Non english characters in keywords

[Asmodean]

Hi
I´m about to submit a swedish site to the SEs. As keywords I have some non english characters - å, ä and ö.(if you can read that)
Now I can write the HTML in two ways - either using these language specific characters, or to replace them with codes like ä
Wich method should I use in order to get best ranking on th SE?

Thanks in advance

Björn

[Asmodean]

Correction : ....codes like [&aukdg]....

sorry for the inconvinience.

[spiky]

Welcome Asmodean

I,ve had a look at your index page for "Dynamic Media" . I'm afraid my Swedish is'nt up to much, but my initial impression is that your meta's and title could do with some additional content.

Try some of the threads on title, description and key word (phrase) meta's for some good ideas on content.

Decide where your site needs to be found, Local or international. Then look at the search engines or directories that are commonly used by your target audience. For most users this means the search box "fed" to them by their host ISP If one dominates the market in Sweden, then this is your first objective for a good listing.

In most part the SE's will work best in English, and this sould certainly be your best starting point if you require international listing.

Spread your key phrases over a few pages and "submit and see", some with, some without

[Asmodean]

My site is not yet up on dynamicmedia.se
Therefore you can not se any meta tags, titels and such.
The site is almost finished, and i need to know if I should use the swedish characters or the code replacement for them. I know wich SE to submit to and that stuff.
Thanks for your answer, but my question remains - what should I use the åäö characters or the [&audfbj;] code??

Thanks

Björn

[rencke]

You can use åäö in the head, but not all search engines will render them correctly. The same is true for aring, auml and ouml. (Flanked by & and ;) Not all will render them correctly. So, which is what? Here is my simple test: Search for Västerås and print the first result page. Then search for Vasteras and compare the result. That should tell you.

If you want a rule of the thumb, use åäö in the head and the other in the body. Good HTML editors with foreign language support will do this for you automatically.

[spiky]

The results are going to be SE specific. So check out the competition's code you find with high listing's in the different SE's to find which variation gives you best position.

[rencke]

>check out the competition's code

That is a really good idea!

[spiky]

Yup !! Think I'll try this as a new thread.

It always amazes me how much unprotected, un sheilded source code is out there. Commercial organisations, even the BIG ones are hopeless in this regard.

Now I'm not suggesting anyone copy/borrow source code. It won't work well if it doesn't fit with the page content, any way. But it remains a great quick way to analyse a strategy for good SE placement, specifically targeting the sites you need to rank above

[rencke]

I have taken a somewhat wider grip on this interesting issue in a new discussion [webmasterworld.com] in the European forum. Since the whole thing is engine dependent, perhaps we should start mapping search engine support for foreign character entities in a systematic way. Let's see what the Europeans have to say about it.