Globalization
It’s called the World Wide Web. Not the Nation’s Pride Web.
World Wide is not really reflected by a horizon that covers only the English-speaking world.
And in case you hadn’t noticed already a long time ago, this English-speaking world contains only a fraction of traffic and turnover in the www cosmos.
Which is to say: stick to English if you are content with just a piece of the cake.
If you want to have the whole cake and really eat it, do what the big players do: embrace the globe.
We call it globalization and it’s all around you – but likely just missing where it would really count: in your wallet.
Why would it count, I hear you asking.
Ok, let’s look at the details.
The massive emphasis put on English sites by the IM crowd brings along some severe drawbacks for English sites. Get yourself some awareness here:
- On non-English sites you can almost certainly expect less competition for whatever market it is – you’d like to avoid that competition, right?
- Non-English sites generally receive more genuine comments. The newer and more exclusive the www appears in a native language, the likelier and the livelier users will respond to whatever you feed them.
- Filters and penalties have to be developed separately for every single language, and you will most likely get away with stuff in Mongolian for which Google would immediately kick you if it was in English. Expect Google to put out the sharpest algorithms in English.
Foreign language sites and content at the same time do also provide you some serious advantages. Let’s look at these now:
- If you want to place yourself as an authority or expert, you should acknowledge that there is little authority and expertise monopolized in a single specific language. Actually it’s quite the opposite. More languages imply more authority. Think Wikipedia…
- If you are looking for unique content, there is little that makes for more “uniqueness” than a different language
- The IM crowd loves the “r” word. “R” for relevance. Google wants to return the most “relevant” results, and you should try to get “relevant” back links wherever they are.
If your back links come from sites in six different languages, for Google you are clearly more “relevant”, not less.
- Having sites in various languages truly makes you appear as a genuine global player – as which being an Internet Marketer you certainly want to appear and be perceived.
- A multi-lingo site empire would certainly appear “white hat” and “whiter” even if it actually was not.
- A smart white hat would have his quality content translated into various languages. Having this done for free by a software makes it already a bit “grey” but still a fully valid alternative to spending time and energy in ever more rewritten, spun and rehashed content.
- A multi lingo network is much better for testing all kinds of stuff. It might after all even help you to discover better products and methods for various cultures. We are based in Indonesia and find how campaigns that would fail in English gain top rankings if written in Indonesian. Indonesia is a market with more than 200 million people. And if you think Non English speakers lack spending power, it indicates only one thing: you’re racist and out of date.
- Link building is easier in foreign languages as the spam flood is much lower. Not many guys out there to spam in Korean, right? And when was the last time you got a DMOZ.org link in English?
To conclude that, we frequently hear two arguments against foreign language sites, both of which are completely without merits. Here they are:
- You can’t monetize a site you can’t understand.
Wrong. A cool site will call in the advertisers in any language. Coke also sells in Colombia, right? And if the site turns out to be not so cool, there’s always adsense…
- You get a bad image from funny languages linking to your site.
Wrong. What happens indeed is quite the opposite. Do Adobe, CNN or the BBC only allow back links in English?
If you feel that you could follow us so far on the basics here, we have another article ready for you that covers some details of Multilanguage asset building.
By Dennis May 28, 2012 - 10:58 am
It’s actually working. It’s always a bit puzzling in the beginning, to start on completely new ground. So far it never had come to my mind that all these free translation services on the Internet could actually be quite useful, but now I think I’m finally getting the point.
By admin May 30, 2012 - 3:17 am
It’s true that these services do not usually provide flawless jobs, but for the most part it works quite well and it surely is sufficient to provide you with more traffic and attention from markets that otherwise were out of your reach
By Mick May 28, 2012 - 7:52 pm
You are perfectly right, of course. One gets so absorbed in one’s own world that one tends to completely forget that there is a much larger universe out there actually with lots of uncovered ground.
It already starts with our search engine settings: mostly right in the beginning you click for ENglish results, and thats what you get afterwards. And somehow it then makes you think that the web is English only – which of course is a mistake of strategic dimensions.
By admin May 30, 2012 - 4:44 am
It’s a tragic mistake. Uncharted waters frighten the timid, but reward the brave.
By Jane May 29, 2012 - 6:55 am
My Spanish has become a bit a bit rusty, but I realize it’s about time for a refresh. Your logic is really sound, after all – a large number of Internet marketers actually do command more than one language, so why not put it to our financial benefit?
By admin May 30, 2012 - 4:31 am
Hi Jane,
Break out the WD-40 and get your Spanish flowing freely again. You will be pleasantly surprised how much opportunity awaits outside the English marketplace.
By Rainer May 29, 2012 - 9:17 am
Das ist doch ein ziemlich typisches Problem der Englisch sprachigen Welt. Die meisten Menschen auf der Erde, vermute ich mal, benutzen das Internet ohnehin zumindest zweisprachig. Aber prinzipiell habt ihr natürlich recht – je mehr Sprachen ich für meine kommerziellen Seiten einsetzen kann, desto besser für den Umsatz.
By Todd May 29, 2012 - 12:51 pm
Surely better to fish in ponds with less hooks.
Now I need to rethink how I use my VA’s. I pay them to write stuff in English when its not their first lingo. I’ld like to see if they build better sites by letting them write in their own language. Makse sense.
By admin May 30, 2012 - 4:39 am
Hi Todd
Quite frankly if they can’t build good sites in their own language then you should replace them with someone who can.
Often virtual assistants get off easy by claiming communication problems, misunderstandings and so on.
A great way to test if they really know their stuff or not is to pay them to create a website on a topic they personally like. Tell them to build the best site they can and see how it looks/feels/performs.
If it sucks let them go and find someone who’s capable of producing assets for you.
By Nan Madol May 29, 2012 - 1:01 pm
Dmoz regional looks way easy to get into. I always thought they were an English only directory. This looks fun.