Go International

Go International
Recently, I was browsing through some research on Google and stumbled upon this answer from Google as to why Product Search was renamed from Froogle: “While it was a cute and clever name, it had issues around copyright and trademark, as well as internationalization… The pun (to “frugal”) isn’t obvious.”

For those who got the pun, Froogle was definitely a cute and clever name for the service, which aims to help you find the best deals online. But for those who don’t get the pun, it’s just an odd name and doesn’t convey anything about the function or brand. Internationalizing that name would be very hard to do, which is why Google switched it to a more internationally friendly name: Product Search. Even those with limited English abilities can get a sense of what the idea behind the service is and aren’t put off by a funny name. (Or a name that is accidentally a real word; Google, for example, means “sunglasses” in Norwegian, which gave them a bit of a headache when trying to get a Norwegian domain extension a few years back.)

As evidenced by even Google’s small stumbles, internationalization can be hard to do, especially if you’re branching into several foreign markets. Doing it right the first time isn’t always possible, but a thorough understanding of target markets and cultures can make it easier. It may also require you to refocus your content and approach area by area if necessary. International laws and customs can be a big influence on how you conduct your business. In today’s increasingly interconnected world, where stock market tumbles at home cause stock market tumbles abroad, keeping an eye on the economic situation of your markets is important as well.

If you’re looking for a good refresher on the basics of international marketing, Dr. Lars Perner of the University of Southern California has published a helpful guide to international marketing. It’s a little bit dated and geared towards traditional marketing campaigns (print, tv, product distribution), but the basics of what to consider in an international marketing campaign are still as useful as ever. Understanding how to do international marketing and how to internationalize your brand will give not only your business model a solid footing, but also your SEO. Having a plan of action on how to internationalize yourself and what direction to take your websites in will be a great benefit to your business in general.

Happy reading!

International Search Engines Baidu…

Search Your International Search Engines
The US search market may be dominated by Google, with Yahoo! taking a chunk as well, but this isn’t always the case in other areas of the world. Google has presence in many countries, but these countries might also have their own search brands that are just as well known or even more preferred, especially in Asian markets (like Baidu in China). Here are some tips to get started on finding those other search engines.

It may be a little tricky finding good foreign search engines, especially if you’re unfamiliar with brands or your market, or are searching in English for non-English ones. One way to find them is to search for your country and “search engine.” For example, I searched for “France search engine” and came up with several links to sites that list many French search engines. I found links to major ones like Google.fr, Yahoo! France, and Voila, and smaller ones like Kagibi and Cliweb. But I also found special regional engines like Breizhoo (for Britany) and E-Corse for Corsica. Not every search engine I found for France may be popular or up to date, and my basic search didn’t even immediately pull up big names like Orange, a telecom company with search on its homepage. It took some digging around and some creative variations on the search terms.

You can also try going to a foreign search engine you find and use the foreign term for search engine, like Suchmachine in German or motor de busquéda in Spanish. Typing Suchmachine into Yahoo! Germany, I found MetaGer, Klug Suchen, and Suchen.com (in addition to Google.de). If you know the proper term to search under, this is another good way to find your foreign search engines.

Another way of finding search engines is to look at the international traffic coming your way. If your site already has international visitors, your website analytics can tell you which search engines they used to find your site. Take a peek at your visitor stats to see where they’re coming from (and also what terms they’re using). Consider asking your customers what sites they like to use as well.

To be sure you’ve found an engine that’s worth the time and effort to rank well in, you’ll also want to dig up some market research on international search habits. To get your international SEO program going, you might find yourself putting in extra time and effort, but in the end it’s worth it!

Meta tags and international keyword analysis from my friend @ www.internationalindustrialseo.com

www.internationalindustrialseo.com

 

Your International Keywords
I was recently doing some keyword research for a client that has a site targeted towards Mexico. I double checked the database I was using to see if it tracked Spanish-language searches in Mexican search engines. It said it did, but I still found the results my keyword database was giving me were almost totally unreliable. Google Mexico was giving me good search result pages, but I still had no sure way of knowing if the Spanish terms I was looking up were really reflective of searchers’ queries and the local marketplace. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool lets you see approximate numbers of searchers in different geographic locations and languages as well, but it wasn’t any more helpful in giving me reliable numbers either.

So given this, how can I (and how can you) get good keyword research for an international site?

Start by having your terms professionally translated. Translators often specialize in areas of terminology or subjects, so you can know that the person turning your English into Spanish knows what they’re doing. Technical and business terms should be translated with care so that accuracy is maintained. They can also give you pointers about what terms locals are actually using and how people talk about subjects. They might also have some helpful information on your local market.

Speaking of local markets, do some market research. Do you know who your local competitors in Mexico and Europe are? If you do, go to their sites and take a look at their content. What terms are they using in their copy? If the site has title tags and meta descriptions, do they have any useful keywords in them? Who comes up in foreign search results? Taking a good, in depth look at your market is good business sense anyway, so apply it to your website, too.

Talk to your foreign customers! They found your products and services, so ask them how they did it. What search engines did they use? What terms did they look for? Knowing how your customers found your site, whether by product or brand name, is valuable insight into the best keywords to use. Also, if they’re using a local search engine, or a multi-national one like Google, they might be seeing slightly different results in Italy than you do in Iowa. This is because some search engines can tailor results to fit the location of the searcher.

Keyword research for non-English languages is a little more time consuming and requires some extra thought. But your end result should still be that you find the best keywords for your website that will help you gain visibility in foreign search engines. Keyword databases may be helpful for some languages like French and German, which have large, established numbers of internet users. But more often, you’ll probably find that concentrating on local sources to do your keyword research in is the most reliable bet.

8 Great Reasons Why to Spend Money Marketing your website during a depression

 

Google Universal Search on Steroids? »
Eight Reasons Why Now May Be The Right Time To Invest In Your Site
Oct
31

The game changed September 15, 2008.

As world markets came tumbling down, the future of many internet start-ups also turned to dust. The message from the financiers is clear – they will be no more money. Web watchers, such as TechCrunch, feature a deadpool of failed internet start-ups. That list is going to grow exponentially in the new year as company after company runs out of cash.

Not good.

However, history tells us that where there is chaos, there is opportunity.

After all, we’ve been here before.

Take, for example, this memo by Ron Conway, founder and managing partner of the Angel Investors LP funds who backed Google, PayPal, and more.

“….I was an active investor in 2000 when the “bubble burst” and remember it vividly and want to give you the SAME EXACT advice I gave to my portfolio company CEOs back then.I have pasted in the e-mails I sent on April 17th 2000 and May 10th 2000 and every word applies today. Unfortunately history DOES repeat itself but I hope we can learn from history and prevent the turmoil from occurring again. The message is simple. Raising capital will be much more difficult now”.

Once of the benefits of market cycles is that history often repeats itself. This allows us to learn the lessons of the past, and apply them to the present.

I’d recommend you watch this presentation by Sequoia Capital, entitled RIP:Good Times.

Sequoia Capital on startups and the economic downturn
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So the good times are over. Now what? Sequoia recommends managing spending, revising growth and earnings assumptions, to focus on quality. lower risk, and reduce debt.

In 2000, Google was still a struggling start-up. The tech bubble had just burst. One year later, hijacked jets hit the Twin Towers, sending markets, and our collective notion of global security, into a tailspin.

Yet, it was during these seemingly turbulent times that Google rose to become the powerhouse it is today.

Part of that success was due to a focus on quality, careful spending (Google never spent a lot on advertising), network effects, and failure of the competition to grasp opportunities. Everyone else was distracted. Google remained focused on building value.

Research shows that companies that spend money on marketing during a recession tend to benefit the most.

Over the years hundreds of studies have been conducted to prove companies should maintain advertising during a recession. In the 1920’s advertising executive Roland S. Vaile tracked 200 companies through the recession of 1923. He reported in the April 1927 issue of the Harvard Business Review that the biggest sales increases throughout the period were rung up by companies that advertised the most. ….The findings of six more recession studies to date by the group present formidable evidence that cutting advertising in times of economic downturns can result in both immediate and long-term negative effects on sales and profit levels. Meldrum & Fewsmith’s former Senior VP, J. Welsey Rosberg reports “ I have yet to see any study that proves timidity is the route to success. Studies consistently have proven that companies that have the intelligence and guts to maintain or increase their overall marketing and advertising efforts in times of business downturns will get the edge on their timid competitors.

Marketing is an investment, not just an expense. And just like in the stock market, that investment can pay the biggest dividends when assets are under-priced, because everyone else is selling, not buying.

Let’s look at a few features of a down market that you can turn to your advantage.
Down Market = Cheaper Ads

Advertising markets are cracking. One of the first casualties in an economic downturn is marketing spend. Not great if you sell advertising, but great if you buy it.

In down markets, you can get a lot more advertising reach for a lot less money than during boom times.If your strategy involves building brand awareness, then now might be a good time focus on this aspect. Being visible creates a sense of familiarity, and that’s much easier to do when your competition isn’t flooding the channel with noise.

Note: A lot of advertising spend will shift from traditional channels to the internet as people seek value.

We forecast that the Internet advertising market will continue to expand at a strong pace in the immediate future (with a predicted 31.4% increase in expenditure in the UK in 2008), and that it will experience a less steep but steady momentum thereafter, to 2012.

Fight In Short Bursts

One idea, often used by offline marketers on television and radio, is to bombard an advertising channel with short bursts of intensive advertising and then go off the air completely for a few weeks. It is a lot cheaper than maintaining a constant advertising presence, and with fewer advertisers to compete with, you costs should be lower, and your impact higher.

It’s a high impact strategy that will fit well with sites looking to build brand.
Follow Warren Buffett

Warren Buffet is the worlds most successful investor. And what is Buffett doing at the moment?

He’s buying assets while everyone else is selling.

Might now be a good time to buy up websites, too?
Competitors Cutting Costs And Losing Focus

One of the problems during the 1930s depression was that government cut spending. When government started spending again, the economy picked up. Governments have learned from this mistake, which is why we’re seeing government making cash injections.

It’s more complex that this, but the takeaway point here is that cutting costs and losing focus on the goal might also ensure you never reach it. Going into hands-off cruise mode could be costly.

If you have the cash, then sowing the seeds of growth now, whilst everyone else is navel gazing and slashing their costs, makes it hard for them to catch up with you again when they do start spending.
Diversify Marketing Spend

Take a strategic approach. Spending aggressively in a down market doesn’t mean throwing your money at everything.

In this article, Recession Marketing, Amanda Stock outlines how you can diversify within a search marketing strategy:

It is also important to take a strategic approach when you diversify your marketing budget. For example, if you are currently investing the majority of your marketing efforts in a Pay-Per-Click campaign, you may want to allocated half of that budget to an SEO campaign which, in the long term, can increase the return on investment and decrease dependency on paid search.

Key Tips: Advertisers with a solid PPC track-record have an incredible advantage for venturing into organic search (SEO) because the PPC data such as which keywords converted best and which led to the highest volume of sales or average ticket price can now be a major factor in prioritizing the SEO targets. Since SEO is long term you want to be absolutely sure you’re targeting the right keywords long before you reach the first page for them.

Build Network Effect Advantages Into Your Work

But what if you’re cash strapped?

Try to build network effects into your strategy. A network effect is the effect one user of a good or service has on the value of that product to other users. An example is the telephone. The more people who own telephones, the more valuable the telephone is to each owner. Similarly, auction and social network sites become more valuable the more people use them.

One marketing advantage of a network effect is good word of mouth. Word of mouth is the cheapest and most effective form of marketing there is. Again, because the channels are quieter during a down market, chances are you’ll be heard more easily if you’re one of the few outfits making noise.

In this article on Forbes, Roelof Botha, the venture capitalist who backed PayPal & YouTube, advocates taking word of mouth one step further, using viral strategies to boost consumer adoption:

A truly viral business is “like a disease,” says Botha. “It needs to be transmitted from one person to another”–and the other person has to catch it. Once the next person catches it, he or she becomes a carrier too. Here are some good examples:

– PayPal. If Bob sends Mary $25, Mary has to join PayPal in order to claim her money.

– Evite. John e-mails you an invitation to his bachelor party but in order to read the details such as when and where, and to RSVP, you have to log onto Evite. E-card vendors work the same way.

– Plaxo. A friend or business associate sends you an e-mail asking you to update your contact information. Once you log onto Plaxo to correct your phone number, you’ve caught the virus. Other services such as Birthday Alarm use the same strategy.

– Skype. In the beginning, the only way you could make a free phone call over Skype’s Internet voice service was if the person you were calling was also a Skype member.

PayPal & YouTube also made it a strategy to be part of other networks. In so doing, they grabbed those networks audience share, and without the need to go into partnership.

eBay had an open software platform, which meant sellers could insert their own HTML code such as icons and visitor counters onto their auction pages. So PayPal built a tiny piece of code that allowed eBay merchants to include a PayPal payment button. By the time eBay got around to buying its own payment service, PayPal had infiltrated its business so deeply that eBay’s customers wouldn’t hear of using anything else….YouTube similarly benefited by becoming an insidious element on MySpace and other social networks and blogs.

Focus On Quality

Word of mouth comes about when you focus on being remarkable.

Learn the lesson of Google and PayPal, both of whom flourished during economic downturns. Provide a quality service, and people will use it, and talk about it.

Go back to basics. What is your value proposition? It needs to be compelling. When people are short of cash, they focus their spending on the the essentials, not the frivolous. Are you solving a real problem for people? Do you really know your customer? Ask not what they want, ask what do they need.
Focus On Essentials And Value

People who are worried about where their next dollar is coming from are going to be hesitant about signing up for expensive items, or long term deals. If you’re selling an essential service or product, as opposed to a desirable product, you’re going to find it easier. When the buyer has less discretionary spend, they’re unlikely to be talked into non-essential deals.

Instead, focus on building relationships. This can be as simple as communicating well, showing integrity, and being passionate about what you do. When people do have more money to spend in the future, they’ll remember you.

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Old post I found, adwords certified press release

Mindfly, Inc. (www.mindfly.com) has recently achieved Google’;s recognition as a qualified and tested AdWords professional. (PRWEB) November 11, 2005 — Mindfly, Inc.http://www.mindfly.com) has recently achieved Google’;s recognition as a qualified and tested AdWords professional. This qualification demonstrates the ability to proficiently research, develop, and measure efficient and optimized pay-per-click webmarketing campaigns for clients using the Google Adwords system. The Google curriculum requires a lengthy training program followed by a 104-question exam covering all aspects of Google AdWordscampaign setup and management. “We’;ve managed web promotion campaigns for our clients for years using Pay-per-Click services including Google and Yahoo,” said John Raasch, “and we are always looking for ways to better serve our clients. The ability to successfully market and promote web sites has been instrumental in many of thier successes.” The Google Adwords program is one of the largest paid marketing systemson the Internet. With this system, website owners can design targeted advertising solutions to reduce the costs of leads or sales by reaching specific groups of searchers. These marketing campaigns can be regionalized to a specific state, city, or even coordinate on a map, making them an excellent regional advertising tool. Mindfly, Inc., located in Bellingham, Washington, is a leader in providing complete web solutions for their clients. Mindfly web services currently include, web design, web development, web promotion, web hosting, and web management. More information about Mindfly and their services can be found at

Internet Advertising 101

Website Marketing Online

Online advertising and search engine marketing, (usual referral’s are SEO, SEM, PPC, Web 2.0, Blogging, Linking, Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, Banner Ads, URL Rewrite, Content Copywriting, or Back link popularity) have been sold like snake oils at a traveling circus from Bellingham Washington to Bellingham Massachusetts since the white text scandal.  It seems everyone is looking for a quick fix and everything is going to go bonkers like the .com craze.  While the economy settles to a rumble around us, small business is looking for the best bang for your buck, ROI (Return on investment), efficiency, go green.  I noticed some of the first stocks to turn upwards were internet related, computer industry, or website marketing based, like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple.  My presidential campaign slogan: Google ad-words internet marketing based advertising will save the economy, they make dollars and they make sense.

Paid Listings

You learn a lot about ROI while you get involved in a Google ad-words or pay per click campaign because you can actually track your marketing budget’s success.  Unlike paper advertising like direct mail, business cards, flyers; or media advertising like Television and Radio you can analyze visitors’ activities to a very specific page of your site and visibly see the spike in traffic or bounce effect or bounce rate.  That makes it very easy to justify spending dollars.  For example,  if you spend 100$ in sponsored listings and make 500$, you can usually assume then that a 500$ investment equates to a 2500$ return.  A great way to cut some fat off of your PPC advertising campaign is to optimize the titles, descriptions, and landing pages for your sponsored links.  Banner ads, the most targeted of all markets are a great way to advertise locally.  A local daycare shouldn’t be spending advertising dollars in Seattle, it is a waste of energy and money, their relevant market is local to Whatcom County. WWW.Neighborhood-kids.com would be a perfect saturated target market for a local daycare.  Sure, a lot more people would see the ad if it was on the Bellingham Herald, but how focused would that person on kid related activities be and what percentage of those viewers would have daycare age children?  The point is you still pay for all those irrelevant views to your advertisement and then even the relevant views may not be in a phase of the “buying cycle”.

Organic Search Engine Ranking

Natural search engine optimization is a horse of a different color, but still a pony.  I’ve found most of the best tactics are done behind the scenes by the great and powerful Oz, the code gurus.  Aspects of indexing a site’s content that are easy to figure are title tags, content, keyword density, internal links, site maps, and alt tags for images…just to name a few.  Remember the search engines spiders’ are reading a site like brail, usually blind to most design features like color and creativity.  The easier to use, more organized, and relevant a sites’ content the more likely it will have the answers the internet searcher is seeking sooner.  Don’t make me think.

Website Popularity Contest (the black sheep)

What if two sites are built almost the same?  What if a site doesn’t meet certain criteria?  The search engines will have to take into other factors.  It is the search engines job to be the most popular so in turn they want to have the most popular sites populate for the princes and the paupers peeping their peeps.  Therefore, they track hits to the site, links to the site, activity coming in from outside sources like articles or videos and so on.  “Viral marketing” was coined based on the relation to the way a virus spreads person to person, like an old fashionpyramid scheme.  One of the best ways to keep your site popular is by having a blog and blogging.  The big directory back links like DMOZ, active popular hip trendy quirky revolutionary un-politically correct political stylish well written nerdy blog sites, and educational websites(.edu) are anchors also.

Old Money

The search engines also will take into consideration a site that has proved itself as a Big Kahuna, it has rode the waves since America online.  Google is the most trusted brand in America and it got there by putting it’s trust in trusting trusted brands.  Start ups can earn some street creds by showing there website is a serious investment and they plan to be here for awhile.

Keyword Strategy

The most important part of all of these are…drum roll…keyword searches, besides viral marketing I guess…and just having enough money to buy anything you want.  If you want to pop up for “Black leather purse”, first of all good luck.  Second of all, you want to be the last website that person sees when in their buying cycle, Last?.  Yes, last, they stop searching when they find what they like and…drum roll…make a purchase, or call you, or find directions.  When you are buying BMW you search “BMW”, once you find that you want an X5, you search “BMW X5”, then “2003 BMW X5”, then “2003 BMW X5 Bellingham Wa.”.  You must find you niche in the market and make sure your site is usable.  I could pop up # 1 in the search engines for “ purple poslovian pirate puppies ” but what good would that do me?  So if a company promises you ((#1 OVERALL IN GOOGLE)echoing)…for what? And will it be my website or a listing on your site? Target those “buying” keywords!  Visitors are great, buyers are necessary.

Purple Poslovian Pirate Puppies (Analytics)

The most important part for you as a business owner in Bellingham or where ever, whether you are marketing internationally, over seas, or buying locally is supplying the demand.  How do you know what is in demand without analysis.  Get trendy, trends make mucho peso, look at NSync, they are like the cabbage patch dolls of the music industry but they dance.  Be ahead of the curve, insider trading is legal online or is that offshore, I think…I can’t remember.  Actually, don’t quote me on that.  These search engine marketing robots show up somewhat unbeknownst and who they really, I mean truly are inside is still a mystery, they put up there walls to keep themselves from getting hurt.  “You complete me” your website says.  Maybe search engine spiders are eerily a lot like the Rene Zellweger’s of the WorldWideWeb but doesn’t that make you want your website to be their Tom Cruise?(minus the whole Tom Cruise thing)

The Cold Hard Facts

Most of SEO and SEM results for the average yahoo can be likened to applying tactics to an Idaho power ball drawing.  There is a lot of SEO 101 information up there in that blog post.  This is just the tip of the iceberg and it is still an educated guess based on experience.  A smart, original, and innovative business model is still the best recipe for success, we can ad rocket fuel and coordinates on your trip to the planet Google.

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