In doing PPC and SEO, you would eventually want to explore new territory. And this would include employing other languages. But even in the age of Google Translate, mere translation does not guarantee success in selling your goods to other nationalities, lest you risk being swallowed alive by other companies who have better language departments. That is why it is important that you know the following tips so that your search marketing efforts do not get “lost in translation”.
Carefully consider the language
The closer you translate the better your chances of selling. So don’t just rely on a translate tool to do the dirty work for you. Make an effort to create selling text, as if you wanted to sincerely sell to your non-English speaking audience. How about the language of telenovelas for the Spanish set? Crazy as it may sound, it may actually work.
In addition, look up potential foreign websites in a keyword research tool and look for the keywords they use. You will stumble upon native keywords and phrases that will be an accurate reflection of the website’s market, and you could use these too to enrich the foreign iterations of your site.
Get expert translating without compromising spending
Mere translation won’t cut it. You would need to make sure your landing page would also effectively convert. Know expressions, pitch techniques and other stuff that get other nationalities interested. Sometimes the frank American approach won’t work with Italian sensationalism, so that is something to consider.
This doesn’t stop with the ads you place on Google Adwords. You must also pay attention to the language used in the whole page, as this will be the clincher part for your application.
At the same time, also explore the keywords that will cater to those in that particular region. You can be most definite that the terms in use here will be different from the ones used to sell in English, so make good on your international keyword research. Know, once and for all, what terms will entice them to buy.
Link to other local pages
Since you’re now catering to a different country, you might as well link to other countries using pages which are related to the products that you are promoting. If your site will be selling biking gear to Brazil, you may consider hooking up with forums and blogs in the country to promote your site. Offer them a special promotional section, if need be. Be sure also to check their PageRank, as their popularity will make or break your efforts to be known. Not only are you noticed, you get to endear yourself even to the common citizen with your efforts.
Create internal links
While we do promote language targeting, it also helps to interrelate languages even if they are not really that similar. This would also work effectively in places like Canada, where two languages are in primary use. Francophones there would still prefer to see text in their language even with the exposure to English; in the same manner, not all Quebec residents are instant French speakers. So do your homework and link your site as strongly as you can to hit two foreign-speaking birds with one stone.
Use keyword research tools to get actual foreign market information
Of course, you wouldn’t know the actual domains and keywords being used unless you research the foreign markets you are targeting. Thankfully, there are keyword research tools that can help you get that information. One such powerful tool is KeywordSpy which covers over 30 countries.
Through the Research module, you can just switch the dropdown bar on the top right whenever you do a search on the domain or keyword. For a search on the domain, you will see the ad copies for countries including non-English speaking countries such as Greece, Mexico, France, Spain and a whole lot more!
On the other hand, through the Tracking module of KeywordSpy, you can see the performance in real time of the ad copies, and PPC and organic keywords in over 30 countries. You employ a similar way of researching the data from foreign markets as in the Research module; except in this method, you will unlock other keywords you can potentially use, at a faster, more frequently updating basis.
Remember, the world does not revolve around you and your tried and true marketing strategy. Don’t just use a new language; imbibe it and harness it to make you dominate as you penetrate new frontiers in the search engine arena.
