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The site in question is a casino site and my client wants to ensure it can be found by Japanese doing a search in the English Language for his keywords.
What are the best search engines for Japan? do they accept non japanese sites (non .jp and language)? At this stage a Japanese language doorway or other translation is not an option.
TIA
We have quite a few members here who are active in the Japanese Market, either internally or externally, and I am sure someone will be along shortly with some good advice for you.
In the meantime, here are some recent threads on Translating and Language Encoding for Japan.
Machine Translation English - Japanese Romaji [webmasterworld.com]
Meta tages, japanese encoding question [webmasterworld.com]
Japanese encoding for Search Engines [webmasterworld.com]
Hope these help.
Onya
Woz
Machine translations between English and Japanese for more than a couple of words, are just something to laugh at.
You do not have to have a site with a .jp extension to get into one of the search engines. Google will take just about anything.
Think about this; if your were Japanese, why would you type in the key word in a foreign language unless you speak the foreign language. Ok, yes there are exceptions, but the theory holds.
The site in question is a casino site and my client wants to ensure it can be found by Japanese doing a search in the English Language for his keywords.This certainly is possible but your conversions will be so small that it's hard to justify the time you'll spend setting it up.
Unfortunately the major PPC outlets in Japan, like Overture Japan won't let you bid on gambling terms:
Gambling Sites
- 'Gambling' is defined as, betting money or other items on a contest of some type. Contests can vary from Slot Machines, Card games, Pachinko, to sport lotteries, Lottery, Bicycle racing, Horse racing etc. In any case, the player bears a risk of losing the contest.
- Overture, we do not allow any gambling organization, that is not recognized by the Japanese government, to list with us.
What are the best search engines for Japan?
do they accept non japanese sites?
As others have already said, without a translation you're not going to see any ROI. Japanese law is also very strict on gambling and you may not be running a legal site (if it's not authorized by the government).
Your feedback has been most helpful and constructive. I feel I can now advise my client with some authority regarding his plans.
regrds
Janet
