Think Global Act Global: Writing for Your Online Market
By Kalena Jordan, Search Engine College
When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?
I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won’t embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let’s just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.
Now the owner of this site was complaining loudly in a webmaster forum that his pay-per-click campaign was having no luck converting sales from overseas visitors, particularly in the UK and Australia. He had spent a long time developing and tweaking a landing page for the campaign and he couldn’t work out why hardly anyone outside the U.S. was buying. I took a look at his landing page and could see the problems straight away:
1) He used the American English spelling “jewelry” throughout the page without considering that persons who use British English spell it “jewellery”.
2) He provided a toll-free phone number for persons in the U.S. to call, but did not provide any contact phone number for persons located outside the U.S.
3) He used the word “national” throughout the page, immediately isolating anyone outside the U.S.
4) He promoted “free shipping throughout the U.S.” but did not specify shipping costs for persons outside the U.S.
The owner of this site had not even considered that persons outside the U.S. might search for keywords in anything other than American English. It didn’t even occur to him that there may be an alternative spelling of his main keyword and he didn’t think about the logistics for purchasers outside his country. No wonder the page wasn’t converting outside the U.S.! He had made the classic mistake of isolating a large chunk of his audience by sending everyone to a one-size-fits-some page.
What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas. He could then have set up a unique PPC campaign targeting only UK/Australian searchers with regional keywords and ads leading to the British English landing page.
I see similar problems occur quite often in the online travel industry where you not only have to deal with regional spelling options, but also regional jargon. Think about the word “accommodation”. Apart from the fact the word is commonly misspelled, it is used most often in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe places to stay while traveling. In the U.S., the words “accommodations” and “lodging” are more commonly used. Same goes for “holiday” and “vacation”, with the latter being more common in the U.S. The word “traveling” itself is spelled “travelling” in British English! So you can imagine the minefield of problems webmasters must face promoting their travel sites online to a worldwide audience.
I don’t mean to single out a particular country, but Americans seem to find it especially difficult to step outside their regional mindset. I am always receiving emails from the U.S. with helpful suggestions for fixing my “spelling mistakes”.
The funniest email exchange I ever had in relation to this was from an American web designer. She had seen our Australian-based web site (with a .com.au domain) and emailed me to tell me it was “full of errors” and that if I wanted to present a professional business to site visitors, I should correct them. So condescending! I asked her to elaborate and she pointed me to these words she felt were spelled incorrectly:
optimisation
counselling
organised
enrolment
colour
catalogue
favourite
centre
Resisting the urge to use a few offensive words I’m sure she would recognize, I tactfully explained that our site was only targeting the Australian market and that we use British English spelling in Australia. Her response? Perhaps if we wanted to be taken seriously by an international audience, we should consider using the “more proper” American English. Flabbergasted, I pointed out the fact that American English was a derivative of British English and was not widely used outside her own country. Wikipedia has more about the differences between the two here. And let’s not forget that although it is the most common language used on the web, English is used by less than 30 percent of the world’s total Internet users.
The point of this story is that you absolutely have to think outside your market if you are going to advertise on the web. As ignorant as she was, my email friend did make me realize that many of her compatriots might also think our site was full of errors. American English is more common on the web and I’ve since learned to cater to that trend. I try to remember that in all writing I do for the web now, whether it’s in my daily blog, the syndicated articles I write regularly or web page content.
Whenever you design or write for a web site that has an international audience, make sure you address each market. It pays to undertake detailed keyword research into your markets you are targeting so you can capture the correct regional jargon and spelling that people are searching for. Remember it’s not enough to think global, you’ve got to act global too.
About the Author:
Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.
The 2007 New Zealand Search Marketing Report
By Barry Smyth, Publisher - Search Week (among other things)
I recently had the pleasure of being in New Zealand to host my very first “overseas posting” of the popular Search Engine Bootcamp workshop series.
It was very interesting to see how the Kiwi search industry ticks, particularly as Google is the most prominent player in the market place & as I assumed the presenters were very Google savvy at both an SEO & PPC level.
However, this monopoly is likely to change within the next twelve months with Yahoo! Search Marketing Asia Pac boss - Craig Wax announcing at Search Engine Bootcamp the long overdue recognition of New Zealand as a distinct market from Australia, in another plus for the local NZ market I believe that Yahoo!Xtra team may be selling the solution locally, this will have to be confirmed by both YSM & Yahoo!Xtra. [1]
I also took the opportunity to ask our audience a series of questions throughout the day, the result of these questions are the backbone of the NZ report.
For the record, the final and most important question of the day was:
Will the All Blacks choke in the RWC Semi Final against the Wallabies?:
- 20% - Yes, they always choke in the RWC Semi’s
- 80% - God I hope not, it would be nice to have something to defend in 2011
What’s in the report?
Based on the responses of New Zealand’s leaders in Search, the industry is thriving.
Conducted in June 2007, the survey is an important snapshot of the forces and trends shaping the industry for the next twelve months. Key decision makers say what they are doing and what they are planning ahead.
What you will find in the report:
- Expenditure on Search and PPC
- Application of keyword tools e.g. Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery
- How they rate their skills and expertise
- Who in the organisation chooses the titles and keywords
- Intentions to hire or outsource search in 2008
- Use of Google Adwords
- Allocation of budgets to deal with Yahoo! targeting New Zealand
- Budget intentions for next year
While Search in New Zealand is growing strongly, there are some issues, which may impact its growth into 2008. For instance, survey respondents expressed concern about Return on Investment.
Are you happy with the ROI you get in search?
- 5% - Yes
- 28% - No
- 30% - It’s OK
- 37% - Not Sure
Respondents share their views on a range of important subjects:-
- Management techniques
- The use of systems and tools
- The problem of skills and training
- Effectiveness and value of search activities
- Outsourcing to Search Marketing Agencies
- Willingness to use third party search marketing tools
This report provides valuable insights into the current state and near-term future directions by the key players in search in New Zealand
The New Zealand Search Market Report 2007 comprises 15 pages with 16 figures and analytical commentary.
Order your copy $395.00 (excl. GST) 
The total sample diverse and comprised:
- 58% claimed they were the decision makers about SEO
- 42% said they were the implementers of others’ decisions
Industry categories:
- Search Marketing companies 27%
- Online/Offline Publishers 21%
- Travel 10%
- Government 7%
- Traditional Ad agency 9%
- Financial Services, Ecommerce & Employment 26%
The data was collected by Search Strategies via Click-a-Pad interactive voting system at the Search Engine Bootcamp workshop in New Zealand on June 21st, 2007, independent Report & Analysis by IBRS Pty Ltd www.ibrs.com.au
[1] This all co-insides with the simultaneous launch of the new Yahoo! Search Marketing platform known as Panama in both Australia & New Zealand, many of our readers are already making the transition.
Local search scene in Australia explained
By Monte Huebsch, Managing Director - Aussieweb.com.au
Australian Local Search, a brief look at the Australian local search scene - the good, the bad and the ugly!
Who are the major players in Australia?
- Google Maps
- Yahoo!7
- NineMSN - My Local
- Sensis - Yellow pages
- True Local
- dLook
- Hot Frog
- AussieWeb Local Search
- Phone Book
Google Maps was the most recent addition to the local search scene in Australia. Their raw business data is provided by True Local, but more on that later.
They have many additional features that can be added to your listing and these are all free.
You are required to “register” for these and they send a confirmation letter with a “pin number” so you can maintain your listing yourself.
Obviously, their mapping is very good. Their stated turn around times for updates is 1 month. Google is working hard to make the data available on mobile platforms – but no projected dates for Australia have been released. Google also sources additional information about the companies it lists from a variety of sources and it looks like they will eventually have their own database.
- Lots of money but short on people
- Moves slowly.
Yahoo!7 is an interesting arrangement. They also source their underlying data from True Local (who used to be owned by Australian Local Search until purchased News Corporation in 2005).
Updates are performed online and the site claims a 10 day confirmation – by phone for accuracy. Our experience is weeks not days, Yahoo!7 has both a “free listing” for primary data but additional information like trading hours, payments taken and tags lines, are all part of a “priority listing”.
Priority listings start from $63 per month for three categories, and one post code, maps are provided by Virtual Map.
- Lots of money and people
- Moves slowly.
True Local powers both Yahoo7 and Google! Go figure.
Their comparison for free to paid inclusion can be found here, as a partner with News Corp they offer “bundle arrangements” for both online and print advertising. Since the sale of Australian Local Search to News Corp in 2005, there appears to be significant cross promotions between the various media properties that News owns and this drives significant traffic to True Local.
- True Local’s maps are powered by Google!
- With News backing, lots of money
- Moves slowly
NineMSN trades as My Local and is powered by Acxiom. Maps are provided by MapData Sciences Pty Ltd, they have a cool feature that allows you to send the local contact information directly to your mobile phone but you must complete a free registration process.
They claim a free listing with updates in 20 business days.
- We are still waiting after 2 months, Hum….
- Lots of money but moves slowly
Sensis and its White and Yellow Pages properties are all based upon “old school” thinking, you can expand your listing by post codes and categories but all for a fee. Virtually no fees are shown on the site, you need to ask to talk to or see someone and the resultant costs are significant.
Maps are provided by the Sensis sister company Where Is. No surprise there.
The site claims a number #1 position for local search but uses 2005 research to support this claim, things have changed just a bit since 2005.
- Lots of money and asks for a lot too
- Lots of people as well
dLook is another site with a twist, they have the “Quote Me” system that allows a visitor to get 3 quotes from participating directory listings. Currently, there is no “mapping” feature but they suggest it will be coming soon.
dLook’s basic listing is, well, basic. Street and Phone number. That’s it.
A Premium listing with the Quote Me system is $488 per annum or $49.50 per month. Details – see here
dLook also allows paid directory participants to include discount coupons, another unique feature.
They also appear to be a privately held company, so I don’t know their financial strength position but they are innovative and quick to launch new features.
Hot Frog is owned and operated by the Reed Elsevier.
Big global money, they offer both a free listing, maintained by you, and a priority listing for $60 per month. Their media kit is here, they frequently show up in organic results but have minimal result information unless a paid listing is taken out.
- Big money, good automated system
- Responsive to quick updates
AussieWeb Local Search is a small privately held search company. (Editors Note, Monte own’s this company, just so now you know), it does not offer any premium or priority listings.
All listings are provided 100% free of charge, Aussieweb Local Search uses Google maps and is financially supported by Google AdSense, it offers most features of all other paid services, excepting the two unique features that dLook has, for no cost.
Quoted turn around time is 3 business days BUT since these are actually done and confirmed by people, it often takes a week. To save adding another entry to this narrative, AussieWeb Local Search powers www.PhoneBook.com.au and a subset of all the data in AussieWeb Local Search is available in Phone Book.
- AussieWeb has limited financial strength but has staff and is quick to innovate.
That that gives you a quick rundown on the Australian Local Search players – from one who is in the game.
So What? Well, more then half of these companies are BIG players, with multiple internet properties and lots of money. Some do not charge, like Google, NineMSN and AussieWeb, others charge a modest sum for a premium listing like Yahoo7, True Local, dLook and Hot Frog.
Then there is the BIG ask folks from the old media world who want lots of money to be in any of the Sensis properties.
I believe over time that big payments will dwindle, even many of the small payment systems may shrink or morph into a Pay Per Lead generation model.
What is important to know is that choice exists and it is best to have at least a free listing on all of these local search sites. Be careful what you pay for with Sensis.
The biggest challenge with Local search is that as much as 40% of the database can change in any one year.
That is a lot of updates to process and check for accuracy. At AussieWeb, we operate the site like a Wiki and so does Hot Frog, and to a lesser extent dLook and even Google, real time Wiki’s are fastest and that is what we will be moving to, once we have confirmation of the client’s identity and they have the authority to make changes.
I suspect this will be the norm in the near future, unless the lawyers get involved with responsibility and liabilities that scare the big players.
As for the future? It has got to be Local Search on your mobile devices, this is clearly when you most want and need local search.
If you have planned in advance, then the Microsoft ability to send local search data to your phone via SMS is very useful. But for the rest of us “spur of the moment” people, we will want to access local search from our mobile devices.
I’ll leave the next part of this discussion to the blog moderator Barry Smyth.
Thanks
Monte Huebsch CEO www.AussieWeb.com.au Local Search
(Note from Barry - Monte knows that mobile search is my hobby horse, more on that later on Search Week)
Web 2.0 and Search - Part 1, AJAX
By Scott Gledhill, Web Technology & Strategy, News Digital Media
In this three part series we will explore whether technology affects how search engines interact, crawl and index our websites. Let’s begin this series with technologies’ new kid on the block, AJAX.
What is it?
What AJAX actually does for us is take the traditional, slower use of full page server requests for web pages and replace this with many smaller multiple requests going on in the background, whilst a user is interacting with the page.
AJAX = Faster, more responsive web pages for the user.
Why we want to use AJAX
- HTML foundation, which is good for SEO
- Improve the user experience
- Convey information in a more complex, engaging way
Things we should know about AJAX
- Dynamically created content, which search engines can’t index
- Many programmers do not know how to build SEO friendly interfaces
First ask yourself, can you build the web page you desire without the use of AJAX? Some pages do not require AJAX to achieve the desired result of some clients; this must be addressed before building the website.
If you do need to use AJAX, then you should start to think about the following.
A methodology of building websites in layers that allows more users to access the essential information of the website, adding layers of presentation and behaviour if the browser or device is capable of adding such functionality.
- HTML: Content Layer, essential information that can be accessed by search engines.
- CSS: Presentation Layer, the look and feel of your document.
- AJAX: Behavior Layer, the interactivity and fun bit of your document.
Finally, you should only use AJAX sparingly to enhance the website. Small enhancements means keeping content exposed to users and search engines, while introducing usability improvements only when necessary.
Conclusion
AJAX can increase usability, speed of your websites and encourage repeat visitors. This can all backfire if your content is hidden within AJAX, and your website is not indexed or found through organic search.
To ensure your AJAX applications are findable:
- know the disadvantages of AJAX
- educate your developers
- know and practice progressive enhancement
- use AJAX in small bits
- content is important, do not hide it from search engines
See you with the next installment.
Scott
Getting the most out of Landing Pages
By Monte Huebsch, Managing Director - Aussieweb.com.au
When we speak of landing pages we are not talking about specific web pages “tuned” to keywords with optimisation to hopefully be index in the organic listings in Google. What we are talking about is a specific page created that is the landing URL of a Google AdWords Pay Per Click (PPC) ad. In fact, the URL for the landing page is most likely not the URL of the company web site but more on that during the seminars.
One needs to embrace the difference between a web page that is part of a corporate web site and the landing page from an AdWords ad.
A web site and its pages must represent the whole company and all its stakeholders. Common elements include:
- About Us
- Our Products
- Our services
- Investor information
- Contact Us
- Support
- Privacy statement
- Terms and Conditions
- Copyright
- What is new
- Newsletter sign up and, now
- Blogs
- Podcasts and even video
You have all seen these and you know what I mean. These sites serve the company, prospects, clients, suppliers and investors. Many audiences and lots of content.
Land pages, by contrast, need to respond to only one thing. What the searcher is looking for. Unless they are looking for your company – by name, what they are after is usually very specific, and so should the landing page.
Key elements of successful landing pages are:
- Limited navigation
- A direct reflection of the search term
- A bold and clear “call to action”. Usually a form to email that has limited fields BUT asks for contact details of Name, Email address and Phone number
- Search term related pictures, audio and text to capture all of the NLP learning styles
- A link to the company web site
- An offer that is a real exchange of value for the requested call to action
While the objective of the company web sites is multiple and varied, the landing page is specific and focused. Its goal is to get contact details for proactive outbound marketing and take visitors to an appropriate follow up area of the company web site.
You can view samples of successful landing page for a wide range of industries and products/services here
Enjoy
Monte Huebsch CEO
monte at AussieWeb.com.au
07 3216 1001
Understanding the Increasingly Sophisticated Search Marketer
By Kevin Heisler, Analyst - Jupiter Research
The US search market has continued its strong growth during the past year, but marketers are still struggling to maximize return on investment (ROI) as the landscape matures and competing search marketers increase in sophistication.
In fact this problem is the result of a strong and competitive marketplace, as it is true that in 2006, search marketing had come of age. For instance, as a focus of business it now has mind share among senior executives with advertisers reporting over 40% of chief executive officers receive regular reports on search marketing campaigns, surpassing even directors of marketing as the most frequent recipients of reports.
These signs of an increasingly competitive landscape fueled the zero-sum game of search advertising that has made advertisers dissatisfied. Rising keyword prices plague about two-thirds of overall marketers, while effective tracking and complex campaign management across multiple engines exasperate over 40% of overall advertisers.
Consequently concerns about ROI are surfacing and just like bad old traditional advertising the extra competition isn’t making it easier to get back the returns of previous years. The rising dissatisfaction with ROI has not stripped all value from search marketing as advertisers overwhelmingly (over 85%) still say search marketing delivers results.
To beat the competition in these circumstances, the vast majority of marketers will increase spending in 2007, with more than half of marketers in companies with annual revenues of USD $50 million or more planning double-digit percentage increases in search marketing budgets.
An astounding 26% of advertisers in these companies plan to increase spending by more than 25% in 2007, while nearly a third plan to double their spending. In this environment, expect a lot more hassled executives trying to achieve more effective campaigns.
(Note: This is a key extract from a 22 page report)
About the Jupiter SEM Executive Survey: In February 2007, JupiterResearch conducted a formal survey of search marketers and agencies. Respondents were screened by familiarity with their company’s search marketing efforts and involvement with marketing their company’s products or those of clients. A total of 794 qualified search marketers and 272 qualified search agencies completed the survey.
For further information about this report and other Jupiter Research,
please contact Corporate Market Intelligence, exclusive distributors of Jupiter Research.
Guy Cranswick - guy at cmintelligence.com.au 0425 230 983
Whilst this is a US based report, I would like to find out the opinions of the Australian Industry to this, do we feel the same pain? I think we do, please feel free to post your thoughts to this contribution below.
Do those little blue ads down the right hand side work?
By Fred Schebesta, Director - Freestyle Media
Google search marketing it very alluring when you first look at it but if you jump straight in people normally experience some of the following problems.
1. Lots of clicks, but No sales, is it working?
Yes, Search engine marketing is designed to get traffic and clicks to your website. It has no other purpose. You cannot make a sale from one of those little ads, even if you include your phone number in the ad itself. Your website is the one that needs to make the sales – that’s its job. If your website isn’t making any sales from the search engine marketing traffic you are driving to it, then you need to fix your website not your search engine marketing.
2. Paying too much for clicks, is it working?
No, Your search engine marketing’s performance should be judged on its ability to get a high click through rate and maintain a competitive cost per click. If you are paying too much for your overall campaign clicks then you need to buy some more niche keywords in the longer tail of search. E.g. Buy the keyword “Toyota Corolla 1998 used car” as opposed to “used car”.
3. I can’t get my ads listed, is it working?
Yes it’s working but you need to bid higher. Normally you will actually find your ad in the “Other Sponsored Links” section.
More sponsored links will show you your ads if they aren’t in the top 10.
4. Does anyone click on the ads down the side?
Yes, I have some clients which bid in at the 6th and 7th position and they still make sales and clicks. It’s important to realise that not everyone searching for a particular item types in the same keyword. People searching for mobile phones might type in “Cellular phones”, “Handy”. Also people who are looking for used mobile phones might still start by searching with the keyword “Mobile phone”. If your ad appears lower down the rank but is targeted towards them, you will get the click.
Do you agree or disagree? Voice your opinion at Search Week below, comments are turned so feel free to post your views about Fred’s contribution, be nice and keep it professional.
See you next week!
Forget web site principles when building a landing page!
By Monte Huebsch, Managing Director - Aussieweb.com.au
How can I or anyone else make such an audacious statement?
Well let’s look at the facts:
- Your web site presents your whole company, and as such is very broad in content. It often includes things like, About Us, Our Services, Our Products, News, Our People, and Contact Us. You get the point.
- Your web site often has 2nd or even 3rd tier navigation to direct people to the wide range of information that needs to be available across your company and its goods and services.
- Your web site will have different “calls to action”, if any, depending on the page content.
- Your web site purpose will most likely try and cover: information dissemination, customer service, sales, lead generation, public relations, blogs etc.
- Due to the various audiences and purposes of a web site, ROI is hard to measure.
- Complex sites make testing a challenging activity.
The skills need to create successful web sites include not only sound SEO principles but graphic design ability, usability knowledge and experience, programming skills, content creation and the rest.
Now – let’s look at the purpose and structure of a landing page:
- A landing page is where someone who has been searching in a search engine goes after they click on your Pay Per Click (PPC) ad.
- They want extremely deep and focused information, with little or no clutter.
- You paid to get them there so there is a strong “call to action”.
- Navigation is limited to reduce choice and increase “action”.
- Scrolling is limited or non existent.
- You must get an email address or phone number to be successful.
- You need to have a clear “exchange of value” for the contact details.
- Your key phrase selection and PPC ads are all directed at a defined and measurable outcome.
- ROI is easily tracked.
- Testing is simple.
So you see, land pages are narrow and focused, based on satisfying both the needs and wants of a web surfer and PPC ad “clicker”, while also giving a positive ROI for an action requested on a landing page.
Web sites, often by necessity, must be general, company wide and yield less measurable and quantifiable results.
Both a web site and a landing page have a valuable purpose, but the skills required to build them, their appearances and underlying purposes are very different.
Search Week is coming soon
Search Week is a new Australasian thought leadership platform for the Search Marketing industry, giving a wide range of contributors an opportunity to share ideas, thoughts, rants or anything else they feel is worthwhile sharing about this fast moving industry.
You will hear from some of the Australasian Search industries most respected practitioners & from time to time we will have International guest contributors.
Search Week will be a combination of an email based weekly newsletter + this blog.
Search Week is not an advertorial platform - so dont expect to see PR based stories or headlines you have seen elsewhere, it will be 100% original material.
If you would like to contribute please send an abstract of what you would like to contribute to barry at searchstrategies.com.au
