Case Study For Getting Your Website Visible In Japan

International Case Studies

Scarlett posted a question that merits a longer reply.
Her question was:

Scarlett’s site can be seen at: http://www.afriendinamerica.com

Having looked at the website I noticed one thing right away that can easily be corrected on the Japanese page.

The Proper use of Foreign Language Keywords

I went to Google.jp and searched for the word Tokyo and found this site at random: www.hataraku.metro.tokyo.jp

Although I can’t tell you what the site really says, I can tell that they have defined their page as being in the Japanese language. You can see this in the lang=”ja” part of the HTML code below, and they have used a Title and Keywords in Japanese.

Remember, people search for words on their local search engines in their native language first. It is very important to have your Japanese keywords.

Below is some of the HTML header text from this selected Japanese website. It would be very useful for you to include the HTML code similar to this on your page.

< HTML lang=”ja” >

< HEAD >

< META HTTP-EQUIV=”Content-Type” CONTENT=”text/html; charset=Shift_JIS” >

< TITLE >TOKYOはたらくネット（東京都産業労働局雇用就業部）</ TITLE >

!– meta1行目：googleウェブマスターツール用 –

meta name=”verify-v1″ content=”JYxRPMo2//8V5uiNaCjHc3jhm3hPW/gAvVHBny+hsC8=” />

META NAME=”keywords” CONTENT=”TOKYOはたらくネット、東京都、働く、雇用、就業、労働、仕事

<META NAME=”description” CONTENT=”TOKYOはたらくネットは、東京都の雇用就業に関する総合サイトで、東京都産業労働局雇用就業部が運営しています。

How to Get Seen By A Spider

To get your site “seen” by the search engines you could:

Submit your URL to the search engines that interest you. In your case this would mean submitting your website to all of the major Japanese search engines. This will make each of these search engine spiders come out and find your site. This can take as long as 2 months, depending on many factors that are specific to each search engine.

Start a blog aimed at your target readers. Either on your present site or on one of the free blog sites, www.wordpress.com, wordpress.xwd.jp if you want to do it in Japanese. You can try doing one in both languages and post the same article in both Japanese and English on the different sites.

Advertise yourself on social sites. Go to the appropriate blogs and comment on things related to you and your site including a link back, like you did here. Make a video of yourself dressed in a Kimono and speaking English – or dressed as a “Country” girl and speak perfect Japanese. Make the video funny or exciting. The most important thing is that you make it memorable.

Post offers on sites like craigslist. In Japan there is a craigslist for Okinawa, the Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto area and Tokyo. Post an advertisement in as many places as appropriate, and remember that craigslist is free, so a person looking for a new couch may also be the person looking for your service.

Write about your local events. If there is a festival, major cultural event, local sport final (the Japanese love Baseball) or any gathering of a large audience, find websites where people in Japan would be interested in. Write an article about your local event. You should be able to get a link to your site on each article you write. I found the site www.realtraveladventures.com and they would appreciate articles.

Articles In Japanese Ezines. Go to google.co.jp and search “japan ezine”. When the results page appears, select the button that says “日本語のページを検索” and you will have a list of sites that may be interested in your articles.

Finally, have a good look at your website. Right now it is set up so that a person can read it. A search engine that gets to your site will only read your keywords in English, your content is actually on the source site – www.susanbuck.net – and a search engine will probably not go to that site to learn what your pages are about.

In the Foreign Lingo section of www.cindyking.biz you will see examples of submitting your website to foreign search engines. Right now there are details for Chinese, Russian and German search engines. Other countries will be added to.

I am also in the process of adding a page in Foreign Lingo on using keywords and foreign language keywords for international business and other more technical parts of international internet marketing. Check back soon.

Brush up your international skills…
Read more on International Case Studies:

• Case Study For Getting Your Website Visible In Japan
• Internet Strategies For French PME
• Internet Success For An Isolated Brick and Mortar Store
• Should Successful Internet Marketers Get Into International Marketing?

Use these skills in your international strategies on the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map:

Step 1 – Discover Your International Business Discover… • Your current business • Your international business options

Step 2 – Plan Your International Sales Road Map Plan… • Your international approach • Your communication platforms

International Market Research • Do you have as much international business intelligence as you need for your international success? This is part of Step 3 on Get International Clients

International Web Visibility • Do you have as much international business intelligence as you need for your international success? This is part of Step 3 on Get International Clients

Step 5 – Connect With Your International Markets Connect… • With culture customized content • With trust and empathy • With strong cross-cultural communication

Tagged as: cindy king, international marketing, Japan, Japanese language, Japanese website, Search Engine, translator