There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for translating your content efficiently.
Translating websites to effectively target a specific market takes time.  Translating the information from your company’s website into the target language must be done by native speakers in your company’s country.
Example: If you are a company in the United States and you want your website translated into German, be sure than the translator is someone from the U.S. who speaks German to ensure your message is delivered correctly.  Neglecting to do this may result in a mistranslation.

Ensure your translated marketing materials aren’t too technical.
Marketing materials generally grab a reader’s attention when they speak to the soul of the reader.  By doing this, the company lures in a potential client then turns them into paying customers. Technical translation does not always convey the same “emotional” marketing message as was in the original language, and this is where, many times, the message gets lost in translation.

To do this, companies must take the content from the “technical translation”, and have it re-written by a marketing copywriter to make it less technical and more relatable.

Only 7 countries, and 30% of Internet users, have English as their first language.
If you have an E-Commerce website, remember: Research has shown that buyers are 10 times more likely to buy from a website that is in their own language. (www.markettheglobe.com)
Each version of your website needs to be localized down to the graphics, colors, and text.  It is imperative that companies take the time to tailor each version of their website to the specific target market.

To learn more about multilingual websites click here.

2. Despite the Internet, we’re watching more television- not less.

3. The world is watching: Football and American Idol-like contests relative to the particular country.

4. Though the United States and Europe are losing newspaper circulation, the rest of the world is experiencing a “boom” in newspapers.

5.    Global Facebook Usage:
a.    6 hours per day per user.
b.    517 million users.
c.    70% of users live outside of the United States.
d.    Average “fan” is 31 years old.
e.    Average “fan” follows 9 brands.
f.    95% will advocate for the brand if necessary.

6. Cyber cafes are the entry for emerging market populations to get online.

7. Brazil, Russia, India, China, and Indonesia lead the world in online video consumption.

8. Internet usage rates are determined bmy access costs.  Mobile is not.

9. Netbooks, e-readers, and tablets will drive growth of Iinternet use.

10. The forecast for the world’s future media habits: More.

AdAge reports that time spent on computers has tripled over the past decade among youths 8 years old to 18 with the bulk of time spent on social media.  These finding beg the question:; How will this group consume media when they enter the working world? Is your company prepared?
To view the report, visit the Advertising Age website.

Earlier this week, Google announced the launch of their newest feature, Hotpot, which now incorporates user ratings to personalize search results.
Prior to Hotpot’s launch, Google Maps provided user reviews which it cultivated from across the web.  Now Google has taken that feature a step further by obtaining reviews and recommendations from venues you and people in your Hotpot Network have rated highly on the web personalizing your search results even more.

How to Utilize Hotpot for Cities

1)      Create a Google Places nickname.

• Ratings of places are public on the web – even to those who aren’t in your network.

2)      Choose a photo.

• Your photo should be consistent with your city/organization’s logo.

3)      Click “Start rating.”

4)      Google will ask you to enter a category and establish your location to start rating places.

• Example: City

5)      Once you have entered Hotpot, you can begin rating local places related to the keyword you typed in such as libraries, city museums, even the mayor’s office.

• Ratings range from “Hated It” to “Best Ever”

6)      Places to rate can be filtered by:

• Places you’ve previously visited on the web.

• Places you have saved while logged into Google Places on your mobile phone.

• Places you have previously rated on Google Places.

• Places your Hotpot network has rated.

7)      After you rate the individual venues, Hotpot will ask you to explain why you chose that rating.

• Google will also provide you with specifics about the venue to be rated with either a happy or sad face.

8)      Once you have rated at least 3 places in the category you are searching in, Google’s Hotpot will provide you with recommendations based on what you’ve liked and disliked in your reviews.

Once users have established a solid network of “friends” on Hotpot, Google will use their reviews to recommend places to you in the event that you are out of town and are looking for a particular type of establishment.   This is an excellent resource for visitors not wishing to write a review but to find out what people like themselves enjoy.

Hotpot’s one downfall is that it is not as infused with social networks as many of its competitors such as Bing and Yelp – Hotpot is its own social network.  Hotpot is solely an extension of Google applications such as Google Places and Google Maps but its mobile integration may make up for the lack of social integration and the fact that nearly everyone with access to the web uses Google.  Google Hotpot can be accessed through Google Maps and Places both on a PC and mobile devices, and the Hotpot mobile application can be used with any Android (1.6 and above) and the iPhone.

To ensure your city, government or any establishment with a physical address appears in Hotpot’s search results, you must register with Google Places.  Be sure to include as much keyword-rich information about your business as possible, and include pictures.

To try Google Hotpot for yourself and review your city/government establishment, visit http://www.google.com/hotpot.

Select an SEO-Friendly Account Name
Yes, this matters as well.
Choosing the proper account name helps brand companies – it can also be a great resource for search engines.  Determine which variation of your brand’s name is searched the most each month.
Google Adwords is an excellent tool for determining the most effective keywords.

Don’t Forget the “Bio” Section
The biography section is yet another avenue to include keywords.  Twitter bio’s are consistently indexed; crucial keywords should be used in the [160 character] description of the company.

How Effective is the Tweet’s Lead?
The first few words (42 characters) of every tweet will appear in search engine results next the account name and username.  These first 42 characters of the tweet will impact SEO as well.

The body of tweets are also likely to be indexed by search engine rankings
Utilize relevant keywords relating to the brand to increase search results on those terms.

Is the Message Re-Tweetable?
Twitter allows companies to share their information with others, and hope others will find it useful and share it as well.  A tweet’s length must be less than 140 characters if the intention is to have others re-tweet it; if the tweet is too long, the last few characters of the tweet will be dropped.
Re-tweets are indexed on search engines as well and will have a positive effect on a company’s search engine ranking.

Call to Action
Twitter pages should have a call to action.  Just as companies encourage people to look at their website, visitors can also be invited people to visit a Twitter page.  Because a Twitter page’s URL is indexed as a website, companies have yet another opportunity to increase their search engine rankings and another avenue on which to promote their brand.  Companies can use their Twitter page to share links that will direct readers back to the company’s website.

Making the most of social media networks will increase online presence, attract attention to a business, and increase traffic web traffic.  A successful website can be defined as a site which receives as much traffic from social media sites as it does from search engines.

Tactics of Keyword Research 

Understanding the terms that your customers are using is critical to finding the best keywords and this research supports that idea.  Determining the keywords that actual customers are using is critical, and can be done looking at your analytics to determine keywords that are currently directing traffic to your site as well as your site search to find out what visitors are looking for when they are on your site.  Analyzing competitor’s sites is also an important tactic in determining popular industry-specific terms.  Using keyword tools is still one aspect of choosing the right keywords, but should be used in conjuction with many other research methodologies as well.

“When turning soccer into numbers, there will always be problems. And when it comes to ‘assists’, this is especially true. How can you reward someone who rolls the ball eight inches from an indirect free-kick as highly as someone who beats seven men and puts the ball in the striker’s path in the six-yard box?”

Those in the Internet marketing industry may want to take the time to read Tomkins’ strategy in order to relate it to the website conversion attribution debate. When it comes to website conversion, each keyword searched or direct visit – which ultimately results in a conversion–is in most cases a hit from a repeat visitor, or from a visitor who is familiar with the brand name, and each step of your search engine marketing strategy can be seen as an assist that led that conversion goal to your website.
With the highly-anticipated World Cup right around the corner, here is an analogy of how the steps to scoring a goal in a soccer game are similar to making a visitor react a desired way on your website.

 Website Conversion = Goal
You’ve done the hard work, you’ve found a potential customer who is interested enough in your website that they return via a keyword (or direct visit) and complete a sale, give you a call or whatever your call to action may be. This is the same as giving a player a free shot with just the keeper to beat. You won’t always get a 100% conversion rate – but in both cases there’s a very good chance it will end up with a goal.

Second to Last Visit = Assist
Some players don’t always score enough goals (David Beckham for example) but if you take him away from taking freekicks, corners and crossing the ball into the box then you’re likely to see a noticeable drop in chances created and goals scored. This could be exactly the same with your complete online strategy, which is why it is so important to find those advertising channels and keywords which are contributing to the end goal.

Mid-Level Visit = Midfield Pass
If Liverpool scored a goal last season, there’s a good chance Xabi Alonso (player known for his high number of assist) was involved at some point during that move. This may not have a huge importance to the overall outcome, but if involved more often than not, then he is clearly having a positive impact to the team. This could relate to an email marketing campaign, social media campaign or a keyword which may rarely convert, but is often involved in an assist. Take it away and those conversion chances may start to dry up.

First Visit = Defensive Build Up
What got the ball rolling in the first place? In the case of a soccer game, it may start with a key pass by the goalkeeper. When online, perhaps it was a search at the early stage of the searching process, as far back as typing your search words into Google. After this happens there is still a huge amount of work to do in order to grab that conversion, but you need to start somewhere!

So in which stage does the importance lie? In tracking the performance at all stages you can really get a strong idea about how every aspect of an online marketing campaign (or professional soccer team) is performing. With this valuable feedback from web analytics, you can make informative decision (whether that decision be to change up your keywords or to trade your center midfielder) based on the actual facts and figures. All in all looking at every step of your marketing strategy, rather than just the end result, will tell you which components of your overall efforts are effective, and which ones could use some help.

While both techniques result in an influx of website visitors, the methods and goals are radically different, especially when considering where your site visitor came from and what page they see when they arrive to your website. SEO, is the key to making content rank highly in natural or organic search results. And while these “free listings” in a search-results page are technically, well, completley free, most companies pay an SEO company  to keep their content at the top of the search engines.

But remember - both SEO and SEM are essential for optimal website conversion. It is the strategic combination of both that brings traffic to your site but it is the exclusive domain of SEM to get people to purchase products or contact you for a chance for you to sell them something. For example, you invent something new and the SEO of your website helps search engines find your site when customers become aware of your new product or service. Once the potential customer finds your site, they then need to be guided to make a sale – this comes back to basic marketing principles which is where SEM comes in.

The Net Impact provides strategic services for companies wishing to market their business online. Our process is clearly focused on learning your business, marketplace and competitors. As your SEO firm, we are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date methods for optimizing your website. We are constantly researching new trends and techniques to keep pace with the ever changing search engine marketing industry. Contact The Net Impact to boost your company to the top of the search engines!

Before jumping into writing optimized content for the web, remember these tips:

•Use keywords the right way – make sure your SEO content writing is easily understood. Don’t just stuff key words into your content.

•Place readability of the content first; if the keywords didn’t come naturally (or if you haven’t used enough to meet keyword density requirements), insert them where appropriate to turn your document into effective SEO content writing

•Never use too many keywords. An adbundance of keywords could transform your document from an SEO content writing project into spam (search engines are not stupid, and if this is the case they will not recognize your website.)

•Keep SEO content writing short and sweet- stay on the topic

•Stick to two or three keywords per page of SEO content writing to avoid reader confusion

If readers are unable to tell that they’ve just read SEO content writing, you have done your job. If you wrote content that is easy to read, flows well, is to the point and doesn’t leave your readers wandering why you have used the same word X amount of times- mission accomplished.

In March 2010, a well-known motorcycle comfort seating’s Website design required a site makeover. The website design reconstruction called for exacting guidelines:

• Visually mesmeric web design
• Web design which maintains the online brand  identity
• User-friendly navigation designed to motivate interaction
• Website design to fortify web marketing presence
• A fuss free web content management system to enable instantaneous site updates

Since the Auctori content management system was developed to automate search engine optimization, the web design company and Ad agency conferred to integrate all the components needed to integrate the motorcycle comfort seat’s brand and Internet marketing strategy.

With the creative  components in place, the Web design company customized the master pages into the Auctori content management system.  This assured for instantaneous updates.

To assure visitor ease, the content management system enabled the designers to develop a user-friendly navigational architecture; whereby new site pages could be added among the various product overview pages, multimedia, events, retailer contact information and other Web site landing pages.

The final Web design was the end result of a “cutting edge yet professional site, which inspired site interaction and lead generation.

In the end, the Auctori content management system affords high-end Web design, destined for web traffic, made possible through search engine optimization.

Please call 888.629.4672 to learn how the Auctori content management system integrates custom design.

No more requests. It was merely half a decade ago when companies had to schedule Web site updates. Since many sites were developed using HTML or PHP, modifications required certain programming expertise that only the Web design company could perform. As for keeping a Web site fresh with new keyword driven content, corporations relied on an SEO company’s understanding of their products and services.

Alleviate downtime. Given the advances in web content management systems, businesses are no longer dependent upon the downtime associated with modifications. Bid adieu to the time lapse between the site update request and the actual site modification.

Businesses used to rely on IT departments and the web design agency to deploy web site updates. Between phone conversations, instant messaging, email messages, communications disconnects accounted for approximately 25 percent of Website design glitches.

For now, web content management systems not only afford companies of any size the self-sufficiency to amend design elements and media content, but minimize outsourcing Web design service expenditures. This translates into a higher return on the Web marketing budget.

Despite cost efficiency, certain web content management systems, designed with built in search engine optimization, place companies on the roadmap to major search engine traffic. In example, the Auctori content management system exposes each week’s content additions, social media posts and other web marketing uploads to Google, RSS feeds and other steady streams of traffic flow.

Read more about how the Auctori web content management system helps automate search engine optimization, visit: www.Auctori.com.