Forum Moderators: open
What is better?:
One site with all the languages as options.
Or
Seperate site for each language with a local domain.
Any ideas?
Now that does bring up another question - for most part we can get local domains - however, there are a few countries that want a local presence.
How do you get around that - is the only way to have a local ISP host the site or is there a cheaper and easier way?
For Germany you should consult This [webmasterworld.com]
Concerning German SE's and directories, you should pay attention to Rencke's Gold Tips:
Neither Austria nor Switzerland require legal presence for their domains and that is the back-door to those German-language directories that require local domains.
For France it is the same, Rencke puts it this way:
France has rigid rules about local presence, but Switzerland and Belgium provide back-doors for local presence
Good idea to ask local members - however, I don't know if there is a legal or fiscal risk involved in this.
I would hate to ask someone and then cause problems for them in the future.
Macguru - how did you deal with these markets? Did you end up having your client establish a legal presence?
Thanks for the links. I will dig through them in greater detail than I have.
Right now we have local domains for USA, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy.
I need to get locals for France, Portugal, Spain, Austria and UK.
We have or site in translation right now for Spain and France - so they are my biggest priority.
I can't find a reference as to whether or not a local ISP will work in these two markets or if I am going to need a company registration.
If you all can come up with an easy and cheap solution on this one the drinks are on me if your ever in Holland. :)
We did not go local, had to use keyword-company.com and mot-clé-compagnie.net. France is very stiff but is not the only country where people speak french... There is no legal way to get the .fr if you are not brick and mortar in France.
We gave up on local directories, but international SE still list us in the proper language. Yahoo France and Yahoo Canada Français still take all french sites for free. Looksmart France will list it for € 159.00.
How come? Just checked www.yahoo.fr and quite a few dot-com domains came up. Didn't check the ranking in depth though - do they to a great extent favor dot-fr domains?
It seem obvious that the target audience speaks the language of the corresponding URL. In print, radio or TV the language is already discriminated so it is a no brainer to place the right URL in the ad. Some type of public adds like billboards and posters are placed in bilingual countries or cities it gets a little more complicated.
Also, the cost of production, coordination, communication and discriminative placement of ads is higher. Some of my clients choose to brand only 1 URL even if they have many sites and let the visitor pick the appropriate language later. I find it a bit lazy from there part.
Marketing involves efforts.
Yahoo and LookSmart France are perfectly OK with foreign sites as long they are written in French. But a lot of smaller local directories, trade directories and business portals don't.
I'm from a small country where we don't have that many smaller local trade directories and business portals. The ones that excist take everything you throw at them - as long as it is in proper language.
Your point adds to the finding that 10 local sites would be the best way to go. It has always been my impression, but lately we've found out here that a dot-com with multiple language support in many cases could do just fine as well.
It all depends..
I guess we will stick with just offering French with the Belgium domain and send that URL to the French S.E. and see where it sticks.
I hate to slam the French - but isn't it just typical that they make it so difficult. Perhaps if they opened up the % of people to Internet connections would be higher.
Rumbas, do you know if it is easy to get listed in the other Scan. countries?
To quote myself, from here [webmasterworld.com], the solutions can be ranked as follows:
1. Local domains with keyword in name, e.g. something.co.uk, irgendwas.de, quelquechose.fr etc.
2. Dot-coms with keyword in name, e.g. something.com, irgendwas.com, quelquechose.com etc.
3. Everything in same site with keyword in page name, mysite.com/something.htm, mysite.com/irgendwas.htm, mysite.com/quelquechose.htm etc.
4. Sticking the translated pages into subdirectories for each language with names in English, e.g. mysite.com/english/index.htm, mysite.com/deutsch/index.htm, mysite.com/francais/index.htm etc.1) is pricey and requires legal presence in many countries such as France.
2) is the most cost effective.
3) is the best of the inexpensive solutions for small budgets.
4) is the inexpensive and classical solution that the Europeans use themselves and will work if the competition is low.An additional plus with number 2: You can cross-link all pages to get more inbound links, e.g. "This page in English", "Diese Seite auf Deutsch", "Cette page en français" etc. A very user-friendly approach, since search engines might easily direct people to a page in a language other than the one preferred by the visitor. Normally, most people just put the language choices on the top page, forgetting that a lot of visitors will enter from the side via search engines.
Generally, and with only a few exceptions, all major international engines and the leading of the locals will accept dot-coms as long as pages are in the local language. Most countries require legal presence for a national domain registration anyway and setting that up can become quite expensive. The new info-domain is not in operation as of writing, but there is as yet no reason to believe that European search engines will treat dot-infos any different from dot-coms. There are lots and lots of good local language domain names available in dot-info, and even in dot-com. See www.afilias.com about dot-info or any of their authorized registrars. They usually handle dot-coms too.
