Did you know people are four times more likely to make a purchase online with information in their own language? While the English language Internet is continuing to grow more and more crowded, foreign language marketing on the Internet is in its infancy.
According to Internet World Stats, between 2000 and 2011:
- Portuguese grew by 990.1%
- Chinese grew by 1,478.7%
- Russian grew by 1,825.8%
- Arabic grew by 2,501.2%
- English only grew by 301.4%
Expanding your web presence globally can be tricky, especially without local resources. Over the years, our agency has built up a strong foundation of local resources all around the world. Here are six key considerations we think are important when growing your web presence internationally through search marketing and global SEO.
- Research the target market and any cultural differences, i.e. specific advertising laws, whether local hosting is necessary
- Understand the search engine landscape in the targeted countries
- Utilize top performing keywords for products and services in all foreign languages found in the targeted region
- Take advantage of available domain names using translated keywords
- Build anchor text-rich links from local sites in the targeted country or region
- Provide unique and optimized content for all languages, i.e. don’t auto translate
These statistics all point to the growing opportunity of using translated AdWords campaigns, link building in foreign languages, and translated domains and microsites in your global marketing efforts. The relevance, quality and success of your efforts, however, are all dependent on an understanding of the region’s culture and nuances.
