Optimising for China, Russia, Japan

your opinions please!

[charon]

Hi esteemed colleagues,

We're an SEO company who work in the UK, Europe and the US. One of our clients is launching sites in China, Russia and Japan and has asked us to quote for it.

Now we've never worked in these markets, nor used different different character sets etc. So, we're assessing whether we should do it.

Can anyone advise as to whether it's worth doing? And if so, any tips as to how to go about it? We've got a translation company who can help us so that angle is covered.

Mostly we're concerned about how to give good service in languages we can't easily read ourselves, and getting good results in these markets. Especially given the problems that have occured in the Chinese market particularly (internet cafe shut downs etc).

All/any advice gratefully received,
Charon

[bill]

It would be very difficult to tell you whether these would be the right markets for you, but there certainly are plenty of people working these markets who seem to think it's worthwhile. Japan and China are two of the largest Internet markets outside the US [glreach.com] so the potential is there.

You've got a translator for the site, but you may also want to get a native copywriter as well. Simply translating a site doesn't always work.

Providing service in those languages may involve you contracting with some third parties. Unless you hire in-house staff with these language abilities I don't see how you would manage if your product or service requires a lot of customer handholding.

[hotice_2002]

Hi, I am working in a Chinese SEO company. Maybe I can help you and give you some suggestions on Chinese Internet Marketing.
If your guys master Chinese, please visit www.baidu.com. Baidu is the sole Chinese search engine compnay in China. There are almost 60% websurfers find what they need by using Baidu's search results and 35% are from Google Chinese Version. In China, cn.yahoo.com also use Baidu's search result!

[as_is]

sharon, here goes what I think. :)

as bill has said, a translator is not enough to build a site. As in English, you need to do a keyword analysis before you go, translation would not help you to be Chinese friendly, coz they are two different cultures. Keywords & keyprases are as important in English as in Chinese. And your website design should follow your keywords. Of course you can buy you way into Chiese market and be shown in the top of most major players(that depends on your budget). But always remind yourself not how many people vist your site but how many deals you make, you would really want to sell, do you?

Remember to find some real meaningful links before submission.

ppc baidu.com a fast way to boast your presence
google, odp , baidu.com etc provide free access
sina, sohu, neatease, better find their agent to submit.

hope that helps.:)

[charon]

Hi all

Thanks for all your responses, much appreciated. I should clarify the translation comment, what we'd do is create the optimisation here so it goes through the complete opitimisation process, then get it translated.

This involves talking to the various client contacts in each country to ensure we've got the keywords right for each market.

I think we've got China covered - any other thoughts about Russia and Korea?

Thanks
Charon

[bill]

I should clarify the translation comment, what we'd do is create the optimisation here so it goes through the complete opitimisation process, then get it translated.

You're optimizing for English and then getting the material translated? I'm not sure how that would work. I guess that all depends on what you consider optimization.

You have to keep in mind that a straight translation is not always sufficient. There are cultural differences that often need to be taken into consideration. These cultural differences may require you to completely rewrite the content you are using.

Here's an example: In Japan it is generally considered very bad form to directly compare and contrast your product/services with your competitors'. So if your page was written in that style then you'd have to either rewrite everything or approach that market in a different style.

You really need to look at each market in its own light. A blanket solution where you send off all of your English pages and they come back in the target languages will probably not produce the results you expect.

[a2ztranslate]

i would agree with most of the oher posts here; translation rarely woks well, it is good copy that needs to be written. we have a hard time getting our clients to understand this, until we ask them how many hours do they spend working on their copy?

i would also be interested in hearing from anyone with experience in the russian market. we are looking at providing seo services there.

cheers