New International Forum Thread

[AussieWebmaster]

The growth of international search and marketing has increased to the point where we need to keep up on all engines not just those started in English speaking countries.

There is a need to keep track of the Chinese and Russian engines in particular given their vast volume.

Start adding any info you have or questions as well.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

I can only speak for Germany and France, and here google is even more dominant than in the UK or US!..but you most likely know that one, already.

what Im interested in, though: How come the need to start a forum like this on here has now arisen? you said its because of the growth of international search and marketing...but are people really using search engines more and more than they did say a year or a few years ago?

Does this also increase the need for foreign language SEO @ US-/UK-companies?

[AussieWebmaster]

yes they are using them more - but given most of the people here are English speakers - many concentrated on work for that language and the US - now more are realizing the need and thus adding an area specific to international gives them the ability to ask specific questions in this area

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

thanks for the reply(or well replies!).

If I understand you right, US-webmasters/businesses are starting to wake up and realize that by adding a foreign language version of their site (+on-page SEO & link building for those..)...or at least their most important content, they can draw in additional search traffic, that theyve been missing out on?

probably only really a good investment for info-products/membership sites (..me thinking about e-learning again!), hotels/tourism, and those shipping outside the US?

Did I get you? or did I totally miss your point?

PS: Would you agree that (in terms of ROI) it might be worth for me to look into..trying to target the need for German language SEO (or French SEO) that US- and UK-companies have, considering virtually anyone in SEO/IM I know is in the US/UK? (rather than English language SEO)

basically being one of the few suppliers in a market with plenty of demand...or are there enough companies filling this need so that it's not necessarily going to be more profitable than plain English language SEO?

[AussieWebmaster]

It is definitely a specialized niche and not as crowded as English - it adds the step of translation and a knowledge of country directories etc.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

thanks..guess ill see how it plays out.

[bistones]

I agree with it. China is one large country, it is necessary to develop it.

[clivejones]

I can only speak for China. The Chinese use their own search engines (Baidu and Sogou). And they are biased towards Chinese language websites.
But there's a very practical benefit for a local language website.
Visitors will understand the website and will be more willing to use the services on offer. Official figures put the number of English speakers in China as 300 million but the true figue is more like 10 million. Less than 1% of the population.
Chinese travellers give the Internet as their most important source of information.
But if your clients aren't offering information they can easily understand then it won't be influential.
It also makes sense to have a .cn domain and a website hosted in China if you want to be constantly accessible.

[Olney]

Good addition.
I'll stop by a bit more.
I manage campaigns generally in Japan & Korea.

[clivejones]

I find the more I investgate different geographical regions the more I become aware of the differences in internet use rather than the similarities.
When only focussed on the UK, I was happy to think that English was the global language and that we all follow America's lead in time.
And I'm finding that understanding English is not as wide spread nor as in-depth as we are lead to believe.
So it makes a lot of differnce to how you market on line
Is that anyone else's experience ?

I Agree With you friends.

[clivejones]

As a worker in one of the other booming markets, do you find the bigger companies either open an office in India or ignore the opportunity ?
All the more entrepreneurial outfits I have spoken to have had a look at China and seem to have decided it is too "foreign" for them. Perhaps getting their money out was a problem in the past.
So the major players globally in the travel trade make little effort to reach China.Ignoring the fact that they use their own versions of Google or facebook. And they do in their tens of millions.

[commodity]

very nice topic keep it up .