s why: Words have multiple meaning, as can product names and service descriptions.  If you were to consider using “Windshield repair” as a keyword from your English language website, the correct straight translation into French would be “réparation pare-brise”.  However, it may not be the best keyword to use on your French site.  By using the Google Keyword Suggestion tool, you will see that this translation has a lower local search volume than some of the alternative suggestions such as, “auto pare brise” or “moto pare brise”.  If you were trying to attract more traffic to your French web site, we would advise you to use one of these alternative French keywords since they produce a higher local search volume as well as having a similar meaning.

You would also want to make sure the name of the web page, URL, meta data and any other related text contains the right keywords for optimum Google indexing and ranking.

For your UK English version, you would also have to adapt your keyword to “Windscreen Repair” instead of “Windshield Repair”, since this term, and many other terms for car parts, have different English names in the UK and US markets.  Since Google gives your site an overall relevancy score for each keyword, if you are using keywords on your French sites and UK site which aren’t optimized it will bring down your overall score.

When considering translation of a website into another language, it is important to remember the differences that may exist in a particular language that is spoken in more than one country. For example, consider whether you are designing your web pages in Swedish for users living in Finland who count Swedish as their mother tongue, or people living in Sweden, or both.

People Differ

People living in another country may not be familiar with your society and systems. This fact is particularly relevant when dealing with abstracts in study descriptions, as some terms related to health care, taxation, educational systems, etc. may not be understandable to users from other countries, even if they speak the language. It may be better to globalise some terms instead of merely translating the abstract as it is. The procedures for ordering data may also be different for researchers working in your country and for researchers working in another country. Ordering information should clearly reflect this.

The Important Role Of Translators.

The people who are paying most detailed attention to the content of a multilingual website are the translators. Therefore, if translation is contracted out, the translators should be well-informed as to the goals and target audience for the site. This will make it easier for them to decide when the content needs to be adapted to fulfil the goals. Even if the person doing the translation is a staff member, process writing and teamwork is always useful. We suggest pre-writing, consultations with other staff members to discuss the result followed by revision, user tests, and further revision. Many heads are better than one.

Easy navigation

Clarity of navigation is a must, whatever the language. It is a well-known fact that Internet users are impatient. It has been said that;

“if a man from Mars doesn’t figure out your navigation in four seconds, your web page sucks” (Flanders).

Even though somewhat provocatively expressed, these are wise words and well worth keeping in mind!

Two main pitfalls

Two main pitfalls in navigation are making the navigation meet the needs of the organisation rather than those of the user and assuming that users know more of the organisation and its services than they in fact do. If the website does not provide one specific link to the data catalogue, but has several links to different types of surveys (for example, different survey series), it may confuse users. They will have to go to the page of each different type of survey and try to figure out how they are categorized and what the content is. Navigation problems like these are easily revealed by a simple user test. Again, some kind of declaration of content will be beneficial.

Solution

Regarding links between language versions, frequently used practices are the best. We recommend putting language links where users expect to find them and always in the same place on every page. If the language links are flag-based, adding or replacing these with text (English, español, deutsch) is strongly recommended. People do not remember flags, and, in the case where one language is spoken in several countries – which flag would you choose?

When providing links from one language version to another, the optimal solution is to provide a direct link to the corresponding page in another language. However, this is often difficult or impossible since the content of different language versions differ. It also means more work. Linking to the home page in the other language is the most common solution, which again stresses the importance of a clear and understandable navigation design. Users will be keen to get back to “that one important” page instead having to test their search skills trying to figure out where they might find it. This task is made easier if bread crumbs are used on each page and, if possible, each language version should be given similar structure.

Web design

We recommend that plenty of time be dedicated to discussing web design. Concentrate on achieving your desired goals. Web design should be based on the goals and target audience chosen for each language version. What functionalities might target users expect?

Internet Users Are Impatient

In all web design it is important to remember that Internet users are likely to be impatient. Avoid splashes and unnecessary animation, especially on the index page of your website. Has anyone ever seen an animation that they would like to see again, again and again? It is advisable to think twice before choosing to rely solely on for example Flash techniques or additional plug-ins. Difficult or non-conventional navigation (which means that users get lost and frequently have to return to the main page) combined with time-consuming animation on the main page usually results in very frustrated users. This type of design does not work for information-rich websites where it is crucial to be able to find a particular piece of information without too much effort. This is why popular web services like Google rely on a simple and fast-loading front page.

Templates

Applying some kind of a template system reduces the burden of running websites in multiple languages. When changes are needed in navigation or in other fairly constant elements of the site, templates make life much easier. Fonts, colours, titles, navigation links and so forth are controlled by one style sheet and one design template, meaning that only one alteration per language is sufficient. Using templates also tends to have the effect of pushing the web design toward an easily-maintained form, which is good for everyone.

It is a good practise to put navigational elements (search interface, database field names, etc.) into language packs, and to keep them as separate as possible from the text content of the site. This is preferable to coding these elements into the source code directly. With language packs, it is easier to translate functionalities like navigation, search interface etc., and to make changes in all language versions simultaneously or even to add completely new language versions.

Check and Monitor Your Website Constantly

When a website is up and running it should not be left on its own. Checking the log files periodically gives valuable information on where users are coming from, how long they spend on the site, if there are pages that are more popular than others, and which pages (if any) tend to drive people away to information sources outside your site. Analysing search logs helps to find out how and what people are searching for, and whether they are looking for information that does not exist on your site, or whether they are looking for existing information but in a wrong place. Log file information can be used to improve your web service.

In Conclusion

The main point of our discussion is that multilingual websites should be designed as if they were separate websites developed in separate languages, rather than multiple translations of a single language site. What we are talking about here is creating new websites in other languages. What the content and actual technical solutions are depend very much on the goals set for each site. Decide on your goals, be clear about what services you are providing, and never lose your users to difficult navigation.

There is always room for improvement!

The New Frontier Digital Multilingual SEO services can be found here.

When considering translation of a website into another language, it is important to remember the differences that may exist in a particular language that is spoken in more than one country. For example, consider whether you are designing your web pages in Swedish for users living in Finland who count Swedish as their mother tongue, or people living in Sweden, or both.

People Differ

People living in another country may not be familiar with your society and systems. This fact is particularly relevant when dealing with abstracts in study descriptions, as some terms related to health care, taxation, educational systems, etc. may not be understandable to users from other countries, even if they speak the language. It may be better to globalise some terms instead of merely translating the abstract as it is. The procedures for ordering data may also be different for researchers working in your country and for researchers working in another country. Ordering information should clearly reflect this.

The Important Role Of Translators.

The people who are paying most detailed attention to the content of a multilingual website are the translators. Therefore, if translation is contracted out, the translators should be well-informed as to the goals and target audience for the site. This will make it easier for them to decide when the content needs to be adapted to fulfil the goals. Even if the person doing the translation is a staff member, process writing and teamwork is always useful. We suggest pre-writing, consultations with other staff members to discuss the result followed by revision, user tests, and further revision. Many heads are better than one.

Easy navigation

Clarity of navigation is a must, whatever the language. It is a well-known fact that Internet users are impatient. It has been said that;

“if a man from Mars doesn’t figure out your navigation in four seconds, your web page sucks” (Flanders).

Even though somewhat provocatively expressed, these are wise words and well worth keeping in mind!

Two main pitfalls

Two main pitfalls in navigation are making the navigation meet the needs of the organisation rather than those of the user and assuming that users know more of the organisation and its services than they in fact do. If the website does not provide one specific link to the data catalogue, but has several links to different types of surveys (for example, different survey series), it may confuse users. They will have to go to the page of each different type of survey and try to figure out how they are categorized and what the content is. Navigation problems like these are easily revealed by a simple user test. Again, some kind of declaration of content will be beneficial.

Solution

Regarding links between language versions, frequently used practices are the best. We recommend putting language links where users expect to find them and always in the same place on every page. If the language links are flag-based, adding or replacing these with text (English, español, deutsch) is strongly recommended. People do not remember flags, and, in the case where one language is spoken in several countries – which flag would you choose?

When providing links from one language version to another, the optimal solution is to provide a direct link to the corresponding page in another language. However, this is often difficult or impossible since the content of different language versions differ. It also means more work. Linking to the home page in the other language is the most common solution, which again stresses the importance of a clear and understandable navigation design. Users will be keen to get back to “that one important” page instead having to test their search skills trying to figure out where they might find it. This task is made easier if bread crumbs are used on each page and, if possible, each language version should be given similar structure.

Web design

We recommend that plenty of time be dedicated to discussing web design. Concentrate on achieving your desired goals. Web design should be based on the goals and target audience chosen for each language version. What functionalities might target users expect?

Internet Users Are Impatient

In all web design it is important to remember that Internet users are likely to be impatient. Avoid splashes and unnecessary animation, especially on the index page of your website. Has anyone ever seen an animation that they would like to see again, again and again? It is advisable to think twice before choosing to rely solely on for example Flash techniques or additional plug-ins. Difficult or non-conventional navigation (which means that users get lost and frequently have to return to the main page) combined with time-consuming animation on the main page usually results in very frustrated users. This type of design does not work for information-rich websites where it is crucial to be able to find a particular piece of information without too much effort. This is why popular web services like Google rely on a simple and fast-loading front page.

Templates

Applying some kind of a template system reduces the burden of running websites in multiple languages. When changes are needed in navigation or in other fairly constant elements of the site, templates make life much easier. Fonts, colours, titles, navigation links and so forth are controlled by one style sheet and one design template, meaning that only one alteration per language is sufficient. Using templates also tends to have the effect of pushing the web design toward an easily-maintained form, which is good for everyone.

It is a good practise to put navigational elements (search interface, database field names, etc.) into language packs, and to keep them as separate as possible from the text content of the site. This is preferable to coding these elements into the source code directly. With language packs, it is easier to translate functionalities like navigation, search interface etc., and to make changes in all language versions simultaneously or even to add completely new language versions.

Check and Monitor Your Website Constantly

When a website is up and running it should not be left on its own. Checking the log files periodically gives valuable information on where users are coming from, how long they spend on the site, if there are pages that are more popular than others, and which pages (if any) tend to drive people away to information sources outside your site. Analysing search logs helps to find out how and what people are searching for, and whether they are looking for information that does not exist on your site, or whether they are looking for existing information but in a wrong place. Log file information can be used to improve your web service.

In Conclusion

The main point of our discussion is that multilingual websites should be designed as if they were separate websites developed in separate languages, rather than multiple translations of a single language site. What we are talking about here is creating new websites in other languages. What the content and actual technical solutions are depend very much on the goals set for each site. Decide on your goals, be clear about what services you are providing, and never lose your users to difficult navigation.

There is always room for improvement!

The New Frontier Digital Multilingual SEO services can be found here.Think

When considering translation of a website into another language, it is important to remember the differences that may exist in a particular language that is spoken in more than one country. For example, consider whether you are designing your web pages in Swedish for users living in Finland who count Swedish as their mother tongue, or people living in Sweden, or both.

People Differ

People living in another country may not be familiar with your society and systems. This fact is particularly relevant when dealing with abstracts in study descriptions, as some terms related to health care, taxation, educational systems, etc. may not be understandable to users from other countries, even if they speak the language. It may be better to globalise some terms instead of merely translating the abstract as it is. The procedures for ordering data may also be different for researchers working in your country and for researchers working in another country. Ordering information should clearly reflect this.

The Important Role Of Translators.

The people who are paying most detailed attention to the content of a multilingual website are the translators. Therefore, if translation is contracted out, the translators should be well-informed as to the goals and target audience for the site. This will make it easier for them to decide when the content needs to be adapted to fulfil the goals. Even if the person doing the translation is a staff member, process writing and teamwork is always useful. We suggest pre-writing, consultations with other staff members to discuss the result followed by revision, user tests, and further revision. Many heads are better than one.

Easy navigation

Clarity of navigation is a must, whatever the language. It is a well-known fact that Internet users are impatient. It has been said that;

“if a man from Mars doesn’t figure out your navigation in four seconds, your web page sucks” (Flanders).

Even though somewhat provocatively expressed, these are wise words and well worth keeping in mind!

Two main pitfalls

Two main pitfalls in navigation are making the navigation meet the needs of the organisation rather than those of the user and assuming that users know more of the organisation and its services than they in fact do. If the website does not provide one specific link to the data catalogue, but has several links to different types of surveys (for example, different survey series), it may confuse users. They will have to go to the page of each different type of survey and try to figure out how they are categorized and what the content is. Navigation problems like these are easily revealed by a simple user test. Again, some kind of declaration of content will be beneficial.

Solution

Regarding links between language versions, frequently used practices are the best. We recommend putting language links where users expect to find them and always in the same place on every page. If the language links are flag-based, adding or replacing these with text (English, español, deutsch) is strongly recommended. People do not remember flags, and, in the case where one language is spoken in several countries – which flag would you choose?

When providing links from one language version to another, the optimal solution is to provide a direct link to the corresponding page in another language. However, this is often difficult or impossible since the content of different language versions differ. It also means more work. Linking to the home page in the other language is the most common solution, which again stresses the importance of a clear and understandable navigation design. Users will be keen to get back to “that one important” page instead having to test their search skills trying to figure out where they might find it. This task is made easier if bread crumbs are used on each page and, if possible, each language version should be given similar structure.

Web design

We recommend that plenty of time be dedicated to discussing web design. Concentrate on achieving your desired goals. Web design should be based on the goals and target audience chosen for each language version. What functionalities might target users expect?

Internet Users Are Impatient

In all web design it is important to remember that Internet users are likely to be impatient. Avoid splashes and unnecessary animation, especially on the index page of your website. Has anyone ever seen an animation that they would like to see again, again and again? It is advisable to think twice before choosing to rely solely on for example Flash techniques or additional plug-ins. Difficult or non-conventional navigation (which means that users get lost and frequently have to return to the main page) combined with time-consuming animation on the main page usually results in very frustrated users. This type of design does not work for information-rich websites where it is crucial to be able to find a particular piece of information without too much effort. This is why popular web services like Google rely on a simple and fast-loading front page.

Templates

Applying some kind of a template system reduces the burden of running websites in multiple languages. When changes are needed in navigation or in other fairly constant elements of the site, templates make life much easier. Fonts, colours, titles, navigation links and so forth are controlled by one style sheet and one design template, meaning that only one alteration per language is sufficient. Using templates also tends to have the effect of pushing the web design toward an easily-maintained form, which is good for everyone.

It is a good practise to put navigational elements (search interface, database field names, etc.) into language packs, and to keep them as separate as possible from the text content of the site. This is preferable to coding these elements into the source code directly. With language packs, it is easier to translate functionalities like navigation, search interface etc., and to make changes in all language versions simultaneously or even to add completely new language versions.

Check and Monitor Your Website Constantly

When a website is up and running it should not be left on its own. Checking the log files periodically gives valuable information on where users are coming from, how long they spend on the site, if there are pages that are more popular than others, and which pages (if any) tend to drive people away to information sources outside your site. Analysing search logs helps to find out how and what people are searching for, and whether they are looking for information that does not exist on your site, or whether they are looking for existing information but in a wrong place. Log file information can be used to improve your web service.

In Conclusion

The main point of our discussion is that multilingual websites should be designed as if they were separate websites developed in separate languages, rather than multiple translations of a single language site. What we are talking about here is creating new websites in other languages. What the content and actual technical solutions are depend very much on the goals set for each site. Decide on your goals, be clear about what services you are providing, and never lose your users to difficult navigation.

There is always room for improvement!

The New Frontier Digital Multilingual SEO services can be found here.

International sites face added barriers to searches because of language, cultural and learning style differences, as well as search methodologies. To achieve global visibility, your site must appear in the results for searches conducted in languages other than English, and for searches that are restricted based on country or region.

Language Filters

As a rule, people prefer search results in the languages they know. However, searchers in different countries have different preferences. For example, in a Scandinavian country like Sweden where many residents are fluent in English, people are as likely to conduct their searches in English as in Swedish. But in countries like China and Japan, where English is spoken less often, most searchers want results limited to their native language.

Your task is to make sure that search engines know the language of your page. If your page is not correctly identified, you could be losing valuable referrals because the page will be missing from searches that should have included it.

There are several different methods that search engines use to determine the language of your page:

• Language Meta Tags —

Meta tags that clearly and correctly identify the language appear at the top of the HTML code view. Then, search engines can just check the tag and display the site for the appropriate languages. For example:

<meta http-equiv=”content-language” content=”zh”>

Indicates the language is in Chinese, while

<meta http-equiv=”content-language” content=”zh,es”>

Tells the search engine that the site is in Chinese and Spanish.

Unfortunately, meta tag usage on the Internet is spotty at best, and even if sites use the tag, the syntax is often incorrect or the language designation is wrong. As a result, search engines look at the tag, but do not consider it the only factor when determining a site’s language.

UTF-8 and UTF-16 character sets are based on Unicode, and allow most languages to display correctly. (Wikipedia)

• Character Encoding —

The character set identified in the HTML header that tells the browser how to correctly display the text on a site.

For example:

…<meta http-equiv=”content-type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″ />…

If both the character set encoding and the language meta tags are correct, it’s safe to assume that the site will display correctly in that language. However, most character sets encompass multiple languages. For example, a site encoded for the Latin-1 character set could be in English, Spanish, or French.

While English and other Western European languages do not usually pose a challenge when it comes to proper text display, other languages like Arabic or Japanese need the appropriate character encoding meta tag in order to display properly.

• Text Analysis

The content of the page itself. If the search engine can determine the language through character patterns and content, it will classify the page in the proper language category. Given the level of sophistication that search engines have attained, there is a good chance that your site’s language will be discovered even if you do not do anything. Still, it never hurts to help the search engines as much as possible. Country and Region Filters In some situations, a searcher may prefer limiting their search results by country or region rather than language. For example, a Danish person may want to order a digital camera from a Netherlands-based company to avoid overseas shipping charges. The language filters of search engines do not really help searchers in that case.

Locale is the combination of language and culture that makes an area unique. For example, Switzerland has three main locales: French, German, and Italian areas.

A search for pages in German may bring up results from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A search for pages in French may bring up results from France and Canada. And a search for pages in Spanish may bring up results from Mexico, Argentina, and Spain.

To solve this problem, most search engines apply country or region filters. Usually a default filter is enabled for local searches, or the search site offers searchers a choice between two or three filters such as country/region or language. Savvy searchers always have the option of using the advanced search interface to specify these filters.

So, how do the search engines decide which country your web pages come from?

Two main factors come into play:

• The location of the server that hosts the site

• The site’s domain name

Every web site has an IP address that reveals the country or region where the hosting server resides. Free online tools such as www.ip2location.com allow you to look up the geographic location of any given IP address. Country/region filters select web pages that are hosted on servers within the specified country/region. Using a top-level domain such as .cn or .fr for country/ regional designation is the most search engine friendly way to achieve local visibility.

However, pages hosted outside a country/region can be included in a filter as well, if the domain name includes a country/region designation at the top level. For example, a .cn domain indicates the site is from China (e.g., www.google.cn); whereas a .tw domain indicates that the site is from Taiwan. A country/region filter for China includes pages from sites that have .cn domains, even if the site is actually hosted say, in Singapore.

This filtering mechanism poses a problem for companies that want to use the .com domain for all their web sites. For example, the Sun Microsystems’ site is www.sun.com. Its Chinese site has a sub- domain of cn.sun.com. According to the search engine’s country/region filter rules, all pages considered to be from China must be hosted locally or have a top-level domain of .cn. Sun’s page does not meet the requirements because it is hosted centrally in the US, and only uses a sub domain rather than a top level .cn domain. When a searcher limits results to pages from China, Sun’s Chinese site will not be found.

But when the searcher uses the language filter, the site will be included because it is in Chinese. If you are concerned about searchers not being able to find your language pages, don’t panic yet. Experienced searchers are aware of the country/region and language filter issues and know to adjust their settings to find relevant results.

Conclusion

International sites face added barriers to searches because of language, cultural, and learning style differences, as well as search methodologies. To achieve global visibility, your site must appear in the results for searches conducted in languages other than English, and for searches that are restricted based on country or region. New Frontier Digital can handle your localisation needs.

New Frontier Digital’s services can be found here. ]]> http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/localisation-101-how-multilingual-search-engine-optimisation-works/feed/ 0 http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/the-big-fish-in-global-search-engines-multilingual-seo-copywriting-strategies/ http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/the-big-fish-in-global-search-engines-multilingual-seo-copywriting-strategies/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:37:35 +0000 John Taylor http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/?p=1453 Read more.]]> Multilingual search engine optimisation (SEO) is not an option for websites. SEO is an
absolutely essential step which every website needs before going “live.” SEO optimization is even more
critical when you have websites in multiple languages. Multilingual websites can thrive or fail based on
how well they are optimised for SEO in their global, target-language markets. Although your translation
company may have mastered best practices for multilingual SEO, you will need a sound strategy for SEO
in your source as well as target languages. SEO is a key component in your overall global search engine
marketing strategy.

Billions websites that provide useful information and interesting experiences for online users to navigate. In the fairly recent past, many web- marketers spent a lot of money on “User Experience” and copywriting to drive users to their web pages but neglected to spend very much effort on search engine optimization. Successful multilingual SEO starts with good content in your source language.

Don’t search for the perfect SEO recipe

There is no perfect recipe for SEO analysis. It will always be a unique experience, based on the website,
the market, the brand, the competitors and the problems being worked on, as well as the technology
in question. Therefore, instead of thinking of every possible component that could be a factor for SEO,
think of the top factors that will have the greatest impact SEO for your website in all target as well as
source languages.

SEO rewards are worth the effort

Focusing on these top factors in SEO, over time you will achieve measureable success. Although you
will probably not reach your goals “over night,” effective SEO will have a demonstrable effect on your
website visits and revenues. This is multiplied by the number of target language websites you may have,
with which your translation company can provide assistance. With the world as your market, you want
to ensure that your website content is attracting all potential customers in the language they can best
understand.

An example of our procedure to provide you with the best SEO for European markets

SEO strategy for Italy consisting of 6 stages:

1. Target user analysis

Each project is unique. That is why we first discuss with every customer what is it they would like to
achieve. Do you want to attract more customers from Italy? Is it retailers you are looking for? Or new
Italian business contacts? What are the typical characteristics of your customers (age, profession etc.)?
Are there any websites you consider competitors?

2. Keywords analysis

Once we have identified the target audience of your website, we conduct a detailed keywords analysis
to determine the most frequent searches your potential customers are performing when they are
looking for products or services like the ones of your company. Remember, your website needs to be
present among those search results in order to attract relevant traffic. And the more relevant traffic you
get, the more sales you make.

3. Content translation and copywriting

If you don’t have an Italian version of your website yet, our certified translators and in-house
copywriters will be happy to create one for you. High-quality content is vital both to attract potential
customers to your site and to appear among search engine results. This is why we always write with
both, humans and robots, in mind. To create texts that are loved by search engines and appreciated by
your customers, like a good conversation. Fresh, stimulating and always unique.

4. Website optimisation

Once the copywriting phase is completed, our Italian SEO specialists get to the groundwork – optimising
your website’s code and structure. There are numerous variables that contribute to a SEO-friendly
website. Not only meta tags, titles and descriptions are important – your website’s performance, light
code and usability are only a few of the intricate blend of technical factors that need to be considered
when optimising your website for major search engines.

5. Off-site activities

People only believe what they hear from trustworthy sources. Search engines are built to think the same
way: They try to quote the most trustworthy, popular and hence important sources first, to provide
users with the most useful content for their specific search. But how do you make sure that Google &
Co. consider your website a trustworthy and hence quotable source? Most importantly: if your website
is quoted by other important sources. With a combination of article marketing, social media marketing,
online directories, blogging and news, we help you build and maintain a positive reputation online that
will help your website achieve highest search engine results.

6. Monthly website analysis

And last, but not least: the monthly check up. It is not enough to relax once all the work is done – to
make sure your website constantly appears high in rankings and achieves the goals you are looking
for, it is necessary to perform a monthly analysis and, more importantly, to know how to interpret the
results and act on them. New Frontier Digital pulls monthly reports on your website’s performance,
visitor numbers, their browsers, main referral sites, bounce rates etc. – to constantly increase your
website’s traffic and excel among search engine results in Italy.

The Swedish e-commerce market is growing very rapidly, fueled by a rapid growth in Swedish broadband usage and ever increasing Swedish online retail B2C expenditure levels. This has served as a primary catalyst for the rise in cost-effective offshore internet retailing in Sweden, as online shopping has become an intrinsic part of Sweden’s shopping culture.

Quick Summary:

• Number of Swedish internet users: 6.8 million
• Swedish broadband access: 152.7 (per 1000)
• Swedish mobile phone usage per capita: 1026(per 1,000)
• Most popular local Swedish search engine: http://katalogen.sunet.se
• Most popular Swedish websites: News, Banking & Finance
• Swedish B2C e-commerce expenditure (2006): US $ 11.2 billion
• Number of Swedes who have bought online (latest data 1999): 1.014 million

Sweden On The Net

With an economy skewed towards international trade, Sweden has achieved high standards of living through a combination of modern capitalism and extensive welfare benefits. Sweden’s capital city Stockholm is amongst the world’s most prominent high-tech hubs in the world, along with Northern California’s Silicon Valley and Boston, Massachusetts. Sweden’s GDP at 2006 current prices reached US $ 380.75 billion, a growth of 6.1% over 2005 Sweden estimates, according to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook Database dated September 2006. According to latest ITU data, the total number of Swedish internet users reached 6.8 million by 2006, comprising 74.9% of the Swedish population for the same year. The World Bank-ICT database has also estimated Sweden’s per capita internet usage to be at 592 (per 1000) in 2004, having increased from 456 (per 1000) in 2000.

Sweden’s broadband access per capita has also been increasing very rapidly, standing at 152.7(per 1000) in 2004, according to the World Bank ICT database, having witnessed whopping growth over 2000 estimates of 9.3(per 1000). The same database has also estimated that Sweden’s per capita personal computer usage stood at 640(per 1,000) in 2004, growing by 26.2% over 2000 estimates. Similarly, Sweden’s mainline and mobile phone usage also stood at 709 and 1026(per 1000) respectively in 2004.‘The World Factbook – Sweden’ database has also estimated that the total number of Swedish telephone mainline users stood at 6.45 million by 2004, while the total number of Swedish mobile phone subscribers reached 8.44 million by 2005.

Popular search engines in Sweden include

• http://www.eniro.se
• http://www.sweseek.com
• http://www.catweb.nu
• http://se.yahoo.com
• http://se.msn.com
• http://se.altavista.com.

The French Economic Center of Sweden has listed other top portals in Sweden like

• http://www.passagen.se
• http://www.lycos.se
• http://www.everyday.com

EIAA’s ‘Europe Online’ Report for August 2006 also states that Sweden’s most visited websites are those on news, banking and finance.

With debit cards being the most preferred mode of card payment in Sweden, the Swedish credit card market is still relatively small, though growing steadily over a small base. According to Euromonitor International, the number of credit card transactions in Sweden increased by 55% over the years 2000 to 2005. The combined value of Swedish credit transactions also increased during this period, though by a smaller percentage.

An European Perspective

With regard to Swedish e-commerce expenditure, a Mintel International December 2003 report states that Sweden ranks seventh in Europe in terms of annual per capita expenditure on home shopping. Even though mail order is the principal transaction method, e-commerce is quickly catching up as an effective alternative, with Sweden having one of the most developed e-commerce sectors in Europe. According to an IDC-Merrill Lynch report, Sweden’s e-commerce market size stood at € 844 million (US $ 848 million) by 1999 end, having grown by 221% over 1998 estimates for the same. The French Economic Center of Sweden had also estimated the number of Swedish e-commerce users at 1.014 million, as of December 1999.

EIAA’s August 2006 ‘Europe Online’ Report has stated that the average Swedish internet shopper spends approximately € 577 (US $ 717.8) and buys 5 items online over a six month period, with Swedish users purchasing more products online than the normal European average. A Forrester Research October 2006 report also forecasts that by 2006, more than half of Sweden’s adult population would be shopping online, spending nearly € 3 billion (US $ 3.73 billion) via the internet. Sweden’s overall online B2C retail sales for the same year would also grow substantially to stand at € 9 billion (US $ 11.2 billion), making Sweden the largest e-commerce market in the Nordics. Sweden’s path to future prosperity thus lies in offshore internet retailing, which ensure convenient and faster transactions, financial card security and a wider array of goods at lower prices.

Swedish Language And Localization

Like most languages, Swedish is constantly developing. In recent years, usage has changed as a result of new media such as mobile phone texting and net chatting, but Swedish has also been strongly influenced by the “world language” English.

Young Swedes generally like the Swedish language and feel it gives them an identity. Yet “Swenglish” is on the increase among today’s youth. Many feel that English has a broader vocabulary than Swedish, which makes it easier to absorb English words and expressions.

In this development, Swedes have been mainly influenced by the Anglo-Saxon culture. Many young people prefer English-language music to Swedish. Also, Swedes are constantly surrounded by English because, apart from some children’s films, English-language films and TV series are not dubbed in Sweden.

“I think English is going to become more common as a spoken language in the future, but the basics of Swedish will still be around, particularly in written language,” says Per, 17, and many young people agree with him.

Sofia, 17, adds: “Swedish is only commonly used in the Nordic countries, and in the future I think Sweden will become even more internationalized.”

“Swedified” English?

Language professor Sture Allén agrees with this prediction, and argues that a command of English is important if Swedes are to communicate properly with the outside world, not least when doing business. Allén was formerly head of the Swedish Academy (Permanent Secretary), an institution that decides which words are to be formally incorporated into the Swedish language by issuing new editions of the Academy’s dictionary. The Academy also awards the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Allén insists there is no evidence that English is in the process of taking over the Swedish language. In the past, for instance, German in various forms has influenced Swedish, but it has nevertheless survived intact. The reason is that Swedes have preserved their inherited vocabulary while at the same time assimilating the new words both grammatically and in pronunciation.

So despite the fact that Swedish has undergone a natural change process, borrowed words have been adapted, or “Swedified.” Email, for instance, is often spelled mejl in Swedish, or turned into e-post, while bug has become bugg. But spoken Swedish has also drawn on English to create totally new words. Thus delete becomes deleta, scroll scrolla and peak peaka.

Therefore Swedish Localization that is essential for Swedish SEO must be done with much care and skill to get the best out of your investment.

Finally Some Swedish Christmas Words to Know

Here’s a quick list of words you should know around Christmastime.

• Advent – Advent
• Boxing Day – Annandag Jul
• Chimney – Skorsten
• Christmas – Jul
• Christmas carol – Julsång
• Christmas table/dinner – Julbord
• Christmas Day – Juldagen
• Christmas Eve – Julafton
• Christmas Ham – Julskinka
• Christmas present – Julklapp
• Christmas-tree – Julgran
• Happy New Year! – Gott Nytt År!
• Gingerbread cookies – Pepparkaka
• Jingle Bells – Bjällerklang
• Merry Christmas! – God Jul!
• Mulled spiced wine – Glögg
• New Year’s Day – Nyårsdagen
• New Year’s Eve – Nyårsafton
• Reindeer – Ren
• Rice pudding – Risgrynsgröt
• Santa Claus – Jultomten
• Silent Night, Holy Night – Stilla Natt
• Sleigh – Släde
• Star – Stjärna
• Twelfth Day – Trettondagen

* www.eu-esis.org/Ministry of Research and Information Technology (Dec. 1999 estimates)

** Nielsen Net Ratings/www.internetworldstats.com (2004 estimates)

Getting a good ranking in a search engine hasn’t been the easiest thing for many. Search engines are getting more smarter & intelligent everyday, so now it takes more than just good content to top your competitors.

On-page optimization is one of the very first step of SEO which every webmaster should look into. It probably won’t even take you an hour to learn and implement some of these on-page optimization techniques. So why it is so important? – Well literally speaking, if you can do proper on-page optimization for your website you can not only rank well in a search engine but also can increase the overall readability of your website for your visitors.

Below are some of the most important on-page optimization techniques for you. You can implement some of these if not all to give your site a better exposure to the search engines as well as to increase your overall CTR (Click-Through-Rate) ratio!

The META Tag and International Search Engines

The rules of search engines when it comes to on page factors differ greatly., but the META tag has been a point of intrest since of late.

After Infoseek (Go.com) closed in 2000, the meta keywords tag was left with only two major supporters: AltaVista and Inktomi. Now Inktomi remains the only one, with AltaVista having dropped its support in July.

“In the past we have indexed the meta keywords tag but have found that the high incidence of keyword repetition and spam made it an unreliable indication of site content and quality. We do continue to look at this issue, and may re-include them if the perceived quality improves over time,” said Jon Glick, AltaVista’s director of internet search.

As for Inktomi, the search engine has no immediate plans to follow AltaVista’lead:

“The meta keywords value is just one of many factors in our ranking equation, and we’ve never given too much weight to it. That said, we will continue to use it as long as our relevance modeling shows that it adds value,” said Ken Norton, director of product marketing for Inktomi’web search division.

Therefore the Meta Tag is not as important as it used to be.

Title Optimization

A site’s title tag is by far the most important website optimization element. A title tag should be short but descriptive enough for your visitors to identify you and your business. Title tag is the first thing that is shown & indexed by the search engines. So naturally it is given a very high importance – out of thousands results that a searcher sees, your site’s title has to be appealing enough for him to want to find out more information. On the other hand, your title has to be appealing enough to the search engine in order to rank you above thousands of other similar websites like yours.

Important things to include in your title:

Your Name/ Business Name / Site Name: This is very important for breading propose. If you feel that your customers may search you by your brand name than it’s also useful to put it somewhere in your title.

Keywords: If you want to rank for a certain keywords it is always good to place some of them in your title tag. A Title tag represents the whole flavor & content of your website. So if you are selling pizza online you can include keywords like – order pizza, home delivery pizza etc in your title tag. Don’t staff too many keywords in your title. Write a title which is readable to humans & also good for the search engine. (e.g. Domino’s Pizza, Order Pizza Online for Delivery – Dominos.com)

Include your 1-800 or other toll-free numbers: Some may not agree with me on this, but I think including your phone number in the title tag does help your visitors to take a direct action! It also makes your site look more professional and legit when it’s being displayed in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page). Searchers are likely to ‘click’ on the result that has a phone number attached to it because in their unconscious mind, they will have a good impression on the authenticity of the business and the level of support. If you prefer not to include your number in the title tag, you can alternatively include it in your Meta Description which will give you almost the same benefits.

The KEYWORD Tag

The KEYWORD tag used to be important for ranking. It’s not anymore, however, it’s best practice to include entries here as some search engines still pay some attention to them. Also there is evidence that the major search engines look for consistent entries across the tags.

So in the keyword tags put the keywords (actually keyphrases) you discovered in your keyword analysis. Actually you need to restrict it to a maximum of 25 words. Also use lower case and separate each phrase by a comma and a space.

Should you have the same keyword tag on each page?

Ideally you should change the order of the phrases, and put the phase being optimised for at the beginning of the list. So in the example above the homepage is being optimised for ‘event management’, so this is the first phrase in the list.

The DESCRIPTION Tag

This is more important than the KEYWORD tag ( but less important than the TITLE tag).

Quite often this gets listed in the hitlist directly below the title so it will have an impact on whether people click through or not.

For example:-

Your Events, Manchester UK – Christmas party organisers

Christmas party organisers by Your Events uk, looking after your christmas

production, venue, catering and entertainment.

www.youreventsltd.com/christmas.php – 14k – Cached – Similar pages

This is the result of a google search for ‘christmas party organisers’. First line is the contents of the TITLE tag; the text below the content of the description tag. So ideally it needs to be a bit salesy – encouraging people to click through.

Again – no longer than 25 words, and put the phrase being optimised for at the front of the description.

The H1 Tag

Unlike the other tags we’ve discussed the contents of the H1 tag appears as visible text on your web page.

Its best practice to include a version of the title tag as the H1 tag.

If your title tag says New Frontier SEO- Translations and Localisation Services’ The H1 tag could be something like “Quality Website Translation and International SEO Will Catapult Your Business Into The Global Marketplace”.

That is, a bit more ‘call to action’ oriented. Essentially this has the affect of placing your keyphrase for the page being optimised for as a headline at the top of your page. Something the search engine spiders seem to like a lot.

I this case the page is being optimised for two phrases – ‘technical translations’ and ‘software localisation’. Generally we should try to optimise one page for each of our keyphrases. Sometimes we can get away with two but three is pushing it as you will see when we discuss copy writing below.

There’s on more thing to do to ensure your pages get top rankings….

Write Keyword Rich Visible Text For Your Optimised Pages.

Search engine spiders thrive on keyword rich content. Also the higher placed it is on your webpages the better.

If you can get 200 words of text at the top of each page of your site (ideally right below the H1 tag content) and include your keyphrase (the one the page is being optimsied for) around 6-8 times, that is pretty optimal.

This is not always easy and we’ll discuss some issues in later lessons to help when it isnt.

Essentially the TITLE tag content for a particlar page is compared to the keyphrases which appear on that page. The more the better, within certain guidleines.

The trick is to stay within certain ‘keyword density’(KD) limits. Around 1.9% is good. Five keyphrase repetitions in 100 words would be a KD of 5%.

This should satisfy the spiders and also you should be able to put together reasonable copy for human visitors.

These tips will help you to catapult your Global SEO campaign!

International link building poses many unique challenges for link builders, least of which are language and cultural barriers as well as effectively qualifying link building opportunities for their greatest impact on local search engine results. So apart from the relatively limited selection of agencies or freelance talent out there, you don’t need to go to the extent of bring such skills in-house. Just make sure you have the following checklist before outsourcing or hiring a multilingual link builder:

Here’s how to do it in 5 easy steps!

• Step 1 Identify fresh keywords: know where you should focus on by starting keyword research all over again in the target language
• Step 2 Don’t translate keywords: Optimise your new pages correctly, taking note of local search engine algorithms if going after rankings in multiple search engines
• Step 3 Identifying link building assets;

1. Identify your international SERPs competitors
2. Prospect for international link opportunities by identifying those links which give your competition the most strength
3. Qualify for international link opportunities by adopting similar tactics for those prized links
4. Acquire international links before diversifying into new linking opportunities

• Step 4 Monitoring: monitor your competition and your rankings, track adjustments in ranking relative to new link additions

Analyze and Identify

Identifying the top established sites is often just a case of looking at what the local competition is currently linking to, you don’t need to have a million dollar budget in for some markets, in fact relative to English speaking markets, you often need alot less, but of course that depends on the language and keyword you wish to rank for.

Different countries have varied resources available, so knowing what opportunities you have is critical to forming a solid link building strategy if keyword competition is high.

The web offers a variety of sources for this purpose if you consider CEE countries, blogging is quite a popular route along with social media and press releases. Article directories remain an undeveloped option at this stage.

Get the help of a local search marketer to find relevant sites in other countries that you can approach to find out your options.

“Tap into search engines”

One link from an authority site can be equal to 1000 off topic links. Since relevance is one of the key metrics search engines use to determine how much value the link passes, think outside the box, or at least outside the country to find other sites that have attained authority status. Naturally, quality or the authority of a site varies depending on the country. It’s important to note that what may seem ‘low’ quality in the English speaking market, may in fact be the standard in that particular market, this presents a opportunity for further research.

Monitor

As with the English speaking market, traffic comes from uncommon sources. Therefore always monitor your site with Analytics software to determine were visitors and comments originate from. Next step is to monitor your link building activities to identify which tactics are generating the ideal results. Overtime you can look to cater your landing pages and your service offer in a way that targets the international audience even better.

Create link-worthy content and communicate with local suppliers and buyer

Before you embark on an SEO campaign, look for new ways to emulate local or national SEO strategies abroad (a great plug in for FireFox exists from Red Fly Marketing for this purpose called Google Global. This will assist with seeing local search results). Finding which links prove most valuable to your competitions ranking will streamline any local link building efforts. Taking competition analysis offline, identify what local providers are doing to attract local interest, find out how they reached and connected with local buyers and supplier you can start by assessing the links, then taking your efforts one step further by contacting those companies and making them an offer.

If you want to build links internationally, it’s more then just building links. Identifying the resources available, creating the online links, then getting ‘really’ local and connecting with local suppliers and link building partners is a solid strategy.

The strategy is not limited to websites, resources or directories, communicating through a blog is universally recognised online, you can also make your RSS feed international! by blogging in multiple languages.

Use similar strategies to jet set without leaving the comfort of your computer when looking for other uncommon International SEO link building opportunities.

As these show, international link building has a lot more to it than what seems at first sight. The key point here is that the marketer must “think out of the box” and tap what will benefit him most and should exploit it carefully. With each language added to a site the cost of marketing drops as you multiple into an authority site, your experience and effectiveness often accelerate. Going multilingual is not only exciting, it is truly rewarding.

International link building, once mastered, will definitely boost SEO in today’s rapidly globalizing internet community and would help you stay amidst the rising tide of multicultural and bilingual web users.