So what does your international businesses need to keep in mind before you go global on the web?

Be flexible about what you think you need

First, be flexible about what you think you need. For example, when planning a website for specific international audiences, it may not be the best choice to simply produce an exact replica of your current 250-page website in a different language. If your company is launching its first product in the country, it may not be cost effective either. You may want to consider options like smaller informational websites that provide a culturally relevant web presence while also respecting your budget.

Second, partner with local experts. Localized website development should take into account much more than just the target language. Local experts like website developers, graphic designers, copywriters, translators and other IT specialists that live in your target country will be invaluable resources for your multicultural and multilingual website project.

Keep your website content simple

Third, keep your website content simple. To make sure your web copy is easy to read and understand, use short sentences and paragraphs that are easy to translate.

Fourth, choose your words carefully. On the web, your choice of words plays a big part in ensuring your message translates correctly to your target audience.

A few tips for good word choice are:

• Use language that avoids slang, puns, acronyms (like ASAP, POP or FTE), sayings and idioms (“burn the midnight oil” or “pass the buck”), etc.
• Use common words instead of technical or unnecessarily specialized ones, e.g. use end instead of terminate, often instead of frequently, required instead of mandatory, etc.

Numbers

Fifth, check your numbers. It’s a good idea to use the metric system if you’re working internationally. It’s also a good idea to convert all financial amounts into your audience’s local currency. Similarly, check dates, times and phone numbers, which can be written very differently based on where you live and what language you speak. A local copywriter can review and make changes where necessary.

Symbols

Since graphics and images communicate a considerable amount of information in a very small package, check icons and symbols carefully. This will ensure that everyone, regardless of culture, will interpret them the same way. For example, icons that relate to trash containers may not translate well outside of the US and some areas of Europe. Icons that include mailboxes may also look very different to an Internet user in Japan or Sweden. Test all website graphics with a local graphic designer to ensure they convey the same meaning.

Be flexible

Lastly, be flexible about adaptations to your current website design. Instead of maintaining the same look and feel across all of your sites in North America and abroad, your website developer should customize the site’s design so that it reflects the practices and customs of the local target audience. They should choose colours, web styles and graphics that are culturally relevant for the audiences that will be visiting your new localized website.

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. 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, 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.

Your translation team has the ability to take your state-of-the-art search marketing campaign back to the Dark Ages. Unless you educate your translation team about why it is important to be search engine friendly and how to achieve that goal, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

Some of the common problems that occur when an English site is translated into other languages include the following:

• Obscure albeit technically accurate keywords are used, which greatly reduces the chances of your web site being found.
• Keywords are missing from all the strategic places, such as title tags and meta description tag.
• Language tags and encodings are improperly used, and as a result text does not display properly.
• Meta tags and Alt tags are not always translated.
• Translators compose for flow and tone only, without taking search engines into consideration.

To avoid such pitfalls, we recommend that you do the following:

• Involve your translation vendor when planning keywords for your language sites.
• Develop a glossary that is strictly enforced throughout the translation process so that translators do not sway from researched, pre-approved search phrases.
• Provide an orientation session for the translation team on search engine friendly writing and strategic keyword placement.
• Conduct search engine quality assurance after translation is complete to check the completeness of translation, the proper encoding of the pages, and optimal placement of keywords.

The most important thing that your team should focus on in Multilingual SEO is keywords.

Understanding Keywords

Keywords are terms that users enter into the search engine when looking for information on the web. These terms are similar to the index terms that you find in a book or manual.

Keywords are critical to your search campaign. Ideally, the words you use on your site would exactly match the queries that customers use when they try to find sites. Unfortunately, it’s extremely unlikely customers will base their searches on the words you have used in your site, unless you have optimized your site. So, your best strategy is to start with your customers, and to include on your site the words people use in their searches, even if those words are not as technically precise as the terminology used in the product documentation.

Using Words Your Customers Search For

Keyword research is the foundation and cornerstone of any search engine marketing effort. A site that uses popular keywords can be easily discovered, while one that does not may languish in obscurity. For example, you might know that notebooks and laptops are the same thing. But search engine spiders (small applications that mine the web for information) do not necessarily work that way. If searchers are looking for laptops, and your site only mentions “notebooks” and never uses the word “laptop”, your page might not be found.

English has ~500,000 words, compared to French with ~300,000 and ~50,000 combined characters in all forms of Chinese (though Chinese has more than 50,000 spoken words).

If you have taken great care selecting your English keywords, the last thing you want is for your translation team to completely undo all your work by choosing obscure search terms, even though they may be technically accurate.

So how do you plan your keywords for your international language sites? The first challenge is that keyword research tools are not as abundant in other languages as they are in English. For example, the popular tool WordTracker is only available in English. Fortunately, there are some tools available that take the guesswork out of keyword planning.

One of the most useful resources is Yahoo! Keyword Selector Tool. This keyword tool provides valuable search data for 15 countries and 20 languages. When you check a word using Keyword Selector, it will tell you how many times the word and related terms were searched for during the last month. These data allow marketers to determine what words searchers use frequently.

Google also has a tool (adwords.google.com) that is similar to Yahoo!’s. The AdWords Keyword Tool supports 16 languages and 25 countries, but it does not disclose keyword demand figures — only an estimate of the number of clicks you’ll receive.

While these keyword tools can help you start planning, you can improve the results even further by doing the following:

• Think like your customer — What words would someone use to search for products and services like yours? Do some brainstorming with your in-country/regional distributors or office staff and see what you come up with. Also consider including common misspellings in your keyword meta tags.
• Understand how different search terms reflect different intentions —
• People use different terminology based on where they are in their purchase cycle. Someone who searches for “digital camera” is probably in the research phase and not ready to buy. Someone who searches for Sony DSC V3 Cyber Shot Pro digital camera probably has a credit card ready to make a purchase.
• Do some competitor research and find out what keywords they are targeting — Meta keyword tags, found in the HTML header code, are usually a good place to start.
• Analyze your traffic logs and find out which search terms are currently bringing people to your web site — Traffic logs help you refine the keywords and meta tags that you use. Your web hosting company can provide you with your logs.
• Run some Pay Per Click ads for your keyword terms to see which ones are the most effective.
• Review the search terms used on your internal search engine if you have one — These data can show you not only what searchers look for the most often, but can also identify site design problems since a search term may tell you where people are getting lost.

Mastering these together as a team will increase the productivity of your Multilingual SEO campaign for yourself or for the clients.

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.

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!

More and more U.S. companies are discovering the opportunity and importance of a credible website presence in the native languages of their target markets.  There are now more than 2 billion Internet users globally and only 18% are native English speakers.

As globalization creates more markets for competition, companies are moving quickly to translate and localize their English website to attract new customers.  The U.S. Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 provides grant funding to encourage small business exporting and some states cover the cost of website translation. Grants are administered differently in each state. To learn more, click here.

Six key questions

While the same rules generally apply for website translations as any other translation project, here are six key questions you need to answer before requesting a quote for a translated website:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. What languages and dialects need to be translated?
3. When does the translated website need to launch? Is the launch date and time simultaneous with the English site or a different date and time?
4. What specific parts of your website need to be translated? Does the entire site or a subset require translation or are there specific pages or components that do not require translation)?
5. Does the site need to be localized? In other words, do the images, colors, numbers and symbols need to be adapted for cultural acceptance by your target audience? Each target market is different. As an example, different colors have different meaning in different cultures.
6. Who will provide us your web information and in what format?

Here are five key insights we’ve learned translating websites for clients that can save you time, money and ensure quality:

It’s essential you work with a skilled web developer experienced at creating translated websites and who’s familiar with HTML/XML. Occasionally, the developer who created your English site may lack this experience. This gap can dramatically increase your costs and delay speed to market. It’s important your web developer is accessible during the translation process.

Navigation is a critical component of a global site. Best practice is to have a global homepage that links to country specific sites. An example of this best practice is www.ikea.com. Flags are a culturally insensitive way for users to access a translated site (e.g. Taiwan’s flag is likely to offend Chinese users) and are highly discouraged.

Translation companies use tag editors to ensure the highest quality and accuracy of your translation. This saves you money because it simplifies the process for your developer to insert the translated text into your website. As an example, if you supply them with an Excel file with the code and the English text in Column A, they will return the file to your developer with the translated text in Column B. The developer can then simply cut and paste the translated text into the site.

Some places have specific laws governing websites and electronic privacy (e.g. in some countries, it’s illegal to embed cookies into your website).

Finally, be sure your translation partner is experienced with search engine optimization as this can significantly impact the public search quality of your site.

New Frontier Digital can also provide you with a free quote.  To request a translation quote, please contact us here.

1. Admit that you are powerless over translation agencies.

2. Have confidence

Make a searching and fearless inventory of the times you have found yourself saying “I might as well take this job for $0.0000000006 per word; if I don’t, someone else will!” or “A client who pays regularly at 8,275 days is still better than one who doesn’t pay at all!” or “Agencies are a business like any other; it’s only natural that they try to make as much money as possible.” Acknowledge that the justification of unjustifiable behavior is an addiction and that your life as a translator has become unmanageable.

3. Increase your rates

Prepare to receive a truth of the universe in nine words: Translation rates are dropping because translators accept low rates. If you want rates to stop descending, you must take your finger off the elevator button. Immediately. There is no methadone for people who are willing to translate for half what the average busboy makes, so the only way to combat this addiction is cold-turkey. Make amends by explaining clearly, each time you respond to an insulting offer, refuse a low-wage job, or decline an invitation to lower your rates why you are doing so. I know Miss Manners says we’re not supposed to tell crass, rude people that they’re crass and rude, but she’d make an exception if she were a translator: Low-payers are the abyssopelagic feeders of the sea of translation. Do not hesitate to send them back to filter the ooze whence they came.

4. Leave your education aside

Accept the fact that your degree from Acme School of Language Mediation or The Flinghurst Academy of Translationology is substantially worthless. Translation is learned in the field, not in the classroom. If you are nonetheless a recent graduate of such a program, here is what to do until you’re truly prepared to command professional rates: apprentice yourself to a translator you trust, donate translations to a worthy cause in order to build your curriculum (see No. 5, above), spend your free time doing practice translations for your personal training, improve your ability to write in your native language, read—a lot—in both your languages. DO NOT : offer cut-rate translations or beg clients to let you work “for practically nothing” because you “love translating.” Why not? For the same reason that there’s a sign at the zoo that says “Don’t Feed The Monkeys.” Because, if you do, they get fat and lazy and never learn that professional, well qualified bananas are not handed around for free.

5. Stop allowing clients to dictate your fees and working conditions.

Do you really need me to trot the analogy out for you one more time? Do you? Really? Fine. Here it is: You sit down to eat in a restaurant. After consulting the menu, you call the owner over to your table. “This steak is overpriced,” you say. “I’ll pay half, and I want you to throw in a bottle of wine with that. If you don’t get everything on my table within ten minutes, though, the deal’s off.” What happens in a restaurant is that they toss you out on your stern. What happens in translation is that you say, “Oh, yes, Mr. Client, thank you, Mr. Client, may I please have another, Mr. Client.” Three words: Knock. It. Off.

6. Stop using the internet until you learn how.

The “freedictionary” is not a professional resource and Wordreference.com and Yahoo! Answers are not forums where you can consult with reliable and knowledgeable colleagues. About half the answers on ProZ.com’s KudoZ boards are wrong. Wiki is often worth the paper it’s printed on. Google is not your friend. Go search for the phrase “their is” or “its a question” and see how many hits you get (2,160,000 and 50,500,000, respectively). Then we can talk about how internet searches can be so helpful in confirming correct usage. (Gosh! Translation turns out to be tougher than you thought, huh?)

7. Show some grit

If a client doesn’t pay you on time (or doesn’t pay you at all), stop working for that client. Agencies, publishers, and clients who fail to pay as promised are like men who hit their wives. They will do it again. The only question is: Are you going to be standing there when the blow comes?

1. Don’t be fooled into thinking that working with an agency means guaranteed access to qualified translators.

This one really depends a lot on the individual agency. It is certainly true for the major players like Lionbridge, TransPerfect and Tek as well as many others. There is so much trickle-down subcontracting going on there that one never knows who will translate what. Cattle calls for translators on ProZ and other portals make it clear that many of these organizations are incapable of recruiting and retaining good translators. It is often instructive to view the posting history of an agency or other outsourcer on various job portals to get a feel for how often they need to look outside the presumed pool of regular translators for new blood or additional help. In general, a large number of postings should be grounds to exercise caution. Not always, but careful examination of the data often reveals disturbing patterns.

2. Agencies may not use native-speakers of the “target” language.

There may be agencies with no competence for English in-house using native speakers of Romanian or Russian to translate from German to English. The results are not always cause for rejoicing if you care about quality. Other agencies would never dream of pulling such a stunt. But how is the owner of a machine parts business in some German backwater to tell which agency is lying and which is telling the truth when the claim is made that only a highly skilled native speaker of the target language with an engineering background will translate his technical manuals? Reduce this risk by consulting the BDÜ, ITI, ATA or other professional directories and find a suitable candidate.

3. Can you trust the person who edits your project?

Here it is important to question an agencies workflow. An editing process which does not involve the translator in the final version is seldom worthwhile. Some of the best reviewers for my English texts can be native speakers of German, but these people would never dare to alter more than obvious typographical errors without checking proposed changes with a native English speaker. What works here is a combination of the right people and the right process. This can be difficult in some cases regardless of whether one deals with an agency or an individual translator. However, the chances of a real expert translator’s work getting spoilt are greater when an agency is involved.

4. Why pay more for less quality?

Indeed. Why pay at all? If cutting costs trumps quality, try translate.google.com. Otherwise, consider how to get the most for your money. The possibility of saving money by working directly with a translator isn’t necessarily correct; most direct clients and many agencies are charged more by individual translators than many agencies charge direct clients. However, this buys a level of service that they probably could not receive at the same rate from an agency. Face it: the best talent is seldom available at the rates the discounter agencies are willing to pay. If this isn’t apparent to you from the results, then you probably don’t know the target language as well as you think you do. If you don’t care, your competitor will sooner or later.

5. Do you really want a “use-and-discard” translator?

Wham, bam, thank you…. Looking at some of the recurring agency postings on ProZ, one cannot help but sense a certain promiscuity and hope that the customers of these lexical whorehouses use appropriate protection. Most of the agencies I deal with do not work this way and emphasize long-term relationships with their specialist translators, but as noted above, it’s a good idea to investigate any agency you consider using to see how often they are looking for translators for the same type of project. Ask yourself why this happens so often if the agency really finds “appropriate” candidates.

6 & 7.   Can you contact your translator directly if you need to?

Some translators may prefer a buffer (=agency) if you are not efficient or reasonable in your dealings with them. Very few agency project managers function efficiently as intermediates. If you can’t trust each other, there’s no point in working together at all.

8.  “A little bit of everything” means an agency with no real focus.

This is a totally valid point that also applies to individual translators. “Boutique” agencies like Translators International in the Netherlands who specialize in just a few areas and build international teams handle these areas very well. They don’t do fashion, and they won’t deliver a pizza with your translation.

9. The best don’t boast.

If you find an agency that promises to deliver your 50,000 word job by tomorrow at noon – at any price – its just a fairy tale. Work with honest agencies who aren’t afraid to say no and make it clear to prospects that nothing good can come of such scenarios. They care about results and don’t feel the need to use red illumination at the entrance to their places of business. But there are many others….

10. Small agencies care

Most translation jobs definitely do not benefit from the presence of a middleman, even if some busy translators do (to allow more time for an activity they love and less for administration). Agencies are best used in cases involving the management of complex processes involving multiple languages and complex production work flows. If your company does not have these skills in-house, then your best bet is to find a good small to medium-sized agency. Why not a big one? Because these generally care less about results and often promiscuously subcontract to the lowest bidders in remote parts of the Earth noted for expertise in major languages like German, French, and English. Even on an international scale, small companies do a great job with big projects for major corporations. And they care about quality more than the big agncies ever will.

]]> http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/10-things-to-bear-in-mind-when-picking-a-translation-agency/feed/ 0 http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/multilingual-must-do%e2%80%99s-for-better-visibility-and-clarity/ http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/multilingual-must-do%e2%80%99s-for-better-visibility-and-clarity/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:21:02 +0000 John Taylor http://www.nfrontier.co.uk/blog/?p=1482 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.