| Are English speaking websites based in the US | | | | major cities in Japan, Italy, |
| simply insular | | | | |
| | | | Mexico and dozens of metropolitan cities |
| and uncaring about foreign web traffic or | | | | around the planet |
| are we actually | | | | |
| | | | without fear that we'll be unable to find |
| Xenophobic?Xenophobia - a phobic attitude | | | | English speaking |
| toward strangers - comes from | | | | |
| | | | hoteliers, restaurateurs, and even cabbies - |
| the Greek words xenos, meaning "foreigner", | | | | it is an |
| "stranger".Trolling through the "referrers" | | | | |
| section in my web site | | | | arrogant expectation. I've been to each of |
| | | | those countries |
| traffic logs routinely shows hundreds of | | | | |
| Google foreign | | | | and didn't need any Japanese, Italian or |
| | | | Spanish language |
| language searches. Those foreign language | | | | |
| search referrals | | | | skills while on either business or |
| | | | pleasure.But we've got to be realistic if we |
| usually total just slightly more than the | | | | are to take part in the |
| combined total of | | | | |
| | | | global medium of the web. Those web pages |
| Yahoo and MSN English language search | | | | are viewable by an |
| referrals. So doesn't | | | | |
| | | | estimated 700 million people around the |
| it make sense to pay more attention to | | | | world and millions |
| foreign language | | | | |
| | | | of those would happily visit and read your |
| search in SEO than to fiddle with Yahoo and | | | | web site if it |
| MSN optimization? | | | | |
| | | | were available in the world's top languages |
| My traffic logs routinely show hundreds of | | | | and indexed in |
| translation tool | | | | |
| | | | foreign search engines. So why not provide |
| referrals.Those referrals come from foreign | | | | that option?Major corporate web sites in the |
| language searchers that | | | | U.S. will inevitably require |
| | | | |
| REALLY want to read the pages. Foreign | | | | polished human translation of their major |
| language visitors | | | | web pages, with |
| | | | |
| who don't know about online translation | | | | variations for international tastes and |
| tools (like Google's) | | | | preferences - most |
| | | | |
| will leave the search result pages without | | | | small and medium business sites cannot |
| visiting your site. | | | | afford that option.This leaves machine |
| | | | translation as the best remaining option. |
| Why not provide your pages in the most | | | | |
| common European | | | | While it is possible for any site visitor to |
| | | | use translation |
| and Asian languages with your text in their | | | | |
| native language | | | | tools online to convert your English |
| | | | language text into |
| already? Look in your logs for the following | | | | |
| referrer URL: with URL's of your own | | | | foreign tongues, it sends the visitor away |
| | | | from your site to |
| site appended. This query at "Google | | | | |
| English" is a request by | | | | the translation service. Not ideal.The best |
| | | | option is to use translation software to put |
| a foreign language user for a translation of | | | | those |
| that page on your | | | | |
| | | | foreign language variations on your own site |
| site. The most common of them are from | | | | and host them |
| Google.es (Spain) and | | | | |
| | | | from your own server in the languages you |
| Google.de (Germany) and Google.pt | | | | offer. The reason |
| (Portugal). Last month | | | | |
| | | | to host them is, very simply, that if you |
| there were nearly 1,000 of these queries | | | | provide machine |
| from Google | | | | |
| | | | translated foreign variants of all your |
| translation tools in my logs. Check that | | | | pages, they will be |
| tool out here: translation - or "Language | | | | |
| Tools" page at Google is | | | | crawled by foreign search engines and |
| | | | indexed and ranked on |
| helpful in escaping our insular attitudes | | | | |
| about English | | | | European and Asian search engines.The web |
| | | | audience in China was roughly estimated at |
| language search by showing us that Google | | | | just over |
| currently supports | | | | |
| | | | 100 million in 2005 and is expected to |
| 34 languages and hosts servers in 141 | | | | balloon in the near |
| countries - literally | | | | |
| | | | future. Simply being indexed for Chinese |
| from A to Z. (United Arab Emirates) to | | | | language searches |
| | | | |
| (Zambia)Google has 117 languages listed on | | | | and reasonably ranked could increase traffic |
| that page, but they've | | | | for U.S. sites |
| | | | |
| buried a few ringers in there with "Elmer | | | | dramatically. The European audience is |
| Fudd", "Klingon", | | | | fragmented with many |
| | | | |
| and "Pig Latin" to throw linguists for a | | | | more language options - the main |
| loop. While it's | | | | representative languages on |
| | | | |
| interesting to use those funny options, | | | | the web are Spanish, French, Portugese, |
| clicking the "I'm | | | | German & Italian, |
| | | | |
| Feewing Wucky" on the "Elmer Fudd" language | | | | while Chinese, Korean and Japanese make up |
| produces the same | | | | the bulk of the |
| | | | |
| results as does the English language search, | | | | remaining web audience. Those eight |
| it's just cuter | | | | languages are offered in |
| | | | |
| with the letters "L" and "R" replaced with | | | | popular machine translation software |
| "W's" on the | | | | packages.If a site has already been optimized |
| | | | for English language |
| search page. we need to look at the | | | | |
| fundamental reason that Google | | | | search, the SEO will have included the most |
| | | | important |
| offers this "Language Tools" page and the | | | | |
| machine translation | | | | keywords. While machine translation is not |
| | | | entirely reliable |
| there. It is because web site owners in the | | | | |
| U.S. don't offer | | | | for proper sentence structure and grammar |
| | | | once translated, it |
| multiple languages on their own sites.While | | | | |
| it is not uncommon to see a row of four to | | | | at least gets most words and many word |
| six flags | | | | combinations correct. |
| | | | |
| representing the top few languages on many | | | | Content sites, who often rely on advertising |
| European based | | | | for income, |
| | | | |
| sites (especially Italy, Spain and France | | | | would love to see the extra pageviews and ad |
| based companies) - | | | | clicks coming |
| | | | |
| it is actually rare to see multiple language | | | | from foreign visitors reading their pages in |
| options on U.S. | | | | their native |
| | | | |
| based business sites.There are manifold | | | | language.Once a content site owner sees |
| reasons for this lack of communication by | | | | their largest foreign audience |
| | | | |
| English speaking countries with the rest of | | | | trends (through web traffic analytics |
| the world. The | | | | statistics), they can |
| | | | |
| top reason is that we simply don't need to | | | | fine-tune their SEO for individual languages |
| know other | | | | and actually pay |
| | | | |
| languages to live our daily lives in this | | | | for professional translation and foreign |
| country, so we | | | | language SEO of the |
| | | | |
| rarely think of using other languages | | | | most profitable pages. But simply getting a |
| online. While English | | | | content site |
| | | | |
| is a primary language spoken around the | | | | indexed by search engines in more than eight |
| world, including | | | | new countries |
| | | | |
| Canada, Australia, India, Britain and is a | | | | will bring waves of new visitors and |
| second language | | | | increase advertising |
| | | | |
| spoken by millions of primarily foreign | | | | income substantially. |
| language speakers.While it is common to visit | | | | |