Once keyword research in the foreign language being targeted is complete, the next most important task, when it comes to building a successful multilingual website, is on-page optimisation.

Now, just place your search terms in all the right places.  Of course, it is not quite that simple, as each search engine places different weight on search terms being place in certain locations and at certain volumes . In other words, it’s invaluable to know how the target search engine spiders a page and where to place the keywords so your foreign language pages are positioned for ranking high in your target keyword.

Now it’s time to identify some keyword challenges found in SEO campaign creation:

German Conglomerates

For instance, German nouns like to merge into incredible conglomerates.  An example of where I ran into this was at this Netzwerk überwachung site. Two major search terms are Netzwerküberwachung and Netzwerk überwachung.  The first, conglomerate word is actually correct, but people search in unusual ways, and the search engines don’t generally recognize partial words. In English, a reference to “website monitoring service” would count as a reference for the search term “website monitoring”.  But the German equivalent, Überwachungsservice für Webseiten, would read literally in English as “monitoring service for websites”.

In other words, you might have to make the German SEO professional dance some fancy language steps to deliver a readable message that does not interfere with your search terms.

The Use Of Accents

Multilingual SEO also brings to light the question of accents.  Use them only if the keyword research reveals their use.  One well-respected SEO consultant questioned the use of accents when it turned out that more people searched for Montreal than Montréal.  Don’t you believe it for a second.  There simply were more English speaking people searching without the accent, so leave the accents off your English site but keep them on your French, German, Italian or other versions of your sites if your aim is to be truly localised.

There is one exception to the accents rule: There is a certain market in English that refuses to capitalize words or use punctuation.  The equivalent market in Spanish speaking markets exists as well as in Germany where they are unlikely to use an umlaut – you might have to optimise both with and without the accent. Again, if targeting local consumers always include the accents otherwise refer to your keyword research and cross check the level of backlink competition to gauge which is keyword is best to target.

File Names

What about file names.  Many companies keep the same filenames when they create a translated site. So

1) http://www.example.com/en/Products/AudioVisual.asp becomes;

2) http://www.example.com/de/Products/AudioVisual.asp

…a challenge to a non-English speaking German, but more importantly, of no help to German SEO effects.  On the other hand, keeping the same file name helps the webmaster keep track of what all those otherwise “unintelligible” filenames, without resorting to a wall covered in file name translation tables.  This is not a simple decision to make, but in this case, it’s best to localise file extension names into German and if relevant, to include the target keyword(s) in the extension.

Sub-domain or Directory?

One question that often comes up is where to house the translated site on a separate site, in a sub-domain or in a directory on the English site.

The general consensus is that it is preferable to give it its own domain with the appropriate country extension as local search engines will give your locally hosted domain far more preference in competitive search markets. It is relatively simple to purchase a domain in .de (Germany) or .it (Italy), but which domain extension do you choose for Spanish?  Spain?  Mexico? Argentina? The USA?  And have you ever tried to apply for a .fr (France) domain? Not easy.

Second best is a sub-domain, which at least carries a semblance of being a separate site and allows some directories to consider it a home page for listing purposes (and you want those directory links). This strategy is can be considered appropriate when targeting less competitive keywords. International keywords research will quickly reveal which path is best to take.

Now the expansion strategy is laid out and the initial keyword research and competition research has revealed the keywords to target, it’s time to look at the second major step.  On-page optimisation:

An Example In German SEO

The following are details regarding the specific on-page tasks for German search engine optimisation:

>> Title Tag Optimisation – One of the most critical elements of German search engine optimisation is the development of unique and keyword centric title tags. The title tag of a page is HTML code that contains the text that appears in the upper left corner of your browser and the underlined hyper link in search engine descriptions. Title tags act like the title of a book and define the content on a specific web page. Aim at using only one keyword/keyphase in your title tag. There are a number of key concerns when dealing with these tags that can have an immediate and significant impact on the ranking of a web site.

>> Meta Tag Optimisation – While meta tags have lost much of their influence on rankings, the meta description is still important with smaller engines and in cases where there are heavy graphics on the site. Use your major keyword here and try to avoid repeating the same word twice. The search engines will spider list keyword list and identify a multitude of combinations for those keywords. Use single keywords separated by commas.

>> Meta Description - Review the English descriptions, translate if possible or develop more appropriate versions for the German (or other language market). Include the primary keyword for the page only once.

>> Content Optimisation – Currently the German search engines develop their own descriptions for the site in the results page by taking the sentence or sentences that surround the specific search phrase. Therefore it is very important to ensure the copy surrounding these key phrases on the site is written properly to provide the best description of your offer to searchers. Typically a keyword density of over 1% is considered excessive (including keywords allocated to meta data fields).

Once you have placed your keyword within the German page text and code, the third step is to embark on a off-page optimisation campaign:

Once keyword research has been performed, you have identified the best fit keyword to target. You have performed on-page optimisation and your multilingual website is now live. At this stage it would be recommended to start a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign to identify which keywords generate the most traffic/leads to your site. Once the results are in, re-optimising the website with those keywords that have generated the most traffic. As a PPC campaign can be quite costly and time consuming, it is recommended, however, some companies do perform to skip this and move straight into chasing organic listings.

Link Building

Internal linking using appropriate page keywords should already be in place but equally important are the backlinks pointing to the new multilingual pages. Focus link building efforts on the home page and preferential pages that either traditionally convert leads or those you intend to be high converting pages. Always target entities that will generate relevant links from high profile sites related to your industry, both in terms of topic discussed on the site backlinking to you and in terms of the related keywords (and of course – language) used on the site.  Be creative and look to have content published on some industry leading sites, blogs, news sites etc. But be aware that their are fewer avenues to build links in German, French, Dutch etc than in English.  Fortunately so, as link building is ongoing and costly. So most cases, you will  not need an aggressive link building campaign to get good French or Dutch search engine rankings.

Essentially, multilingual search engine optimization is about understanding how your site is perceived by the foreign search engine spiders and making the appropriate adjustments to the site and specific pages while you are translating your site. Once the above is completed, you will be well ahead of most local and international sites being ranked for keywords you’re targeting.

International keyword research and competition analysis reveals a detailed set of guidelines to follow in order to make your site a contender capable of competing with local search competition. If followed, as detailed above, to solidify top rankings, initiate an ongoing link building campaign in that language. Remember foreign language search engines are still somewhat uncharted compared to English search engines. Many opportunity awaits.

Thinking about expanding your business into Europe, Latin America, Asia or the rest of the world?  Get your site translated and optimised for the multilingual search engine listings with us today!

Localization and search engine optimization (SEO) are two processes rarely uttered in the same breath, considered as separate entities with little bond to one another. This isn’t, or rather shouldn’t be, the case.

This post will look at how SEO can be incorporated into the localization process to produce linguistically accurate and search engine friendly content. Additionally, it will highlight the features and benefits to organisations adopting the SEO/localization approach.

Why haven’t translation and localization industries simply not “got” SEO? Theodore Levitt in his famous article “Marketing Myopia” published in the Harvard Business Review in 1960 talked about railroads not running airlines because they were in the business of running railroads rather than in the business of transporting people from A to B. SEO firms exist principally to generate additional demand for a businesses products and services.

So what exactly is the purpose of localization if marketing is sidelined? In in the case of websites, it’s like offering the pudding without the cream or cherry on top. Without it, your content is ‘optimized’ for the search engines so native speakers are less likely to find your perfect translation.

Why is it so difficult?

If you study the localization industry’s online literature you are struck by the very clear obsession with certain key topics:

• The use of technology
• Maintaining the quality of translation
• Minimizing cost
• The threat from machine translation

The above is interesting because the following topics appear much less frequently:

• Offering value to the website reader
• Delivering return on investment
• Achieving online visibility
• Using web analytics and split-testing software to determine response rates

What these show is that the objectives of SEO and localization are quite different but in order to combine the two, we should look for common attributes.

THREE steps to effectively combine localisation and SEO!

1) Focus on local search engines

It is important that you focus on local engines since this will automatically help to better localise your website. In order to do this;

Claim your local business listings on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local, Bing Maps, etc. Most local search still happens at the big search engines, so those have to be priority one. Make sure those listings are all accurate and consistent — same business name, address, and phone number everywhere. Any confusion between business listings can really hurt your local search visibility.

Do the same on the secondary sites like Yelp, Insider Pages, and industry-specific sites like TripAdvisor (if you’re in the travel industry), Urbanspoon (if you’re a restaurant), etc.

Fix up your main web site. Make sure it’s a great experience for visitors. Make sure you’ve taken care of the SEO basics — correct keyword usage in the title tags, good local content across the site, an excellent and detailed maps/location page to help people find you, and so forth.

2) Localize keywords

Localising keywords will help your SEO in local search engines. Different language = new keyword research. No translating! This, as discussed in previous posts, will ensure a good ranking.

The importance of proper keyword research goes beyond simple guessing and testing. It can be a complex task that encompasses a methodical process, that once completed, can set the foundation for ongoing international search engine optimization campaign.

3) Always use human translation.

Translation software has without doubt revolutionised the process of language translation, however not always for the better, particularly in the case of important documents. Prices have indeed become more competitive and turn around times have been slashed. Yet translation software will never be able to provide quality, fluid and meaningful translations simply because of the lack of human involvement.

As a simple way of highlighting the differences between the translations of humans and software, the following experiment can be done. The following piece of German text that needed to be translated into English will be used as an example:

Wir hoffen sehr, dass Ihnen unsere Website gefällt. Bitte lassen Sie es uns wissen, falls wir hässliche Übersetzungsfehler gemacht haben.

After running it through a piece of translation software the resulting translation was:

We hope very that you our websites felled.  Please you let know us it if we made ugly translation mistakes.

Whereas one of our human translators translated it as:

We sincerely hope that you enjoy our site and please let us know if we have made any ghastly errors.

It is clear that only human translation can provide sensible translation and this will provide your text with that localized readability.

In conclusion it can be said that combining localization and SEO is not an easy thing to do. But with the right people and techniques it can be achieved. This will help to boost your business to greater popularity and search engine rankings.

Swedish SEO and Internet Marketing

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)

What Are On-Page Factors?

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!

The reason why a ‘www’ or ‘world wide web’ sits in front of your domain address, is that it signifies a huge opportunity. That opportunity is to reach, network, share and communicate your products and services across the global.  With international SEO tactics allowing you to duplicate local success, it’s important to start looking to multiplying your website into other languages. Think local, act global (in context to SEO) can now be taken literally. But what about the costs? Duplication effectively means building new verticals and costs can get out of control, so how do you manage this?

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.

Online spending by the U.S. Hispanic market is projected to reach $21.6 billion by 2011. This domestic market is composed of U.S. natives and people from over 20 countries, with purchasing power estimated at over 1 trillion dollars as of 2010 (the-infoshop.com, 2010). Over 50% of U.S. Hispanic households own computers and Latinos in the USA spend nearly 20% more time online than the general, domestic population. Clearly, one of the richest non-English e-Commerce markets exists right under your nose, here in the United States of America.

USA Hispanic Online Market Statistics

• Purchasing Decisions: the U.S. Hispanic market considers the Internet the premier source of information for major purchasing decisions.
• Time online: U.S. Hispanics spend 20% more time online and view 25% more pages than the general population. Beyond the workplace, domestic Latinos use the Internet more than 17 hours per week, and more than half of that time is spent on Spanish language websites. U.S. Hispanics now spend more time online than watching television.
• Search: Nearly 90% of Latinos with computer access search online on a regular basis. Significant portions of the U.S. Hispanic market prefer to search Spanish language websites, including Spanish language versions of popular search engines (Google Español and Yahoo Telemundo) and Spanish language search portals based in their own country of origin or heritage.
• Communication: this market uses the Internet as a communication tool for social networking, and keeping in touch with family.
• Family: Latinos in the USA consider the Internet a great source of information that also allows their children to make career advancement beyond previous generations.
• Access: 65% of U.S. Hispanics over 18 have used a computer.
• Median age of U.S. Hispanic population is 27.7 years compared to 36.8 years for the population as a whole.
• Total U.S. Hispanic population: 46.9 million

USA Hispanic Markets At A Glance

• Ethnic self-identification: Nearly two-thirds of Hispanics in the U.S. self-identify as being of Mexican origin. Nine of the other ten largest Hispanic origin groups-Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran , Ecuadorian and Peruvian-account for about a quarter of the U.S. Hispanic population.
• U.S. Cities with large Latino populations: Los Angeles: 8.4 million, New York: 4.4 million,Miami: 2.1 million, Houston: 1.9 million, Chicago: 1.9 million
• Highest Hispanic state populations: 48% of the U.S. Hispanic population lives in California and Texas.

Insights Into U.S. Hispanic Consumer Values

• Family: U.S. Hispanics are very close to their family and are more likely to choose a product that will benefit the whole family instead of just one individual.
• Empowerment: Hispanics in the USA go online for purchasing information. In addition, they hold the belief that their children’s lives will be improved by the Internet.
• Value: U.S. Hispanics prefer to buy products that are high in quality and will last for a long time.
• Loyalty: Hispanics in the USA are very loyal to products, but only to products that they feel are designed to last.
• Information: Hispanics do a lot of research before they decide to purchase a product; therefore, having online information available on products and services is important.

U.S. Hispanic Consumer Decision Making

• Familiarity: Hispanics in the USA want to feel familiar and comfortable with any brands they are purchasing. They usually have some knowledge of brands through commercials, personal experience or word-of-mouth. Social networking is influential in this regard.
• Relevance: Products need to be perceived as relevant by Latino consumers and also seem complimentary to Hispanic culture and lifestyle.
• Word of Mouth: U.S. Hispanics talk and chat online about products, websites, and experiences they have had with companies, both positive and negative. If they have had a positive experience with a product, they will share their impressions with their family, friends, neighbors and social group.
• Culture: The majority of domestic Hispanic people are very emotionally attached to their country-of-origin or the culture of their parents’ home country. These emotions have a positive impact on their purchasing decisions.

Primary Cultural Values Of The U.S. Hispanic Market

• Familismo (family)
• Simpatia (harmony in interpersonal relation)
• Dignidad and respeto (dignity and respect)
• Tradition (home country, culture and traditions)

U.S. Hispanic Consumers Segmented Via Demographics

• New Lifers: Foreign-born U.S. Hispanics who have been in the USA on average of 8 years comprise this group; they moved to the USA to provide a better life for themselves and their family. This group speaks the Spanish language exclusively and has strong ties to the Latino culture and traditions of their homeland. New Lifers have an average household income of $40,000.
• Old Ways: This group includes foreign-born Hispanics that have spent about half their lives in the U.S. They are on average 54 years old and speak the Spanish language almost exclusively. Members of this group are very proud of their heritage and Hispanic culture, although there has been some integration of U.S. cultural values. Average household income is $47,000 and over half of this group lives in New York, Los Angeles or Miami.
• Settled In: The majority of this group are U.S.-born Hispanics and are 43 years of age with an average household income of $68,000 per year. Although they are still proud of their Hispanic culture and heritage, the effects of American cultural are evident. Less than 20% of this group prefer to speak the Spanish language exclusively; they are much more technologically savvy than either “New Lifers” or “Old Ways.”
• The Pioneers: This group (average age is 65 years) was the first group to grow up in the United States; parents and extended family are their only ties to the “old country”. Around 20% prefer to speak the Spanish language exclusively and they have an annual household income of $50,000. This group still prefers products that reminds them of their heritage, but are willing to try new American products.
• Young Americans: Approximately 75% of this group was born in the USA and has an average age of  26 years. With an average household income of $60,000 per year, only 17% of this group prefers to speak Spanish exclusively; members of this group are the most technologically advanced of the five groups, using the Internet the most. “Young Americans” are fully assimilated into American culture in terms of product usage but still show some preference for products that pay homage to their ancestry.

The Spanish Language as Used by U.S. Hispanics

The Spanish language is a Romance language that originated in the northern region of Spain, is the primary language of 21 countries, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and the second most widely spoken language in the United States. The Spanish language is spoken by over 417 million people worldwide, (329 to 358 million as native speakers), and is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. (Wikipedia.org).  The Spanish language can have many variations in dialects, idioms, vocabulary, accents, and even grammar rules, that must be taken into consideration during translation and U.S. Hispanic website localization.

The Spanish language is read from left to right. The Spanish writing system uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet with the addition of the characters ñ, ch and ll. The use of accents such as á, é, ó, í and ú are used in some words to change meaning and pronunciation.

Although there isn’t an “official” universal Spanish dialect, it is possible to translate materials into a “neutral” Spanish, or what some copy writers and translators call a “Universal Spanish”. In response to the demand for Spanish language materials appropriate for the diverse groups of U.S.-based Spanish speakers, skilled teams of Spanish translators collaborating and using appropriately developed glossaries can translate and localize content into a “Universal Spanish” that effectively communicates to U.S. Latino consumers.

U.S. Hispanic Website Customization Considerations

The U.S. Latino market is not a homogenous culture, but instead one that is strongly tied to many different countries of origin. Therefore, many of the symbols and icons that are important to different segments of the Latino population are country-dependent. It is important to be aware of these differences in order to avoid cultural blunders and the inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

For example:

U.S. Hispanic Color Connotations

• Red: Religion, vibrancy, visibility and death
• Green: hope
• Black: Mourning, respect and sophistication
• Purple: Death

U.S. Hispanic Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Strategies

A search engine marketing campaign for the U.S. Hispanic market should be multi-dimensional for both short-term and long-term success. Using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns on targeted Hispanic websites and search engines is one way to produce immediate results and become familiar to the Hispanic market segment that is being targeted. Long term search engine marketing plans should include the use of keywords in both the Spanish language and in English. In addition, it is important to note that U.S. Hispanics tend to use longer strings of words in search phrases and/or questions than the rest of the U.S. market.

Popular U.S. Hispanic Websites

Goal: Getting top search results with your U.S. Hispanic SEM campaigns including U.S. Hispanic SEO.

When localizing your U.S. Hispanic website, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues specific to domestic Latino consumers. Keyword list localization is a very different process from standard Spanish translation; you should make sure that your SEM and/or localization agency has the experience and understands the requirements for performing this service so that they can provide you with appropriate Spanish keyword localization. This will ensure that your Spanish Web site Localizationoptimizes your content for U.S. Hispanic search engines to produce maximum results.

Terminology: about Hispanic and Latino Americans; the term Hispanic came into general use by the U.S. Government in the 1970s, and was added to the Census in 1980. The term “Latino” is more popular in the western portion of the USA, was adopted by the U.S. government in 1997 and was added to the Census in 2000. The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this article.

What is linguistic diversity?

Linguistic diversity is basically mapping all of the languages spoken within one country. It may stem from ethnic minority languages, such as Hungarians who live in Romania, to official multi-lingual countries like the French Canadian and English in Canada. In India, English is spoken as a common language, as is Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Tamil.

What is Keyword research?

If you have a basic knowledge of the principles of search engine optimisation you’ll know that keywords are extremely important. The words users type into searches to get to pages they’re interested in are a pivotal part of SEO because without them wed all be groping in the dark. Keywords order the Internet and we should all be grateful.

What is out there

If you’ve received advice from a good team of SEO consultants about keywords, you’ll probably be aware of some of the SEO tools at your disposal for conducting effective and exhaustive research. Free tools are available from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the three biggest search engines in terms of traffic. Other useful tools on the market include WordTracker, KeywordMax, Keyword Discovery, Marketing Samurai and many more. If you want to start thinking globally, you might well ask whether these tools are sufficient.

Most of the free SEO tools for keyword research provided by the big name search engines already allow users to select particular countries and cities when they do research. This can be of use, but if you’re using a search-based keyword tool from, say, Google, you need to be aware that Google might not be the most popular search engine in the countries you are starting to target.

With that in mind, a list of SEO tools that will aid international keyword research will be of use to anyone setting their sites on expansion toward a more global market. There are many countries and many tools, of course. If you’re wondering how to start your global keyword research, here is a list of just a few that are available to you.

Country to country

Keyword Research in Russia

The big domestic search engines in Russia are Rambler and Yandex, and the largest e-mail provider is mail.ru. Along with the Live Internet company, all of these provide Russian language keyword research tools.

Keyword Research in China

If you can read Chinese, youll be able to make use of the keyword research tool provided by Chinas main search engine, Baidu. You can take advantage by joining their pay per click network and investigating the free SEO tools to be found in that section.

Keyword Research in Europe

Miva have a pay per click network that extends far and wide in terms of popular websites, and so the data they have is very significant. The keyword research SEO tools they feature are separate for Germany, France, the U.K. and other countries in Europe. Paying to advertise on their network is a good idea if you want to take advantage of all the SEO tools available for researching keywords through them in Europe.

Keyword Research in Germany

The Germans have a reputation for being thorough when it comes to SEO, and theres a good community of people with a special interest in keyword research. The Keyword Datenbank is the best tool available for researching keywords in German.

Keyword Research in the Philippines

Google succeeded in cornering the market for Internet search in the Philippines, overshadowing every other tool for searching the web soon after its introduction. That being said, theres a site called Sulit.com.ph which is basically a large forum for classified ads, selling, providing a service. The site serves a large community of users, and they records of keywords used. These records can provide a lot of valuable information about patterns in keyword use there.

Keyword Research in Korea

The biggest search engine in Korea is Naver. They have their own advertising platform which is based on keywords and you can easily check on which searches are popular and which keywords are used etc.

Not mentioned ones

If you’re from the country where you want to research keywords, its likely that you’re familiar with sites that people are using and which probably keep records or provide keyword research tools. If not, the best idea might be to ask someone who is. If Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. are not the search engines of choice there, find out which search engines are popular and work from there. Think about commercial sites that are likely to have a broad appeal too. Keyword research from those sites can be very useful indeed.

Three Top Tips

1) Research and anlyse

From your research, you need to create a linguistic diversity list within your target markets. Chart out each language and the population of that language group.

2) Deduce from your chart

Once the chart is complete, you can utilize a linguistic expert or a native translator to then expand on these new keyword lists and test. Make sure you create different ad groups to get the true value out of your keywords and specify geographical targeting if you can.

Fortunately, global search to this level is small, so don’t be nervous trying new things. As you find value, you can then move on to more optimization tactics, such as newly translated, locally-specific landing pages.

3) Analyze Your Target Language Dialects for New Words

Pulling out dialect related words within a language isn’t always easy and best left to an expert to identify. Once the new dialect list is created, classifying the dialects to their corresponding regions, even on the lowest local level, will be necessary. For example, in India there are many different dialects.

Summary

International keyword research can be difficult when you’re trying to expand to the same level as English. You can greatly improve your ad groups by researching new opportunities through linguistic diversity and language dialect expansion.

Because this level of targeting is relatively new, you may not find a ton of traffic. However, if “long tail” is important in your English campaigns, then globally expanded keywords shall be equally important in your internationally targeted campaigns. Its best you hire a company like New Frontier Digital to do this for you and get best results.

Moving your web site into another language involves many steps and many choices. Getting this process right is critical, and this article deals with the proper methods to build a good strategy and more importantly- how to test it.

Translating Your Web Site

Much time, effort and money goes into web site localization. A professional web site localization project can involve:

• Finding good translators (or a good agency)
• Choosing the correct target language ’flavors’ for your target markets (e.g. European Spanish, Latin American Spanish etc.)
• Protection of HTML and other code
• Localization of graphics
• Text extraction from program-driven areas of the site
• Change detection for frequently changing web sites
• On going localization of changed pages (without retranslation of the whole page)
• Simply translating the site, regardless of how professionally this is done, does not guarantee that your site will be seen by the global audience you expect.

In the same way that search engines should be at the forefront of everything you do on the English site, this same ethos must be used on the translated versions of your site.

Ideally, the planning for global search marketing should start before the site is first localized, but if not it is important to know what steps can be taken to rectify the situation.

Typical Multilingual SEO

Most Global organizations have a search-engine-optimized web site that they then localize, ignoring the optimization of the localized sites.

Most webmasters are not employed for their linguistic skill and therefore the localization of the site is a painful and intimidating process. Following this process, entering the further unknown area of search engine optimization or multilingual pay per click management is ignored or actively avoided.

Misconceptions

1. Optimize the English site then translate it well and it will be optimized in-language.

Multilingual search engine optimization is often ignored because of the belief that if the English site is optimized for search engines, the language sites will be too. This is not the case.

2. For Multilingual PPC Management, simply translate the ad copy and keywords.

Imagine a set of English keywords for a site selling a glass replacement service for cars. The marketing specialist or PPC executive would use their knowledge of the industry and the language to expand out a set of keywords that a user might type in to a search engine. They might come up with terms such as ’vehicle glass replacement’, ’car windscreen fixing’, ’windshield repair’ etc. For this simple service there are a multitude of ways of describing the window, the vehicle and the replacement service that spawn a large number of keyword combinations. A good translator would take each one and translate to the most common, most sensible alternative in their language. Unfortunately, this will lead to a reduction in keywords. Windscreen and windshield may translate to the same common term in French. Replacement and repair may translate to the common term used in French for glass replacement. This is not what is required.

If a site is simply translated with no regard for in country search engines, it will support an English language searcher arriving at the site and then switching to their desired language. However, it will not readily support a user finding your site in their language.

It is these new customers finding your site on foreign search engines that will bring the most incremental business from the localized site.

Tips On Testing If Things Work.

Prepare and use the required test environment

If a web site is hosted in English and Japanese languages, it is not enough to simply change the default browser language and perform identical tests in both the languages. Depending on its implementation, a web site may figure out the correct language for its interface from the browser language setting, the regional and language settings of the machine, a configuration in the web application or other factors. Therefore, in order to perform a realistic test, it is imperative that the web site be tested from two machines – one with the English operating system and one with the Japanese operating system. You might want to keep the default settings on each machine since many users do not change the default settings on their machines.

Acquire correct translations

A native speaker of the language, belonging to the same region as the users, is usually the best resource to provide translations that are accurate in both meaning as well as context. If such a person is not available to provide you the translations of the text, you might have to depend on automated web translations available on web sites like wordreference.com and dictionary.com. It is a good idea to compare automated translations from multiple sources before using them in the test.

Get really comfortable with the application

Since you might not know the languages supported by the web site, it is always a good idea for you to be very conversant with the functionality of the web site. Execute the test cases in the English version of the site a number of times. This will help you find your way easily within the other language version. Otherwise, you might have to keep the English version of the site open in another browser in order to figure out how to proceed in the other language version (and this could slow you down).

Start with testing the labels

You could start testing the other language version of the web site by first looking at all the labels. Labels are the more static items in the web site. English labels are usually short and translated labels tend to expand. It is important to spot any issues related to label truncation, overlay on/ under other controls, incorrect word wrapping etc. It is even more important to compare the labels with their translations in the other language.

Move on to the other controls

Next, you could move on to checking the other controls for correct translations and any user interface issues. It is important that the web site provides correct error messages in the other language. The test should include generating all the error messages. Usually for any text that is not translated, three possibilities exist. The text will be missing or its English equivalent will be present or you will see junk characters in its place.

Do test the data

Usually, multi-lingual web sites store the data in the UTF-8 Unicode encoding format. To check the character encoding for your website in mozilla: go to View -> Character Encoding and in IE go to View -> Encoding. Data in different languages can be easily represented in this format. Make sure to check the input data. It should be possible to enter data in the other language in the web site. The data displayed by the web site should be correct. The output data should be compared with its translation.

Be aware of cultural issues

A challenge in testing multi-lingual web sites is that each language might be meant for users from a particular culture. Many things such as preferred (and not preferred) colors, text direction (this can be left to right, right to left or top to bottom), format of salutations and addresses, measures, currency etc. are different in different cultures. Not only should the other language version of the web site provide correct translations, other elements of the user interface e.g. text direction, currency symbol, date format etc. should also be correct.

As you might have gathered from the tips given above, using the correct test environment and acquiring correct translations is critical in performing a successful test of other language versions of a web site.

12 years of Google magic had made it an essential in our day to day lives. It provides a living for millions of people and millions of other try to figure out the secrets of its ranking. But what Google has now become is a local business directory and getting your local business listed properly is will give a huge amount of business.

If you perform a search in Google that includes a geographic location (and even sometimes if you don’t include a location) Google will display local business results for your search keywords. For example, a Google search of “pizzas Paris” returns thousands of results and our goal is to be featured prominently at the top of the search results.

Whether you are a bookseller in Boston or a florist in Albuquerque, the benefits of being in the list of local results in Google are obvious. Ideally your business would be near the top of the list. Fortunately the factors Google considers to create this list are fairly well understood, at least by Google standards.

Google Maps

Google’s local search service is Google Maps. Google briefly used the name “Google Local,” but opted instead to stick with the more popular and well-known Maps name. BUT … the business side of things is called Google Places.

How It Works

You’re probably plenty familiar with Google Maps. Type an address and see the map, or switch to a satellite photo, or even see a hybrid of the two. Here’s Fresno, CA, for example. All you have so far is a map, no business information.

At this point, the user can just type in “hair salons” and Google Maps will show a list of hair salons in Fresno. Or, more likely, the user would have began by typing in “hair salons fresno ca” or something similar.

Google shows a mix of paid ads and local business listings from Google Places. The ads come from Google AdWords, Google’s pay-per-click advertising platform, which allows businesses a way to target ads to specific geographic regions and geographic-based searches.

How to Market:

A) Make sure your business is listed correctly by using Google Places. Build out your listing with as much information and additional content as possible. Google seems to reward businesses that complete their profiles with photos, videos, and so forth.

B) Sign up for a Google AdWords account and create an ad campaign targeted specifically to your local area. This will allow your ad to appear only when people in your geographic area are using Google; it won’t show up when someone across the country does a search for the keywords you’re bidding on.

Optimisation On Google Local

Undertaking local search engine optimization (SEO) is a great technique to get more business. A lot of people feel that SEO is merely for getting clients around the globe. However, when you focus on the proper keywords, you can use it to locate local business as well.

One of the main areas to get positioned is Google local. This is the internet search engine which lists area specific businesses. All the individual does is input their zip code, and then every outcome they get is going to be a local company.

Like normal SEO, if you are not listed on page one you will not find business. So how will you get positioned in Google local?

The Secret

It genuinely comes down to the amount of evaluations and citations you have. First, you need to pay attention to how many competitors you have. To be able to outrank all of them, you must obtain some more reviews and citations. You need to outdo them a little.

So how do you get reviews? You have to get your clients to give evaluations for you. Assuming they’re pleased with your business, they will be pleased to do this. And you might want to provide some kind of incentive for a review, for instance providing a gift certificate.

How many evaluations you will need just depends on exactly what category you are in, and how many companies you happen to be competing against. For some classes, you will need a whole lot.

And the site the review comes from matters as well. You normally want to get reviews from several different sites, so it looks natural to the major search engines. Just have your clients evaluate you at the identical sites the competitors are getting their reviews from. Then, to get citations, you also want to get them from the same sites as your competitors. Usually the ideal versions originate from well-liked websites such as Yell.com and Citysearch.com.

And also just remember normal local SEO. What this means is getting ranked for “area specific” keywords in Google.com, such as “Chicago dry cleaners”, “Portland Golf courses,” etc. Many people still employ Google.com for local searches, so you don’t want to dismiss this.

Get Positioned With New Frontier Digital

How do you get positioned in Google.com? You can either carry out the SEO on your own, or employ a firm to do it to suit your needs. There are numerous organizations that offer local search engine optimization solutions. Nevertheless, it might be well worth it to master this expertise yourself. This will be an invaluable long-term ability to your marketing efforts.

The bottom line is, you almost certainly ought to focus on getting positioned in Google. Since this company gets almost all online visitors, this gives you the most value for the money.