What Are Your Words Saying To Your International Market?

Cindy King — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:00:35 +0000

I recently critiqued a blog to give advice on how to improve readership. One of the first things that jumped out at me was that the content did not match the blog title and tag line.

Without checking the blog statistics, it is reasonable to assume that the blog readers do not stick around very long. There were just too many words on different topics.

This quick look at the words that jumped off the blog reminded me of something else…

A Graphic Keyword Tool

There is a fun tool called Wordle. Here is the Wordle of this blog:

I find the Wordle pictures very useful. It is easy to compare the words on your Wordle with your SEO keywords

…and your core business categories.

…and even more importantly, with the keywords your readers use to find you.

A mind mapping evangelist I spoke with recently, said that more that 75% of us have stronger visual memories than any of the other forms.

These words in a picture can highlight the words we need to use more.

International Keywords

It is not always easy to identify:

The keywords your international readers use
The words on your blog or website that grab his interest

International readers probably respond to different words.

It is important to think about this because finding the words that capture the attention of your international readers can help you improve your international communication.

Observation To Find The Right Words

How can you find the best words to use to grab your international readers’ attention?

This usually involves researching the online places where your international readers hang out and observing how they respond there.

The more contact you have with your international readers the better you get to know them…

…and the more familiar you become with their vocabulary.

Cross Checking Both Sets Of Words

As an international marketer, it is important to cross-check the words you hear and see your international readers using with the words you use on your blog or website.

Yes, you can do this with SEO tools. But you may not need to do as much analysis with these tools as you think, especially if :

You are already connecting with the international readers you are targeting
You already have a large amount of content targeting this audience

The problem is that the last time I looked into international SEO, this was a time consuming activity and not always as accurate as businesses want it to be.

Soft Skills And Visual Tools

Knowledge of your international clients is your best tool. And your soft skills on how you use this knowledge can get you good online results.

Visual keyword tools can give you fairly accurate feedback on how you are doing. These tools can be fun tools like Wordle. And they can also include an intelligent content analysis of your what you have online.

If you would like to have your blog critiqued for an international audience, email me at cindy@cindyking.biz

International SEO For Quick Results

Cindy King — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:00:38 +0000

International Web Marketing

Several readers have asked how to go about international SEO recently.

Now… I am not going to go into any details here. You probably would not get much out of it even if I tried. You see, I learn technical things on my own, as I need them and make up my own vocabulary in my head as I go.

But…

Good SEO Practices Are Needed Everywhere

Good SEO practices are the same everywhere. Of course, there are:

Different places you go to register your country specific URLs
Different search engines

But the fun is actually in:

Different cultural quirks with languages and grammar

There are even:

Different cultural quirks in how people search, use abbreviations, and possibly even different approaches to the internet as a whole.

And this is why you need someone who has an intimate knowledge of your foreign market. And preferably with a marketing or communication background. And if you are targeting a foreign market that is not very reached a certain internet maturity, you may also need a local web marketer to help you with key words.

Less Competition For Foreign Keywords

All this may seem daunting. But it is not that difficult to jump in and get started. In fact, that is probably the best thing to do.

You see…

There is one very good bit of news.

Many companies marketing online in a foreign language seem surprised at the quick web marketing results they get.

These fast results are mainly due to less competition. There are usually fewer foreign language websites. And this also translates into less overall competition for good search engine results.

Fast Results For A Little Effort

The main thing to take away, is that international SEO is not that different from your current SEO best practices.

Yes, you will probably take more time identifying the best foreign keywords.

But, good search engines results usually come much faster than in English. So you can afford to take your time to start with basic keywords and tweak them as you get more feedback.

Cindy King's International Business Blog » foreign keywords