Obviously this will have a major impact on  many companies' decisions involving Hispanic website localization and translation into Spanish for online marketing materials. But the issues are more complex, as U.S. Hispanics represent a swiftly changing demographic, where the English language is gaining strength, yet Latino branding and identity holds sway.

A return to a market with "traditional values?"

A recent article in Advertising Age speculates that one of the most remarkable aspects of U.S. Hispanic consumers is how closely they resemble the idealized "nuclear family" image of the 1950s. Hispanics are young, with a median age equivalent to that of the general populace in the USA in the 1950s, and are more inclined than the rest of the population to live in large, traditional, married-with-children families with lots of participation from grandparents.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanics are more likely to eat family meals at home and spend less on alcohol. Like the nuclear families of the 1950s, Hispanics are moving to the suburbs, tend to be community-oriented and have high aspirations for their children. This presents potential for a growing and strong market for the same consumer goods and services that the nation consumed as a whole when baby boomers were young. Ironically the highly strategic Hispanic market is gaining significant strength just as baby boomers are moving into retirement.

Hispanics make up a changing, youthful market segment

Hispanics will likely account for a boost in consumer spending as baby boomers begin moving into retirement in large numbers around 2015. Over one third of Hispanics are children under 18 years of age, and 91% of Hispanic children were born in the USA. In contrast, only 47% of Hispanic adults were born in the U.S., which has great implications on how Hispanics overall will acculturate. Youthful, U.S.-born Hispanics typically attend public schools, rapidly gaining English language skills and adapting to U.S. culture more quickly than their parents did.

Over the next 10 years, as millions of bilingual Hispanic teens come of age and enter the workforce as young adults, their consumer behavior is likely to move closer to that of other non-Hispanic young adults. The large size and heavy geographic concentration of this segment of the Hispanic population makes it likely that Hispanic culture will remain strong, even among U.S.-born children.

Language and cultural branding issues

One of the biggest challenges for online marketing professionals is how to reach young, acculturated bilingual Hispanics, who choose products differently than their parents (who didn't grow up in the USA) and don't spend as much time with Spanish-language media.

Yet, young bilingual Hispanics still feel a deep sense of Latino identity. The message? Even English-only campaigns aimed at this group will need carefully selected Latino branding, icons and psychographics for years to come.

The English language is making gains as the language that U.S. Hispanics are most comfortable speaking. Recent research reveals that 27% of Hispanics are most comfortable speaking the English language with another 17% comfortable in both the English language and the Spanish language. This means that 44% of the demographic (nearly half) is currently at ease in English. As the large, youthful portion of this consumer segment, born in the USA, reaches maturity, preference for and comfort with English will only increase.

Who are Hispanics and what kind of Spanish language do they speak?

GPI has previously written about this topic in our blog "Why You Need a Localized Website for the U.S. Hispanic Market." Although the majority of U.S. Hispanics identify with Mexico for ethnic origin, a large portion identify with ten other countries that extend as far south as Colombia and Peru. Our previous blog covers specifics about primary cultural values and factors in consumer decision-making that are predominant in the U.S. Hispanic market. The same blog also covers how to translate to a "universal" form of Spanish that works for Hispanics from different countries.

Why will Hispanic identity and Latino values persist?

Globalization has created a connection to countries of origin for immigrants in the USA that was impossible in any previous period of history. Immigrants from all parts of the world are now able to maintain unbroken communication with family and friends in their place of origin via Skype, inexpensive Internet connections, even affordable mobile phone calling plans. Thanks to recent economic downturns, international airfares have never been more affordable.

Satellite and cable TV frequently provide channels devoted to home-country languages and culture. These affordable means of communication and cultural contact are having a transformative impact on U.S. culture; note the global cues in fast-evolving domestic trends in fashion, food and music. For example, look at the impact India's Bollywood-style musicals have had on mainstream music videos.

Hispanic demographic is geographically concentrated

Latino values and Hispanic consumer preferences are also reinforced by the fact that this domestic consumer market is highly concentrated in a few regions of the country. Over 50% of U.S. Hispanics reside in California and Texas. In fact, state-level research in California indicated 3 years ago that Hispanics made up one third of that state's population and are expected to become a majority in California by 2042. The other six states with more than one million Hispanics are Florida, New York, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey and Colorado.

This is actually a benefit to those companies targeting the domestic Hispanic market with traditional media, as print advertising and broadcast time can be purchased on a selective, regional basis with maximum impact. Hispanics are a more lucrative target market than many other, more geographically scattered ethnic groups.

Youthful Hispanic population has large households

On average, the Hispanic population is 10 years younger than the general population of non-Hispanics. The U.S. Hispanic median age is just under 28 years old; 75% of adult Hispanics are age 18-49 compared to 56% of non-Hispanics.

Hispanics boast the largest household size of any population segment in the USA. The average Hispanic family has 4.0 members compared with 2.9 members in the average white, non-Hispanic family. Only 4% of adult Hispanics live alone compared to 15% of white non-Hispanics.

Positive impact of Hispanic consumers on the U.S. economy

As mentioned before, in the middle of this decade millions of baby boomers will begin moving into retirement. That means that this traditionally lucrative market segment will be substantially reducing its consumer spending. At the same time, a large portion of the youthful Hispanic population will be coming of age, entering the workforce and the marketplace. Hispanic consumers will play a key role in replacing retiring baby boomers in the consumer marketplace and will contribute to a potential upswing in retail spending and economic growth.

Take-away message

Over the next 15 years, the importance of domestic websites in Spanish may decrease somewhat. However, globalization and the high concentration of Hispanics in certain regions of the country will reinforce Latino identity for generations to come, requiring skillful branding and Hispanic website imagery that appeals to these highly strategic consumers.

Further resources on U.S. Hispanic website localization

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for U.S. Hispanic consumers in two white papers: Website Globalization and E-Business U.S. Hispanic Market and Website Globalization and E-Business U.S. Hispanic Market - In Depth are available in PDF format via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about the U.S. Hispanic market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary localization quote for your project as well.

Website localization services can be provided under a multitude of client-driven workflows, from directly interacting with and inputting translations into your CMS to receiving content that has been exported to XML or other formats for a company to localize and return. Optimum website localization workflows are CMS-dependent and Ektron's Content Management System (CMS) has moved beyond mere content management to providing a full web content localization solution. The latest updates to Ektron's products include powerful tools and support for web content management, localization/translation management, and the workflow to tie these processes together.

Get the basics right for your Multilingual CMS

Web content management software systems developed to support multilingual websites have emerged as a must solution for managing sites destined for different languages. A global Web content management system is the "engine" behind a successful site, enabling authoring, organization, publishing, and versioning of Web content - all in multiple languages. Indeed, such systems have emerged as sources for all the features and tools that websites require today to deliver a truly interactive online experience for website visitors and customers worldwide.

Why do so many global companies fail to consider a multilingual website?

• Many website owners fail to fully recognize the opportunity to use the Web as a multilingual platform to expand their reach into global markets.
• Others see the opportunity but are limited by conventional thinking, assuming that running multilingual websites is beyond their reach.
• Unnecessary fears of project cost, complexity, or both, keeps some users from moving into vital global markets via a multilingual website.

A Multilingual Web Development Strategy with a CMS designed to support localization

If your source-language website is well designed and is operating efficiently, it is much easier to transform it into a multilingual website. Start with a clear set of goals:

• Identify your global business goals.
• Identify the languages you want to support.
• Identify the market or region you want to support.
• Identify the technology to manage your website.
• Identify the localization and web development service provider who can provide the localization or globalization services for your global website.
• Ensure that the software solution supports the XLIFF standard to facilitate content exchange between different localization service providers.

Going beyond "just website content"

Ektron's CMS solution goes far beyond just managing website content: it provides tools to manage all elements of a multilingual website presence and also ensures a great customer experience. This includes calendars, metadata, menus and forms, as well as "traditional" content, such as product information data, marketing messages, brand information and news. You can produce far more efficient and effective results for your multilingual website experience by adopting a Web content management system designed to be a single point of control with complete integration, one interface and a logical approach to versioning and publishing multilingual sites.

Ektron CMS facilitates content localization in several ways:

• The ability to create and manage additional aspects of a multilingual Web site, including language-specific metadata, content collections, search functionality, list summaries, navigation elements and multilingual forms, which are unique for every language presented on a website.
• Built-in support of XLIFF, an XML-based standard for content localization. Content experts can create web content, transform it into an XLIFF file, send it out for translation, and receive a translated file that can be uploaded, managed and published using Ektron's CMS.
• A built-in machine translation (MT) tool. Although machine translation by itself does not provide acceptable quality for most projects, (unless the user has a huge database of strings and content authored under very strict rules), MT can be useful to get a "ballpark" idea of how much text expansion may occur in some target languages.

How XLIFF improves workflow within website CMS

XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) is a format used to exchange localization data between participants in a translation project. This standards-based format (specified by OASIS) enables translators to concentrate on the text to be translated, without worrying about text layout. The XLIFF standard is supported by a large group of localization service providers and localization tools providers.

XLIFF also enables automation at the end of the file exchange cycle: localized files can be automatically uploaded back into the website via the CMS, routed through language-specific approval chains, and published.

How the CMS acts as a gateway for Language Service Providers (LSPs)

An Ektron website content management system designed to support multilingual websites is a bridge which allows services to flow between customers who own a website and the service providers who deliver localization and globalization services. Ektron's CMS eliminates barriers to the work getting done, helps website owners expose more of their content to translation and localization work and helps service providers conduct Web-based work more quickly than before.

Take-away thought

In short, in today's global economy, you need a CMS that manages more than standard source language content. You need a CMS that also manages critical elements for translation and is tightly integrated into the entire localization process. Look for our next blog on Ektron and Website Localization detailing workflows and multilingual site management.

Further GPI Resources on Ektron, CMS and Website Development

GPI is a certified Ektron Partner and has a number of case studies and presentations regarding Ektron and scalable website development posted on its own website and across the Internet. You may find some of the following articles and links useful:

• Montana World Trade Center (case study)
• Eco Expo (case study)
• http://www.ektron.com/
• Montana World Trade Center: Website Globalization through the Ektron Platform
• CMS driven Globalized WebSite Project (slideshare presentation)
• Multilingual Website Design, Development and Deployment
• GPI achieves certified partner status
• Website Translation, Website Localization and Website Internationalization
• 12 Steps to Website Globalization

Further Information on Localization Resources

Globalization Partners International (GPI) frequently assists customers with multilingual website design, development and deployment. GPI has developed a suite of globalization tools to help you achieve your multilingual project goals. You can explore them under the Tools sections of our website. GPI also offers globalization consulting services and internationalization, and can evaluate your application. Consider partnering with GPI prior to localizing or translating your application: this will help you avoid many mistakes and save considerable time and money on your localization projects.

Contact GPI for more information via e-mail at info@globalizationpartners.com, by phone at (866) 272-5874, or by requesting a free web development and web localization quote on your project.

German Online Market Statistics

• Population of 82 million highly educated people.
• The German online population has shown steady growth with e-commerce, exceeding $20 billion in sales.
• Germany is the second largest Internet and broadband market in Europe. Broadband penetration is projected to include nearly 50% of all households by the end of 2010.

1 - The German Online Consumer

Familiarity:

• 43% of non-frequent shoppers and 57% of frequent shoppers go straight to price-comparison portals.

Security:

• 77% of German online shoppers have security concerns about retailers with whom they have never transacted business.
• 75% of German online shoppers do not like unknown payment methods.
• 75% of German online shoppers will not proceed with their purchase if security information is not posted.

2 - German Consumer Values

• Loyalty: German consumers are usually inclined to buy from "German" online retailers. A German domain (e.g. "website.de") can be highly influential for a website presence in the German online marketplace.
• Gender Differences: A Postbank report revealed that February is the busiest online shopping month for German male online users while September is the busiest month for German female online users.
• Payment Options: German online users prefer to pay for online transactions with electronic direct debit rather than credit cards; 60% of all German online purchases are paid in this manner.

3 - German Consumer Purchase Decisions

• Time: Germans tend to be very time sensitive and operate in time-energy conserving mode.
• Most active shopping hours: German online shoppers make nearly one-quarter of all purchases during their business lunch breaks, from noon to 2 PM.
• Gender-and-Age Differences: German men and younger Germans of both sexes are much more likely to use online auction sites than other German consumers.

4 - Types of Online German Consumers

• Impulsive Consumers: These German online consumers tend to be indifferent to brand, shopping experience and product differences.
• Hedonistic German Consumers: This type of German consumer tends to be driven by emotion and confusion based on "too many choices".
• Shopping Enthusiasts: These German consumers are interested in shopping for new products and new experiences.

5 - The German Language

German is a West Germanic language and a member of the Indo-European language family, spoken by more than 120 million people worldwide in 38 countries. (Wikipedia.org). The primary countries in which the German language is spoken are Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol province of Italy and parts of Belgium.

In addition to the 26 standard Latin alphabet characters, the German language also uses diacritics or marks placed above characters like o and a, which are used to stress a syllable or alter its pronunciation. All diacritics are included in the ISO 8859-1 and Windows 1252 character sets. German has three vowels with Umlaut, ä, ö, and ü. In addition, German uses the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp "s") ß. (Wikipedia.org)

6 - German Cultural Correctness and Web Customization

• Individualism: A critical element in German website localization is a focus on German values of self-reliance, achievement, independence and individual freedom. Autonomy, competition, and non-conformity are also cherished in the German culture.
• Respect: German websites can be customized for this value by highlighting awards, the company's mission statement and corporate values.
• Masculinity: German website localization is more effective when masculine values are emphasized. Use text and design elements that emphasize achievement, strength, material wealth and success, or highlight your product's durability and its prominent or differentiating features.
• Risk Avoidance: Clear navigation tools and a secured site for online transactions help eliminate online user uncertainty. Effective German website localization results in websites which display German text with claims like, "Buy without Risk", "Many payment options", "Free returns" and "Data protection".
• Low Context: You can further optimize your German website localization projects by crafting websites with symmetry, website colors and design that is clean, concise and logical. This style is highly favored by German online consumers.

7 - Color and Images Appropriate for German Website Localization

The German culture is centuries old and quite diverse due to the varied and turbulent history of the German-speaking communities. It is important to be aware of cultural sensitivities to avoid blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols. In Germany certain colors carry specific meaning and symbolize aspects of German culture:

• Blue: Considered the color of loyalty and formality. For example, German government letters are traditionally mailed in blue envelopes.
• Black: The color of grief, death, hopelessness, as well as formality.
• Green: The color of hope and conservation. A good example of the use of green, is the name of the German political party, "Die Grünen" (The Greens). It was formed in the late 1970's by environmentalists and peace activists.

8 - German SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

The key to promoting a website internationally is to create localized content and keywords, register local domains and then promote through local search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and promotions. DENIC is the central registry for all domains under the top level domain.de. In June 2006, they processed the ten millionth application for .de domain, making it the second top level domain, after .com to have ten million users which is a major hurdle. (www.denic.de)

The DENIC is also offering Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), which are domains that can potentially contain non-ASCII characters. This IDN standard not only permits the German umlaut or diacritic, but also a total of 92 additional characters that range from the French é to the Danish Ø, which are now included in .de-domains. Unfortunately, the German ß are not included in this IDN standard.

Internet and Search Engine Marketing in Germany

According to Markus Hoenever from Bloofusion Group, the top Pay Per Click (PPC) Search Engines in German are:

• Google AdWords
• Overture Germany
• Espotting
• QualiGo
• Morango Deutschland

Top Search Engines in Germany

According to Markus Hoenever from Bloofusion Group, the top search engines in the German language are:

• Acoon
• AltaVista
• Fireball
• Freenet.de
• Google
• Lycos
• MSN
• Witch
• Yahoo! Deutschland

For more information on Global SEM Services, see GPI's SEM Services webpage on Global Search Engine Marketing.

Use German SEO and German SEM for Optimal Results

When preparing for German website localization, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues specific to the German web and online market. German keyword list localization is a very different process from standard German Technical Translations.  Ensure that your SEM and/or localization agency has the necessary experience to perform this service, so they can provide you with appropriate German keyword localization. This will ensure that your German website localization optimizes your content for German search engines and German SERPs to produce maximum results and high ranking in this strategic market.

This blog touches on the more important aspects of German website localization. You can download a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business Germany, which was created by Globalization Partners International, to give you a complete list of steps and best practices for optimal results with German online users. To obtain answers specific to your questions and project goals, contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874. You may also fill out our online form to get a complimentary Localization Quote.

Many veteran FrameMaker users continue to use older FrameMaker Versions because they have become accustomed to the traditional user interface and common workarounds for features that are included in newer versions. Unfortunately, translation projects and document localization that must be delivered in FrameMaker 7.2 format will cost considerably more than projects done in FrameMaker 8 or FrameMaker 9.0. There are an array of time and cost-saving features in FrameMaker 9 that tremendously benefit the translation and localization Desktop Publishing process. This blog outlines most of these benefits.

Why Translators prefer FrameMaker 9.0

FrameMaker 9.0 combines the UNICODE support of FrameMaker 8.0 with several other notable improvements. The list below covers the top 7 reasons for upgrading to FrameMaker 9 from FrameMaker 8 and lower versions from a Translator's and multilingual Desktop Publisher's perspective:

1 - Unicode characters available in all menus

Index markers, cross references, any embedded metadata can contain Unicode characters. If your FrameMaker 9 documents are translated into Russian, all of your index marker text will be translated and will properly display in Cyrillic characters. This eliminates considerable workarounds employed in older releases of FrameMaker, wherein proper character sets did not display nor edit properly in many FrameMaker menus.

2 - PDF bookmarks will display properly in all characters

Prior to UNICODE support, FrameMaker would display headlines properly in most extended character sets (e.g. Greek or Cyrillic), but PDF output from FrameMaker 7.x would display PDF bookmarks as "garbage" characters. The workaround for non-supported language PDF bookmarks in FrameMaker 7.x was to manually copy/paste the correct characters from body text headlines into the PDF bookmarks. This was a time-consuming, costly procedure that added to more billable post-translation DTP project time.

3 - Manage imported Graphics at a glance

The new FrameMaker 9 "pods" which appear at the bottom of the workspace can display graphics from a current document, or from all open documents. Referenced graphics (artwork external to the documents) will display with a full pathname. If any graphics were imported from the wrong source directory, their incorrect paths will be visually obvious compared to correct pathnames, as in the screen capture below. This one feature saves hours in format proofing and corrective action common to multilingual FrameMaker projects with extensive graphics assets.

4 - Swiftly locate and fix broken FrameMaker cross-references

In the translation process it is possible for cross reference source markers to be deleted or modified, which can lead to a broken cross reference. In earlier versions of FrameMaker, the DTP specialist had to manually search for "unresolved cross references", one at a time and the re-link the cross-reference (xref) to the source paragraph. The new Cross-References pod shows all cross references, and broken or unresolved cross references are marked in red, as seen in the screen capture below. This gives post-translation publishers a single "at-a-glance" view of all references, with tools to fix unresolved instances in a fraction of the time.

5 - Custom workspaces

Customers or translation agency DTP specialists can rearrange and dock menus required for specific tasks common to multilingual projects, and save the arrangement as a "named" workspace. In addition, documents as well as menus can be "torn" and pulled out of the workspace. This is particularly useful for publishing environments where two screens are used, one for (a) source English go-by documents and another for (b) target language documents.

6 - Support for Processing instructions for DITA

If the customer has upgraded to DITA/XML (as we all should eventually), FrameMaker 9 makes publishing even less painless. Processing instructions and other enhancements may be used with attribute values (e.g. language = Dutch) to make specific things happen. For instance, a language attribute in a document may trigger special formatting rules in the document's EDD to cause a different, language-specific paragraph (with French text for "Figure" paragraph prefix) to automatically be applied to the specific elements.

This ability to automate many common formatting tasks required in document translation (a) eliminates the possibility of making a mistake (b) reduces format proofing time and (c) ensures more consistent results.

Note: Globalization Partners International has comprehensive experience in desktop publishing and document translation with Adobe products which has helped several customers migrate from unstructured FrameMaker to structured FrameMaker with DITA/XML document structure. Customer have noted up to 65% savings in various project time and costs due to the many efficiencies associated with DITA and XML. Watch for further updates on FrameMaker tips and tricks in our Translation Blog and Case Studies in the near future.

7 - Reduced training and learning curve

Because the user interface for FrameMaker 9 is more logical than older versions (and similar to other popular Adobe products), the learning curve with FrameMaker has been considerably reduced. This is especially useful for high page-count projects which are only translated or published once or twice a year. Such projects often require additional, temporary DTP staff, who may not use FrameMaker all year round. The new logical workspaces and enhanced user interface combine to make FrameMaker more accessible, especially when using structured FrameMaker.

More resources regarding FrameMaker and multilingual DTP

Globalization Partners International has extensive experience translating unstructured and structured FrameMaker projects. You may wish to review common steps in GPI DTP projects in Multilingual Desktop Publishing. We also have published two previous blogs about FrameMaker, 10 FrameMaker mistakes in translated docs: Part 1 and 10 FrameMaker mistakes in translated docs: Part 2.

You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about FrameMaker and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

While 220 million Arabic-speaking people span over 20 countries, recent studies have indicated that less than 1% of worldwide Internet content is in the Arabic language, in contrast to 5% of the world population that speaks Arabic.

Arabic Language a high priority with Google and Microsoft.

Both Google and Microsoft have placed Arabic in their top ten languages that need prioritized attention. Four years ago, Microsoft released a Windows extension, Maren, which converts Arabic written in Roman characters into Arabic script. It is Microsoft's second most popular service by page views after Internet Explorer 8 (Reuters, April 24, 2010).  In April of this year, Google's regional marketing manager, Wael Ghonim, said "One of our biggest missions is to enable Arabic users to find the right tools to enrich Arabic content. It would be great to see more e-commerce in the region, more publishers, more news sites. We are committed to help them." (Reuters).

Arabic Translation initiatives achieving great strides in producing more Arabic Literature.

In Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates a major cultural and commercial translation and publishing initiative was started in 2007 called Kalima. This initiative was launched by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage, which funds the translation, publication and distribution of high quality foreign writing into Arabic. Every year Kalima will select 100 candidate titles of classic, contemporary and modern writing from around the world to be translated into Arabic.  Kalima will also support marketing and distribution initiatives by opening up new distribution channels and promote the Arabic book industry on the international stage by investing in translation as a profession. Read more about why Kalima was created.

Increasing on-line access in the Arabic-speaking world

The first domain names written in the right-to-left Arabic script were registered in Egypt and Saudi Arabia late last year. The global Internet regulator, ICANN, voted to allow non-Latin script to be used in web addresses in November of last year.

Internet access is becoming more affordable in Egypt where the use of Internet on mobile devices is booming. Egypt is planning a $1 billion upgrade to its broadband capabilities over the next 4 years; this will quadruple Internet penetration to 20% of the population.

Increased global awareness of the importance of on-line Arabic language content

Until recently, most international companies in the Arabic region and elsewhere had their websites, marketing materials and tech manuals in the English language, not the Arabic language. International firms now realize that they must provide Arabic content and localize their on-line content and e-Commerce websites into the Arabic language in order to be successful in this vast and rich marketplace:

1. The majority of Arabic-speaking people are not fluent in the English language.
2. Arabic culture is significantly different from western or Asian culture; professional localization services and copy writing are needed to address the needs of consumers from this historically rich culture.
3. The proliferation of handheld Internet capable devices has made companies realize that they must communicate with consumers in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) in their native, Arabic language.

Arabic Translation and Localization Challenges

• Very little modern scientific or technical writing originated in Arabic, which creates a shortage of equivalent terminology. While it is not easy to express some computing or technical terms in the Arabic language, a qualified linguist can create custom Arabic terms that accurately express the exact meanings of the source language terms.
• Many technical terms are translated into the Arabic language through transliteration, or "coining a phrase". This practice makes it challenging to find standards for technical terms commonly used in English.
• Arabic is a very rich language in term of dialects, accents, registers and styles. Variations in Arabic dialects were influenced by historic and geographic factors. For this reason, it is critical to identify the regional locale of your target audience.
• Arabic is a highly expressive language, with many alternate ways to express a message. Machine translation and "cheap" linguistic resources do not work well with this language.
• The Arabic Language is Right-to-Left (RTL), which will affect page layout and website user interface. For instance the order of table columns must reverse, marginal graphics will "flip", changing places with the accompanying text.
• Arabic DTP (Desktop Publishing) is more labor intensive, as manuals, brochures and flyers required reversed page order. In some cases, photos and images may have elements that direct the readers attention towards the outer edge of the page instead of towards the spine of the book. Alternate photos and images may be required, along with the services of highly professional Arabic Desktop Publishing specialists and graphic designers.
• Although the Arabic Language is RTL, it is also bi-directional (BiDi), which means that numbers and words in Latin based characters will display Left-to-Right (LTR).
• There is still a shortage of professional Arabic linguists who have access to the required linguistic computing environment and Translation Memory (TM) tools. This is a compelling reason to work with a translation/localization partner who frequently works with Arabic language projects.
• Websites or software that perform e-Commerce transactions have additional user interface requirements in Arabic: contextual analysis, rendering and shaping, alternative numeric display, Hijri dates, character extenders for justified text, neutral characters, etc. This is one more reason that it is critical that your Arabic project translation/localization partner must have extensive experience working with Arabic localization.

Further Resources on Arabic Localization, Arabic Globalization and Arabic SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Globalization Partners International (GPI) has extensive experience localizing marketing materials, technical documents, and large, scalable websites into the Arabic language. Due to increased demand for projects in Arabic and other BiDi languages, like Farsi, for projects aimed at consumers in the MENA region, GPI has recently expanded its facility in Dubai: "GPI expands its office in Dubai (UAE)".

We have previously posted a number of useful guides to best practices in this area. Feel free to review two of our previous blogs that are particularly relevant:

• Arabic SEO and Localization
• Arabic Website Localization for the UAE

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for Arabic-speaking consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business United Arab Emirates, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

Website translation is also known as "Website Globalization". In order to "translate" a website into other languages you may need both Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10N) services.

What is Website Globalization?

Internationalization (I18N) involves enabling the backend of a website to handle different languages, character sets, currencies, submit form data, site search capabilities, etc., and involves understanding what database and Content Management Systems you are using to author, store and publish your website's content. Many recent versions of databases (DB) and Content Management Systems (CMS) already support website Internationalization or are enabled for other languages.

Localization (L10N) involves translating and localizing the front end of your website into different languages ensuring all content (text and graphics) is translated in an accurate and culturally correct manner. Website localization involves website translation that is appropriate to the specific locale of your target audience, for instance the Brazilian Portuguese language in contrast to the continental Portuguese language.

Whether you are trying to launch a multilingual website in order to expand the markets for your products and services, or you are trying to increase your company's global operational efficiencies by developing multilingual extranets and intranets, Website Globalization is a requirement to make either a reality. In order to enable your web presence to communicate, conduct and complete international e-commerce, you need to translate (globalize) your website.

Each client's needs are somewhat unique and there are a variety of factors that can influence resources and costs involved in a complex website globalization project.

GPI's Website Internationalization Methodology

GPI's Internationalization (I18N) Methodology may include the following 4 steps:

1. Discovery
2. Assessment
3. Implementation
4. Testing

Each GPI client is assigned a Globalization Services Team (GST) based on the information collected through the Discovery process. The information collected in this first step is critical to ensure each GPI team member selected has the required expertise to not only complete the I18N work, but also to transfer the required knowledge and skills to your in-house development teams. All clients are given the opportunity to review their GST members' credentials and interview them.

To get started, provide GPI with a copy of your Internationalization Kit, which should consist of:

1. Your website(s) URL
2. Any passwords or login instructions
3. Summary of website architecture
4. Summary of any technologies and/or development tools used to develop your website
5. Contact information for your development team who will participate in the globalization process
6. Contact information for your marketing team who will participate in the globalization process
7. Any source code for your website or web-driven application

GPI's Website Localization Methodology

GPI's website localization process may include the following steps:

1. Review, Analysis and Preparation of Client's Source Files
2. Project Kick-Off Confirming Scope, Schedule and Teams
3. Web Authoring and Publishing Workflow Review
4. Subject Matter Training and Research
5. Glossary and Style Guide Development
6. Cultural Correctness Assessment
7. Search Engine Optimization and Global Search Engine Marketing
8. Translation, Editing and Proofreading of All Content
9. Web Graphics Localization
10. Multilingual Desktop Publishing for downloadable Language Version Documentation
11. Localization of Multimedia (e.g. Audio/Video Translation)
12. Draft Delivery to Client
13. Basic Online QA & Testing
14. Final Edits, Translation Memory Updates, and Archiving of Files

To get started, provide GPI with a copy of your Localization Kit, which should consist of:

1. Your website(s) URL
2. Any passwords or login instructions
3. Summary of website architecture
4. Summary of any technologies and/or development tools used to develop your website
5. Information re: Content Management System (CMS) used to author, store and publish content
6. All files that make up your website in their original folder/file structure if applicable
7. All original graphics used in your website (artwork, background, navigation buttons)
8. All application source files (Word, FrameMaker, Quark, etc.) for any documentation available via your website
9. All application source files (Flash, etc.) for any multimedia available via your website
10. A list (if available) of all files that need to be translated

Additional Resources on Website Globalization

To further understand the process of properly developing websites from scratch with globalization in mind, read our web page on Multilingual Website Design, Development and Deployment. You may also wish to review over recommended best practices for website globalization in our previous blog, 12 Steps to Website Globalization.

Globalization Partners International, the translation company, has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for several key locales in collection of downloadable globalization white papers known as our Website Globalization and E-Business Series. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about your target global markets and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

USA Hispanic Online Market Statistics

• Purchasing Decisions: the U.S. Hispanic market considers the Internet the premier source of information for major purchasing decisions.
• Time online: U.S. Hispanics spend 20% more time online and view 25% more pages than the general population. Beyond the workplace, domestic Latinos use the Internet more than 17 hours per week, and more than half of that time is spent on Spanish language websites. U.S. Hispanics now spend more time online than watching television.
• Search: Nearly 90% of Latinos with computer access search online on a regular basis. Significant portions of the U.S. Hispanic market prefer to search Spanish language websites, including Spanish language versions of popular search engines (Google Español and Yahoo Telemundo) and Spanish language search portals based in their own country of origin or heritage.
• Communication: this market uses the Internet as a communication tool for social networking, and keeping in touch with family.
• Family: Latinos in the USA consider the Internet a great source of information that also allows their children to make career advancement beyond previous generations.
• Access: 65% of U.S. Hispanics over 18 have used a computer.
• Median age of U.S. Hispanic population is 27.7 years compared to 36.8 years for the population as a whole.
• Total U.S. Hispanic population: 46.9 million

USA Hispanic Markets At A Glance

• Ethnic self-identification: Nearly two-thirds of Hispanics in the U.S. self-identify as being of Mexican origin. Nine of the other ten largest Hispanic origin groups-Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran , Ecuadorian and Peruvian-account for about a quarter of the U.S. Hispanic population. (pew.hispanic.org)
• U.S. Cities with large Latino populations: Los Angeles: 8.4 million, New York: 4.4 million, Miami: 2.1 million, Houston: 1.9 million, Chicago: 1.9 million
• Highest Hispanic state populations: 48% of the U.S. Hispanic population lives in California and Texas.

Insights Into U.S. Hispanic Consumer Values

• Family: U.S. Hispanics are very close to their family and are more likely to choose a product that will benefit the whole family instead of just one individual.
• Empowerment: Hispanics in the USA go online for purchasing information. In addition, they hold the belief that their children's lives will be improved by the Internet.
• Value: U.S. Hispanics prefer to buy products that are high in quality and will last for a long time.
• Loyalty: Hispanics in the USA are very loyal to products, but only to products that they feel are designed to last.
• Information: Hispanics do a lot of research before they decide to purchase a product; therefore, having online information available on products and services is important.

U.S. Hispanic Consumer Decision Making

• Familiarity: Hispanics in the USA want to feel familiar and comfortable with any brands they are purchasing. They usually have some knowledge of brands through commercials, personal experience or word-of-mouth. Social networking is influential in this regard.
• Relevance: Products need to be perceived as relevant by Latino consumers and also seem complimentary to Hispanic culture and lifestyle.
• Word of Mouth: U.S. Hispanics talk and chat online about products, websites, and experiences they have had with companies, both positive and negative. If they have had a positive experience with a product, they will share their impressions with their family, friends, neighbors and social group.
• Culture: The majority of domestic Hispanic people are very emotionally attached to their country-of-origin or the culture of their parents' home country. These emotions have a positive impact on their purchasing decisions.

Primary Cultural Values Of The U.S. Hispanic Market

• Familismo (family)
• Simpatia (harmony in interpersonal relation)
• Dignidad and respeto (dignity and respect)
• Tradition (home country, culture and traditions)

U.S. Hispanic Consumers Segmented Via Demographics

• New Lifers: Foreign-born U.S. Hispanics who have been in the USA on average of 8 years comprise this group; they moved to the USA to provide a better life for themselves and their family. This group speaks the Spanish language exclusively and has strong ties to the Latino culture and traditions of their homeland. New Lifers have an average household income of $40,000.
• Old Ways: This group includes foreign-born Hispanics that have spent about half their lives in the U.S. They are on average 54 years old and speak the Spanish language almost exclusively. Members of this group are very proud of their heritage and Hispanic culture, although there has been some integration of U.S. cultural values. Average household income is $47,000 and over half of this group lives in New York, Los Angeles or Miami.
• Settled In: The majority of this group are U.S.-born Hispanics and are 43 years of age with an average household income of $68,000 per year. Although they are still proud of their Hispanic culture and heritage, the effects of American cultural are evident. Less than 20% of this group prefer to speak the Spanish language exclusively; they are much more technologically savvy than either "New Lifers" or "Old Ways."
• The Pioneers: This group (average age is 65 years) was the first group to grow up in the United States; parents and extended family are their only ties to the "old country". Around 20% prefer to speak the Spanish language exclusively and they have an annual household income of $50,000. This group still prefers products that reminds them of their heritage, but are willing to try new American products.
• Young Americans: Approximately 75% of this group was born in the USA and has an average age of  26 years. With an average household income of $60,000 per year, only 17% of this group prefers to speak Spanish exclusively; members of this group are the most technologically advanced of the five groups, using the Internet the most. "Young Americans" are fully assimilated into American culture in terms of product usage but still show some preference for products that pay homage to their ancestry.

The Spanish Language as Used by U.S. Hispanics

The Spanish language is a Romance language that originated in the northern region of Spain, is the primary language of 21 countries, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and the second most widely spoken language in the United States. The Spanish language is spoken by over 417 million people worldwide, (329 to 358 million as native speakers), and is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. (Wikipedia.org).  The Spanish language can have many variations in dialects, idioms, vocabulary, accents, and even grammar rules, that must be taken into consideration during translation and U.S. Hispanic website localization.

The Spanish language is read from left to right. The Spanish writing system uses the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet with the addition of the characters ñ, ch and ll. The use of accents such as á, é, ó, í and ú are used in some words to change meaning and pronunciation.

Although there isn't an "official" universal Spanish dialect, it is possible to translate materials into a "neutral" Spanish, or what some copy writers and translators call a "Universal Spanish". In response to the demand for Spanish language materials appropriate for the diverse groups of U.S.-based Spanish speakers, skilled teams of Spanish translators collaborating and using appropriately developed glossaries can translate and localize content into a "Universal Spanish" that effectively communicates to U.S. Latino consumers.

U.S. Hispanic Website Customization Considerations

The U.S. Latino market is not a homogenous culture, but instead one that is strongly tied to many different countries of origin. Therefore, many of the symbols and icons that are important to different segments of the Latino population are country-dependent. It is important to be aware of these differences in order to avoid cultural blunders and the inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

For example:

U.S. Hispanic Color Connotations

• Red: Religion, vibrancy, visibility and death
• Green: hope
• Black: Mourning, respect and sophistication
• Purple: Death

U.S. Hispanic Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Strategies

A search engine marketing campaign for the U.S. Hispanic market should be multi-dimensional for both short-term and long-term success. Using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns on targeted Hispanic websites and search engines is one way to produce immediate results and become familiar to the Hispanic market segment that is being targeted. Long term search engine marketing plans should include the use of keywords in both the Spanish language and in English. In addition, it is important to note that U.S. Hispanics tend to use longer strings of words in search phrases and/or questions than the rest of the U.S. market.

You may wish to review GPI's previous blog on A Multilingual Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Primer for issues involved in non-English SEM. For more information on Global SEM Services, see GPI's SEM Services webpage on Global Search Engine Marketing.

Popular U.S. Hispanic Websites

Goal: Getting top search results with your U.S. Hispanic SEM campaigns including U.S. Hispanic SEO.

When localizing your U.S. Hispanic website, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues specific to domestic Latino consumers. Keyword list localization is a very different process from standard Spanish translation; you should make sure that your SEM and/or localization agency has the experience and understands the requirements for performing this service so that they can provide you with appropriate Spanish keyword localization. This will ensure that your Spanish Web site Localization optimizes your content for U.S. Hispanic search engines to produce maximum results.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for U.S. Hispanic consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business U.S. Hispanic Market - In Depth, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

Terminology: about Hispanic and Latino Americans; the term Hispanic came into general use by the U.S. Government in the 1970s, and was added to the Census in 1980. The term "Latino" is more popular in the western portion of the USA, was adopted by the U.S. government in 1997 and was added to the Census in 2000. The terms "Latino" and "Hispanic" are used interchangeably in this blog.

1. Screen captures or screenshots (images of software or web user interface with text in the target language).
2. Text callouts and captions within illustrations that need to be localized.

This blog will focus on issues specific to graphic localization. Localizing graphics is a common step in most localization projects. For information on other steps you may wish to review our downloadable Document Globalization Guide for more information on DTP. Go to page 3 for specifics regarding graphic localization.

Localized Screen Captures

If your software is being localized into a target language, it is highly likely that all of your source language screenshots or screen captures will need to be recreated in the target language. In other words, after your software localization is complete, someone will need to create new language version screen captures that display target language user interface content instead of the original English.

This step can sometimes be an after thought for customers new to translation. Or internal customer communications may break down, and the customer localization coordinator may not realize that localized screen captures are required. Creating new, localized screen captures is a precise and time-consuming task that must be scheduled relatively early in your localization project.

If screen capture localization is required, the following best practices should be followed:

1. Carefully determine a project schedule with a "freeze" date when software development is complete.
2. Determine that screen captures from the post-software localization user interface can be created before document translation or website content localization is complete. It is critical that the localized screen captures be available to your translation vendor during post-translation desktop publishing (DTP).
3. If referenced graphics are being used (the screen captures reside outside of the DTP document format) it is helpful to keep localized screen captures in a sub-folder called "Artwork" or "Graphics" adjacent to the document files. The translated documents should have a relative pathname to the graphics folder, and automatically open up with the correct screen captures "in place".
4. If you decide that translated screen captures must have language specific names, use the same root file name as the English version and add a language prefix, like "DE_100345-start.jpeg". DE stands for Deutsch/German.
5. Decide who is going to create the screen captures and allow sufficient time for screen capture creation and testing. If you have sufficient head count in your internal team, it may be more cost effective to create your own screen captures. Although your translation agency should have the expertise to create localized screen captures for you, they are not as familiar with your product user interface as you are. Creating your own screen captures may also reduce errors.

Graphics containing text call outs or captions

Possibly the number one "headache" for translation agencies is working with customers to track down the location of the "original" artwork, which contains editable text layers. Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or even Corel Draw files that contain text are usually saved to a derivative format like EPS (Encapsulated Postscript) for documents or GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) for websites to reduce file storage. Unfortunately, bitmapped or EPS files are far more costly to edit and update with localized text. Your translation agency will need access to the original, source artwork files which contain editable text layers.

Frequently, a customer-side localization project manager is internally given document assets for translation that only contain the secondary, derivative files (like EPS) and not the source Illustrator or Photoshop files, which have editable text layers.

What to do if your artwork contains text layers?

If you are aware that your document or web content is going to be localized into target languages, communicate with your internal staff (graphic designers, DTP specialists, etc.) well in advance, and let them know that the source art files must be preserved and identified, if they contain text layers. This usually will not involve all of your artwork files, but it may involve most of your images. Be especially sensitive to maps, which contain text that may or may not need to be localized. Communicate clearly with your translation agency and let them know which, if any, images have text that should remain in the source language.

What if original source art files with editable text are no longer available?

If your original source art files with text layers are no longer available, and only bitmap graphics are available, your localization project will require more time, more resources and will cost more money. During post-translation DTP, translation agency staff will have to insert text layers into bitmapped files or painfully edit text in vector format in Illustrator or some other DTP software. In addition, artwork fidelity is lost, as the derived EPS or bitmapped files cannot be re-saved with crisp resolution, as can be done with the original source format art files.

The screen capture to the right shows what "text" looks like in a graphic that was saved to EPS and viewed in Illustrator. The "text" can only be manipulated as artwork vectors in Illustrator. To achieve localized target language text in this type of illustration, the "text" vectors must be removed and a new text layer must be created. Obviously, billable DTP time for a project like this will increase substantially.

Hint: How to save money when localizing graphic text layers

If you have sufficient staff to update text in the localized versions of your graphics, there is another strategy that you can use:

• Create an Excel spreadsheet that identifies each graphic, location, and includes all of the text lines in the source language (usually English).
• Have a blank column for each target language.
• Share this spreadsheet with your translation agency. Have the agency's linguists translate the text strings for all languages.
• Let your own staff use copy/paste from the translated Excel sheet back into the editable text layers of your source artwork (e.g. Illustrator).

Graphic localization costs grow incrementally by the number of languages required

The steps listed above can save considerable time on a localization project. Complex graphics may take 10 to 15 minutes per graphic. If you have 211 graphics times 10 minutes for each graphic, that is 35 hours for one language. Multiply 35 hours by 17 languages, and you have 597 hours of billable translation agency time that you can eliminate by using the steps described above.

What if my legacy FrameMaker files have text lines vs. text frames?

If you are working with unstructured FrameMaker, text in graphics can be created two different ways (a) preferably with text frames, which contain wrapping paragraph text that is easy to edit and replace, and (b) text lines, which are individual lines of "graphic" text that can be manipulated somewhat like "Wordart" in Microsoft Word. The first category of text, text frames, will be recognized by translation software and will be visible to the linguist. The second category, text lines, will not be recognized by translation software and will be invisible to the linguist.

Text lines for callouts in FrameMaker are not common: you will usually find this form of text in older, legacy documents. When it does occur, you are well advised to replace the text lines with text frames before submitting your documents for translation. Text frames allow for wrapping text and can display new line breaks if translation causes text expansion. It will be very costly to make your translation agency replace stacked text lines with text frames in your source language before localization occurs.

How do I know if my FrameMaker graphics have text lines?

Select an anchored frame and choose Edit->Select All, or press Control-a. If the anchored frame contains text lines, you will see "handles" around each line of text. Also, if you display borders, with View->Borders, there will be no borders around text lines. Borders are visible around the boundary of text frames.

What's the worst thing that can happen with graphics in Microsoft Word?

By default, imported graphics are "embedded" in Microsoft Word. This means that the graphics (and any editable text) are permanently part of the binary or RTF file and cannot be easily extracted. Exporting graphics from Word is time consuming, costly, and will result in graphics with low resolution that do not compare favorably with the original English documents.

If you have new DTP localization projects being authored in Microsoft Word, instruct your staff to keep the original "source" graphics that have been imported into Word. Your translation agency will be able to update external graphics far more economically than working with graphic images that are embedded.

How to dramatically reduce graphic localization costs

Many customers have been moving to a standard of "keyed" graphics. This means that graphics, which formerly contained callouts, now have numbers that are "keyed" to a caption table that follows the illustration.

• This eliminates all text layers and the headaches associated with localizing "bitmapped" or EPS graphics.
• This also ensures that all callout text is visible to linguists in a convenient table adjacent to the graphic.
• Table cells enable new line breaks to occur due to text expansion when callouts are localized into "wordy" languages like German or Dutch.

This technique works well for graphics that do not include screen captures which may need to be localized. There may be some types of graphics in which inline graphic text is unavoidable: for instance, an overhead view of a room that needs labels to indicate "rug", "stairs" and "chair". At any rate, using keyed graphics wherever possible will simplify your localization project management on your end and reduce billable time from your translation agency.

Further resources for DTP localization and website localization

If your document or website content to be localized is marketing oriented, it may be appropriate to modify graphics and artwork to suit local cultural sensibilities in your target markets. You may wish to review our previous blogs on Brazilian Website Localization, 7 Insights into Japanese Website Localization and Arabic Website Localization for the UAE for some examples of cultural issues involving appropriate images and colors. You may also benefit from our website pages on Document Translation and Website Translation (Internationalization & Localization).

You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this blog and your market and project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

Japanese Market Statistics

• The Internet population of Japan is approximately 91 million, which is almost 71% of the Japanese population. Approximately 28.3 million people in Japan access the Internet (web) by broadband. (Internet World Stats, 2008)
• Japan has the distinction of having the highest mobile saturation of any country, at 65%. According to a MIC Report the Japanese access the Internet more through mobile devices (69 million) than through PC (66 Million).
• The average Japanese online consumer spends $527 annually, second in the world to the US consumer who spends $692 a year online.
• Only about 1 percent of the Japanese population has enough foreign language skills to completely understand the content on foreign websites, and they tend to skip content they can't read (intelbridges.com).

(1) Insights into Japanese Consumer Values

• Respect: Japanese consumers demand respect and in return are very loyal to the company or brand. Therefore, Internet retailers not only need to translate the websites for the Japanese audience but also show respect and provide exceptional customer service.
• Culture: While Japanese consumers are very appreciative of western products, western lifestyle and western celebrities, they are also very sensitive to their own culture (Shih) and want western brands, ideas, and products, but presented on a Japanese platter.
• Shibui and Kawaii: The Japanese love for beauty and aesthetics is captured in two words, shibui, which refers to the quality of the beauty. Kawaii is a Japanese term which means "cute." Cuteness is a highly valued aesthetic quality in Japanese society. Make sure that your Japanese website content is harmonious and aesthetically pleasing to Japanese consumers.

(2) Japanese Culture and the Online Consumer

• 100-Yen Shops: Japanese consumers generally buy products for either status or functionality. They usually buy merchandise at the high or low end, not in the intermediate price range (intelbridges.com). As a result, Japanese malls and cities are lined with both brand name designer products and 100-Yen Shops, which are analogous to the "dollar store" in the US that sell items at the lowest price range. Daiso is one of the largest 100-Yen Shop chains with more than 1,300 stores across Japan.
• Celebrities: Japanese advertisements continue to use western celebrities to promote their products and stores. However, this phenomenon which was at its peak in the late 1990s is now slowing down in favor of Japanese talent.
• Anime: According to McKay (2002) "Japanese people have a tendency to build an emotional connection with an animated figure." Animated figures like "Hello Kitty" are an integral part of Japanese popular culture.

(3) Japanese Consumer Purchase Decisions

• Japanese consumers often buy in a "feel-to-learn" fashion. They will go to a store if they feel good about it or feel they have a relationship with it, buy the product and then learn whether or not the product is good.
• The logic of Japanese advertising is:
  • Make friends with the target audience.
  • Prove that you understand their feelings.
  • Show that you are nice.
  • Consumers will then want to buy, because they trust you and feel familiar with you (i.e., the brand and the company).
  • After the purchase, consumers find out if the product is good or what the benefits are.

(4) The Japanese Language

The Japanese language is an agglutinative language and is spoken by over 130 million people. This language uses a complex system of honorifics which reflect the hierarchal nature of Japanese society by verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of the members of the conversation or communication.

• Japanese uses a Double Byte Character Set (DBCS) as it is a symbolic language that takes 2 bytes of computer memory to store.
• The Japanese writing system uses four different character sets: Kanji, which is made of almost 2,000 Chinese characters, Latin which is used sometimes to represent brand or personal names, and Hiragana and Katakana which are two syllabaries of 46 characters each and together are called Kana.
• Kanji represents a meaning rather than a specific sound and poses difficulty sorting as it has multiple pronunciations.
• Japanese can be written both horizontally called yokogaki or vertically called tategaki.
• Text in the Japanese language does not have spaces between words. To achieve proper formatting, avoid line breaks and let the end user's browser manage where lines break.
• Japanese names should be written surname followed by the first name. Middle names are rarely used.

(5) Japanese Website Customization Considerations and Symbols

Adopting Western foreign language brand names without cultural consideration might lead to marketing blunders. For example, the Japanese translation for "web and sweepstakes" was thought of by some Japanese to mean "buy meat or steak online" (Kemper, 2004). Alternatively, the Japanese travel agency, "Kinki Nippon Travel Agency," appealed to a different crowd than originally intended.

An ancient culture like Japan has accrued a long list of symbols and icons that convey special cultural meaning. It is important to be aware of these cultural connotations to avoid any cultural blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

Some examples:

• Fish are an integral part of the culture of Japan. Tai (Sea bream) fish are considered lucky as the word rhymes with "medetai," the Japanese word for auspicious. Koi have been developed for their beauty and are considered a symbol of strength, courage, and patience.
• A white carnation symbolizes death.
• The word "four" in Japanese sounds like death and items packaged in fours are unpopular.
• Black cats are considered unlucky.
• Chopsticks should not be stuck into rice as that symbolizes death.

(6) Color Connotations in Japanese Websites

Colors with positive meanings:

• Red: the color of luck.
• Yellow: the Japanese color of courage.
• Blue: symbolizes peace, calm, stability and loyalty among other things. Indigo blue is a very common color used in Japan as it symbolizes the color of the ocean surrounding the Japanese islands.

Colors with negative meanings:

• Black/White: the mixing of black and white stands for mourning and a cheerless occasion.
• Purple: the color of danger in Japan.

(7) Japanese SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

It is recommended that companies plan on and conduct some form of global search engine marketing (SEM) in order to drive traffic to their Japanese websites.

This may include global search engine optimization (SEO) of your Japanese website content, submission of pages to key Japanese search engines, and a pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaign through services like Google Adwords.

For more information on Global SEM Services, see GPI's SEM Services webpage on Global Search Engine Marketing.

The key to promoting your website in the Japanese market is to create localized content, Japanese keywords, register Japanese domains and then promote through Japanese search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and promotions.

To effectively tap the online market in Japan, it is important that your website not only be translated, localized and culturally customized for the Japanese audience, but also effectively marketed to them. In order to effectively market a website in Japan it is important to acquire a Country Code Top Level Japanese Domain Name (ccTLD:.jp) which allows a site to have Japanese characters in the domain name label. This is important for several reasons:

• As most Japanese are not proficient in English, a Japanese character domain label will help to successfully reach this population.
• Higher search results in local search engines.
• The domain can be used in online and offline advertising.
• The Japanese consumer can easily remember the domain in their own language.
• The Japanese will know that the company has a long-term interest in the Japanese market and may stimulate more trust.
• From a strategic point of view it is better to be proactive and get the ccTLD before it is taken. In addition, early entry and acquisition of ccTLD will give a company first entrant's advantage.

Popular Japanese Search Engines

According to Japan.Internet.com, some of the most popular shopping sites in Japan are Rakuten, Amazon, Yahoo! Shopping and Netprice.

The top search engine choices for Japanese users are:

• Yahoo!
• Google
• bing.com
• Goo

The top Japanese search engines are an excellent starting place to promote your Japanese website when targeting the Japanese online market. It is crucial for a website to get listed on these Japanese search engines to achieve visibility. Companies should explore key word development, paid submission, manual submission, paid inclusion to top search engines and directories like Rakuten.

Goal: Getting top search results using Japanese SEO and Japanese SEM

When localizing your Japanese website, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues specific to the Japanese marketplace. Keyword list localization is a very different process from standard Japanese translation; you should make sure that your SEM and/or localization agency has the experience and understands the requirements for performing this service so that they can provide you with appropriate Japanese keyword localization. This will ensure that your Japanese website localization optimizes your content for Japanese search engines to produce maximum results.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for Japanese consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business Japan, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

Why China? The Numbers Speak for Themselves

China is a world in itself and the Chinese Internet market is the world's fastest growing online market.

• Population = 1.3 billion
• 20 million plus companies.
• Internet users in China jumped by nearly a third to 384 million at the end of last year.
• By the end of 2009, the number of Chinese online social media users reached about 124 million.
• With China's expanding 3G mobile networks, more than 120 million people used mobile Internet applications last year.
• Companies launching their advertisements through Chinese search engines are predicted to increase at a rate of 17% annually.

Get to know the most popular China Search Engine: Baidu

Baidu, Inc. simply known as Baidu started in January 18, 2000. Baidu has evolved into a Chinese search engine for Chinese websites, audio, images, movies and is the first engine in China to offer mobile search.  Baidu also offers community services and a keyword-based discussion forum.  In April 2010, Baidu ranked 8th overall in Alexa's internet rankings.  Baidu is the first Chinese company included in the NASDAQ-100 index.

Baidu.com is the most popular search engine in China and is used by 95% of all Chinese Internet users. Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files. With the recent departure of Google from mainland China, Baidu is now the only game in town: its Internet search market share in China rose from around 65% to at least 80%. Actual statistics on Baidu's market share since Google's departure have not yet been posted as of this writing.

Chinese Search Engine Optimization: SEO on Baidu

Since Baidu is China's top search engine, ranking highly on Baidu is a must for any websites from companies who wish to succeed with Chinese search engine optimization (SEO).

• Baidu is particularly China-centric. To rank highly on Baidu a website needs to be (a) localized in the Chinese language and (b) hosted inside China.
• Baidu's search results are different than Google's. It is possible to "pay your way to the top" for your keywords on Baidu. This idea is widely accepted by Chinese users and differs from SEO techniques in most western regions. Even if you choose to pay for high-ranking keywords in Baidu, Chinese search engine optimization is still important. This is because your "natural" ranking is part of the formula that determines how much you will need to pay.
• Baidu will usually index a new web site into its search results in about 20 days.
• It is very important that your Chinese website has a stable increase of visitors, or hits, and external links.
• Chinese websites should have well-prepared meta-data and titles which are short and closely related to your web page content.
• Domain name: include attractive Chinese words in pinyin, e.g. Taobao, Alibaba.
• Baidu favors websites that have regular updates, but it will sometimes block "unstable" websites that are updated too frequently.
  

What about the Chinese Language?

The Chinese language has two major classifications: (a) Traditional Chinese, which is commonly used in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Malaysia and (b) Simplified Chinese, which is commonly used in mainland China, Singapore and by some Chinese expatriates.

Simplified and Traditional Chinese use different characters for the same word, so it is essential to know which language you will be using and which market you will target before you start your Chinese SEO campaign.

How to start your SEM efforts in China

1. Define your geographic markets. This will determine which Chinese language you need, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.
2. Choose SEM and localization partners that have experience with Chinese consumer behavior and Chinese cultural values. This is a major requirement in order to achieve optimized Chinese website localization and globalization. Review our blog post about Doing Business via the WWW in China. Make sure that there is a professional Chinese Search Engine Optimization (SEO) professional on your localization partner team.
3. Start your Chinese Search Engine Marketing (SEM) campaign.

China Social Media

In China Social Media is experiencing explosive growth. While the rest of the world generally sticks to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace etc., Chinese Internet users have their own Social Networking Websites.

• In 2010, the number of Chinese online social media users reached about 124 million.
• Up to 92% of Chinese internet users are using social media.
• Top 5 social networking sites in China: QQ alumni (50%), Renren (37%), Sina Space (36.6%), 51.com (27.1%), and Kaixin001 (26.4%).

You need to start engaging in Chinese social media to build relationships with Chinese consumers and to announce your products and services frequently in the Chinese language.

Chinese market and language resources

For more information on issue specific to SEM, you may wish to review our previous blog on A Multilingual Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Primer. For general issues related to Simplified Chinese, visit our webpage on Simplified Chinese Translation Quick Facts.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization targeting Chinese consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business China, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

India is the world's largest democracy and has 22 recognized languages with over 100 linguistic dialects. Although English is widely spoken and understood in the Indian business world, the subcontinent has keen cultural sensibilities that need to be addressed for successful Indian website localization. Consumer demand is rapidly growing amongst Indian population segments that prefer to use Hindi (the world's third most widely used language) for e-Commerce purchasing.

India has the world's second largest population (after China) and is another cornerstone of BRIC, the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China. BRIC represents the four largest economies outside the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). If the BRICs were to set aside one-sixth of their reserves, they could create a fund the size of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For more information on websites for BRIC countries, see our previous blogs: Brazilian Website Localization, Russian Website Localization and Doing Business via the WWW in China.

Key India Market Statistics

• India's Gross Domestic Product is $1.131 Billion with annual growth around 7.5%.
• India's population of 1.156 Billion includes an Internet population of 81 million (internetworldstats.com).
• Children are considered precious to Indian families, and parents of all income groups do everything they can for their offspring.
• The bicycle is still the primary form of transportation in India, and 65% of Indian households own a bicycle.
• The amount of time a person spends online in India increases with the age of the user.

Insights into Indian Consumer Values

• Family: Family ties, both nuclear and extended, are extremely important to Indian consumers. It is expected that families will share resources with their members. In addition, families often go shopping together, if only to window-shop.
• Luxury Brands: Brand name items, such as Hugo Boss and Luis Vuitton, as well as high-end chocolates and perfumes, are gaining traction within India. Historically, these items needed to be purchased abroad, but stores are now opening in India that sell these items to all consumers.
• Movies: India is a country that is highly influenced by films from Bollywood, which dictate fashion in clothes and often activities, such as weddings.
• Price: The consumers of India do not want to seem cheap, but price is an important factor in decision-making. Therefore, instead of always looking for the lowest price, they look for the best value-for-money.

The Hindi Language

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language and a direct descendent of Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. Over 180 million people speak Hindi as their first language and over 300 million speak it has their second language. As a result, Hindi is the third most spoken language in the world.

Standard Hindi, along with English, is one of the 22 official languages of India and is used for administration of the central government.

The primary script used in India for Hindi is Devanagari, which is written left-to-right and utilizes the Alphasyllabary writing system. There are several important features of the Devanagari script:

• Consonant letters carry an inherent vowel which can either be altered or muted by means of diacritics or matra.
• When consonants appear together in clusters, special letters are used to conjoin them.
• Articulatory phonetics is used to determine the order of the letters.

Hindi Language Facts and Tips

• Diacritics: These marks also known as matra, can be placed above, below, before or after letters to represent different vowel sounds.
• Numbers: Hindi numbers can either be represented by either Devanagari Script or numeric digits, for example ९ versus 9.
• Double-Byte: Hindi is a double-byte language and single-byte will not work.
• Letters: Hindi words can change depending on the context. Therefore, articulatory phonetics is used to determine the order to the letters in a word.
• Script: There are several scripts that can be used to write Hindi. The most common script is Devanagari script, although some Arabic scripts can be used for Hindi letters. It is important to consistently use the same script throughout the translation process.

Cultural Considerations for Indian Website Localization

An ancient culture like India has a long list of symbols and icons that carry special cultural meaning. It is important to be aware of them to avoid any cultural blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

Some examples:

• Feet: Feet are considered unclean. Therefore, one should not point their feet at another person. In addition, when one's shoes or feet touch someone else's it is important to apologize.
• The Head: The head is considered the seat of the soul. Touching another person's head should be avoided.
• Finger Pointing: Pointing with a finger can be interpreted as an offensive gesture, at times denoting annoyance, and should be avoided.
• Unlucky: The colors black and white are considered unlucky.
• Animals: Cows are considered to be sacred creatures by Hindus.

Use of Color in Indian websites

Certain colors carry specific meaning and symbolize aspects of Indian culture:

• Red: Purity, fertility
• Yellow: Merchants
• White: Unhappiness, mourning
• Pink: Femininity

Indian Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

• Indian Websites must be optimized for mobile users due to the large segment of the population who make purchases on websites without a computer.
• Use Google Trends.
• Create a directory structure of listings of localizations.
• Title tags and headings.
• Sub-domains, folders: India.example.com for India
• Common words and expressions. For example: use Green City Bangalore or Pink City Jaipur, not just Bangalore or Jaipur
• Do not use IP Redirect.2.
• Use back links from geographic specific sites
• The key to promoting a website internationally is to create localized content and keywords, register local domain names and then promote it through local search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and positions.
• A search engine marketing campaign for India should be multi-dimensional for both short-term and long-term success. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns on targeted websites and search engines should be specific to India and also to the various geographic regions of India. There are 22 languages spoken in India and each region has its own vernacular. It might be appropriate to utilize terms and languages from a specific region to become more familiar with those targeted consumers.
• Long-term search engine marketing plans should include the use of keywords in Hindi, English and possibly a secondary targeted langue for a specific region of India. This is due to the fact that Hindi and English are the languages of the government of India, but there are also 22 other official languages of India that represents the preferred languages of the different regions of India.
• The top level domain in India is .in. Other domains that are popular in India are .com .in, .info .in, .net .in, .gen .in ,.info .in ,.biz .in, .com, .org, .net, .info, and .biz. There are currently approximately 2.5 million Internet hosts in India.

Creating Indian SEO and Indian SEM for Optimum Search Rankings

When planning your Indian website localization, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues for the specific market and region that you are targeting. Keyword list localization is a very different process from standard translation. You should ensure that your Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and/or Localization Agency has the necessary experience and understands your requirements in order to perform this service. With experience and understanding of project goals, your localization partner can provide you with appropriate localized Hindi keywords which will ensure that your Indian content is optimized for Indian search engines and will produce maximum results.

For more information, you may wish to review our previous blog on A Multilingual Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Primer.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for Indian consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business India, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com or at 866-272-5874 with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Localization Quote for your project as well.

If you keep your website in English-only, you may be missing up to half of your potential worldwide revenues. Although the saying "build it and they will come" may apply to Hollywood's Fields of Dreams, don't expect such an easy solution for global websites. As part of a website globalization project, you need to perform some initial and ongoing Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This should include both organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) such as Pay-Per-Click (PPC), paid inclusions or contextual advertising. Whether you have an SEM Agency or an in-house team provide English SEM services, don't forget about Global SEM Services which will help you achieve better visibility in country-specific search engines, and lead to increased traffic and ROI with your target-language version websites

Some "search engine" definitions:

Search Engine Marketing Services may include:

• Comprehensive website translation and localization
• Multilingual keyword phrase research, refinement and localization
• Multilingual Search Engine Optimization and copy writing of main site content
• Multilingual Search Engine Optimization of meta-tags, titles, alt-tags, heading tags, HTML, etc.
• Submissions to major locale (in-country) and international Search Engines
• Website traffic and keywords ranking reporting
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign content localization
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) country-specific campaign management

Multilingual SEO: More than just keywords and translated content

Performing effective SEO for specific locales (country + language + geography) goes beyond simply translating keywords. For a good example of specific challenges for one language and locale, review our blog on Arabic SEO and Localization. Many countries or regions may use the same language, but with words and phrases that have different meanings or usage based on specific locales. For instance, there is considerable difference in meaning for some phrases in the Spanish language used in various South American Spanish-speaking countries.

• Your translated keywords for SEO need to be adapted for the corresponding locale. A good keyword translation project includes at least two rounds of keyword research: one in the source language and one in the target language. This will ensure that the target language keywords are those most frequently used by consumers searching in their target locale and language.
• Content and metadata translation/copy writing/research needs to be performed by in-country translators. This is essential to ensure that original content is adapted to the target locale.
• Your website needs to be professionally localized. Strong website quality assurance (QA), performed by in-country translators, will ensure that your website works properly in all target languages. The QA process will detect and eliminate broken links, missing information, and uncover any other cultural issues that would prevent a successful globalized website launch.

Technical considerations for multilingual SEO

There are also some behind-the-scenes factors that will affect successful multilingual search engine optimization:

• Domain name: some search engines only refer to your top level domain to show results. That means if you have different folders (www.example.com/es, www.example.com/de) for your target-language content, search engines will prioritize the top level domain first to show local results. The best option is to have different domains for the different languages. It is critical to determine this before updating website content or managing your globalized website. Sub-domains, or folders in the URL, are the most cost-effective option at the moment.
• Links to the localized version: the link building process needs to be performed for your translated website, just as it was for your source English website. Local links from local domains in the target-language are very important. Links are one of the most important factors for successful SEO, for both your English website and for your globalized websites.
• Hosting: search engines look at the IP of the request and score locally (non-English) hosted domains higher than non-local domains. For example, is better to have the Spanish version of the website hosted in Spain, but this is expensive and very hard to maintain. Of course, this is not essential because there are several combinations of things that will help you to obtain better results.
• Search engines: Google, Yahoo! and Bing may be popular with English speaking Internet users, but they are not the only search engines. In China, for example, the most widely used search engine is Baidu. You need to know which search engines are the most popular for your target locale and be prepared to optimize your content to obtain maximum results for all target language search engines.

To learn more about Multilingual SEO, please see our website: Global Search Engine Marketing.

Whether you are trying to launch a multilingual website to expand your products and services into new global markets or whether you are trying to increase your company's global operational efficiencies by developing multilingual extranets and intranets, website globalization is a requirement to make either a reality. You must translate (globalize) your website to empower your web presence to effectively communicate, conduct and complete international e-commerce.

Website translation is also known as "website globalization". In order to truly "translate" a website into other languages you may need both internationalization (I18N) and localization (L10N) services.

Internationalization (I18N)

This process involves enabling the backend of a website to handle different languages, character encoding, currencies, form data submission, site search capabilities, etc. Internationalization requires understanding what database and content management systems (CMS) you are using to author, store and publish your website's content. Many recent versions of Data Bases (DBs) and CMSs are already internationalized or enabled for other languages. For instance, such systems should be double-byte enabled, to handle Asian languages and script-based languages. GPI's internationalization methodology may include discovery and assessment through implementation and testing. For more information on Internationalization, read our previous blog post, Why Internationalize Your Code Base, to learn more about this dynamic process.

Localization (L10N)

This process involves translating and localizing the front end of your website into different languages, ensuring that all website content (text and graphics) is translated in an accurate and culturally correct manner. GPI's localization methodology may include over a dozen steps of website localization ranging from review, website globalization guide analysis and preparation of a client's source files to basic online website QA & website testing.

Website Localization Kit

Project analysis and estimating cannot begin until the customer assembles and submits a complete set of website source files, also knows as a "Website Localization Kit". This kit should include:

• Customer website(s) URL
• Any passwords or login instructions
• Summary of website architecture
• Summary of any technologies and/or web development toolsets used to develop your website
• All files that make up your website in their original folder/file structure
• All original graphics used in your website (artwork, backgrounds, navigation buttons)
• All application source files (Word, FrameMaker, Quark, etc.) for any documentation available via your website
• A list (if available) of all files that need to be translated

These files are analyzed by your translation vendor or translator for:

• number of words
• source and target languages
• subject matter
• desktop publishing (DTP) requirements for on-line documents
• source and target file formats
• client review and approval requirements
• client workflow requirements

The following is an overview of website globalization best practices:

1. Pre-Translation Source File Review
   Source files are assembled in the website localization kit described above. Files are prepared in order to utilize a translation memory (TM) workflow and also to preserve any mark-up or formatting codes in on-line documents for download, in order to save time and costs with DTP of target languages. A proposal is generated based on project factors including word counts, localizable graphics, target languages and any content management systems and workflows required.
2. Project Kick-Off
   The kick-off includes and confirms the following: the project team; project schedules; project specifications; workflow requirements; communication channels; review and approval milestones; review current web authoring and publishing workflow.
3. Subject Matter Training and Research
   A Globalization Services Team (GST) will review and study reference materials provided, including source files, demos and general client information. Additional client-specific training for translation teams related to the website subject matter (e.g. product or customer software functionality and target audience) may be required.
4. Glossary Development
   Translation teams develop and maintain client specific glossaries that leverage (reuse) any existing client glossaries and the latest industry-specific dictionaries.
5. Cultural Correctness Assessment
   Before the actual translation begins, the source web content and overall website design and feature set are reviewed for basic cultural correctness and customizations that may be required. An array of issues are reviewed, ranging from the need to culturally customize graphics and adding local phone numbers to comprehensive customization of website features based on locale-specific cultural values
6. Translation, Editing and Proofreading
   Translation is performed by a primary translation/copy writing team, and editing/proofreading is done by a secondary linguistic team. All translations are completed by human translators, utilizing translation memory technologies that ensure an efficient and consistent translation.
7. Website Graphic and UI Localization
   All embedded, translatable text found in navigation buttons, web art and other web graphics are extracted and translated, using the standard translation workflow. The translated text is then incorporated back into the original graphics, adjusting for text expansion as required, to create a language-specific or "localized" version of the graphic.
8. Document Formatting and DTP
   Many websites have an array of linked documents which may require localization. Formatting or desktop publishing (DTP) of these documents includes formatting the target language documentation to match the original source documents in terms of layout, fonts, graphics, and overall design. Adobe PDF files can be created and optimized for screen or print and linked to the globalized websites.
9. Multimedia Localization
   Many websites incorporate various multimedia components that require localization. Multimedia must be analyzed individually for numerous factors, which range from determining word counts in screen text, audio scripts and video, to the analysis of the types of assets and how they were digitized and included in your multimedia. All multimedia can be localized and must be tested to properly present audio and video in all target languages.
10. Website Quality Assurance (QA) and Testing
    GPI's best practices include basic Online Website Localization Quality Assurance (QA) as a standard line item for all website projects. This QA checks the language versions of your site under selected browser/OS combinations for any cosmetic or linguistic issues, and helps identity basic functionality issues as well. Typically all testing is client-driven and the Globalization Services Team will work side-by-side with your expert users to perform I18N, L10N and/or Functionality Testing, onsite or offsite.
11. Client Delivery
    After the website and all components have been localized, final draft sets of the source files in all target language versions are provided to the client. Client may review and approve all web content for both translation accuracy and design correctness. Another round of QA is performed once language versions of a website are in their final hosting environment.
12. Final Edits and File Archiving
    Client provides any final comments for the translation and formatting. Comments are incorporated and final websites and documents are produced. GPI ensures the client's Translation Memories (TMs) and Glossaries are updated with any final linguistic changes. The final project folder, including all source files, is securely stored for future revisions, if required.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Internet Marketing

GPI recommends that you plan on and conduct some form of search engine marketing (SEO) and/or search engine marketing (SEM) in order to drive traffic to your new language sites. This may include global SEO of the localized web content, submission of pages to key country (locale) search engines and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing campaigns through services like Google AdWords or Overture.

SEO also requires an effective list of keywords. Locating correct keywords for your website content and Meta tags for certain languages like Arabic often require new "organic" research on selected keywords. You cannot afford to simply depend on translated keywords: for some languages your translation vendor will need to create original keywords related to your product or services. To review some examples of SEO challenges for one language, (Arabic), read our blog post Arabic SEO and Localization.

A Proven Model for Successful Website Globalization

GPI has developed this methodology and set of best practices based on hundreds of successful, website localization projects that involved huge, scalable websites. Initial analysis and discovery, as well as establishment of communication methods, is critical to your success. A complete, documented website localization kit (set of source files) is also essential to ensure success from the very start of your project. Website globalization is not an afterthought, but an critical ingredient in your overall product and marketing strategy.

Keeping these steps in mind, it will be possible for you to gather and document essential source file assets ahead of time and be ready for website globalization to begin at the proper time, as you prepare to launch your products or services in new global markets.

Globalization Partners International (GPI) has also developed a series of white papers specific to globalizing websites for specific locales. You may download Website Globalization and E-Business Series white papers for free.

For more information, contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com, or request a quote on our website. You may also reach us by phone at (866) 272-5874 to obtain answers to your questions about specific website localization project goals.

If you wish to be successful selling your products or services on-line to the highly strategic Brazilian marketplace, there are many factors to consider, from cultural and linguistic to consumer preferences. This blog post will provide highlights on understanding Brazilian consumer behavior and cultural values in order to achieve optimum Brazilian Portuguese Website localization.

Brazilian Market Statistics

• The retail sector of Brazil is considered the largest in Latin America and has continued to expand rapidly since 2004.
• Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and seventh largest in terms of Internet usage.
• The majority of Internet users in Brazil are from the upper and upper-middle classes.
• Television is the most popular type of media in Brazil as it is less expensive than other types of media, including magazines and newspapers. Television viewing is considered a leisure activity.
• The government has been working on digital inclusion programs, such as funding Internet cafés, to help the lower income groups gain access to the Internet.

Insights into Brazilian Consumer Values

• Vanity: Brazilians place high value on appearance. "Looking good" is an integral and important aspect of Brazilian culture.
• National Goods: Whenever possible, Brazilians prefer to purchase products made within their own country.
• Frugality: Brazilians prefer saving money for larger purchases, such as a house; they often look for a "deal" when purchasing other items.

Brazilian Consumer Purchase Decisions

• Women: The decision-making power of women in Brazil has increased, which has resulted in many companies tailoring products and services to the interests and needs of Brazilian women.
• Price: Brazilians will often choose a product based on the price of the product, looking for the least expensive or the best value that they can find. Brazilian consumers often shop on budgets.

Brazilian Portuguese Language

• Diacritics: These marks, placed above or below letters usually represent vowel sounds or other modifiers.
• Verb Tense: There are several verb tenses in Brazilian Portuguese that differ from European Portuguese, including você and seu.
• Pronouns: The use of pronouns in Brazilian Portuguese is different than those of European Portuguese and the usage depends on the sentence and the use of possessive pronouns.

Portuguese is considered a Romance language like French and Italian. Brazilian Portuguese, a dialect, is the official language of Brazil and is spoken by 154 million people. The Brazilian Portuguese dialect has been influenced by the languages that it displaced in Brazil, primarily in terms of vocabulary, but also in phonology and grammar. There are words that are used today in the Brazilian Portuguese language that originated from the native Tupi-guarani and West African Yoruba languages.

Unlike other Romance languages, Portuguese has maintained the stressed vowels of Vulgar Latin which make it unique. In addition, the Brazilian Portuguese language is written using the Latin alphabet and utilizes several accent marks. These include the circumflex accent, the grave accent, the tilde, the cedilla and the dieresis mark. There are also spelling differences between European and Brazilian Portuguese languages. Some examples of the differences in spelling and writing varieties are:

Brazilian Cultural Considerations for Website Localization

• Collectivism: Brazil is a collectivist culture. Brazilian websites may be culturally customized by emphasizing collective themes like family and community. For example, Häagen-Dazs has a section entitled, "Imprensa" which features pictures of Brazilian customers enjoying Häagen-Dazs at their own social gatherings.
• Masculine - Feminine: Brazil is a masculine culture. There are numerous ways that masculinity can be depicted on a Brazilian website, including placing an emphasis on achievement, success, product durability, as well as adventure and fun.
• High-Low Context: When customizing a site for a high-context culture like Brazil, elements like harmony and aesthetics should be considered. For example, LG emphasizes harmony on their website in their choice of colors and images. Furthermore, on their Brazilian website LG has a special multimedia section on "experience LG". This interactive section enables Brazilian consumers to choose different multimedia commercials and advertisements for a unique experience.

Brazilian Cultural Correctness: Images and Color

There are many Brazilian symbols and icons that carry special cultural meaning for Brazilian culture. It is important to be aware of them to avoid inappropriate imagery or major cultural blunders.

• The Fig: This is a good luck sign that is made by placing the thumb between the index and middle fingers while making a fist. It is also considered a national symbol of Brazil.
• Handkerchiefs: In Brazilian culture, handkerchiefs symbolize grief and mourning, especially when handed to a person.
• Owls: If an owl circles a walking person directly overhead, it is considered a bad omen.
• Vulgar Symbols: The "OK" sign, made by a circle of the first finger and thumb, is considered a vulgar symbol.
• Purple: The color of mourning
• Black: The color of mourning, grief or formality.
• Red: Strength, reliability, happiness and prosperity.

Brazilian SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

A Brazilian search engine marketing campaign should be multi-dimensional, including not only localized organic search content, but also localized pay-per-click (PPC) campaign advertisements. Furthermore, Brazilian Portuguese landing pages can be a useful tool in an overall Brazilian SEM strategy.

Long-term search engine marketing plans should include the use of Brazilian Portuguese keywords and English keywords. Brazilian Portuguese may be the primary language of business in Brazil, but many Brazilian Internet users continue to also visit English language websites for content.

The top level website domain in Brazil is .br. Other domains that are popular in Brazil are .com, .org, .net, .info, and .biz. It is advisable to have a Brazil-based legal representative when a non-Brazilian company decides to obtain a local domain, such as .com.br. The domain needs to be registered at registro.br.

Getting top search results in Brazil using Brazilian SEO and Brazilian SEM

When localizing your Brazilian website, it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues for the specific market that you are targeting. Keyword list localization is a very different process from standard translation; you should ensure that your SEM and/or Localization Agency has the experience and understands the requirements for performing this service so that they can provide you with appropriate localized Brazilian Portuguese keywords. This will ensure that your Brazilian Portuguese content is optimized for Brazilian search engines and will produce maximum results.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of website globalization for Brazilian consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business Brazil, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com with your specific questions about localization services, online marketing in Brazil and your project goals.

A portion of the 70% of non-English users on the Internet may also speak English as a second language. This percentage of non-English users who know English as a second language will actually reduce while Internet penetration across other languages continues to grow.

As a result of these trends, many companies have already invested time and money to localize their products and websites into other languages or are planning to do so in the near future. This leads to a critical question:

"What is the best way to adapt and translate my existing English based application or website into other languages?"

To effectively answer this question, it is necessary to introduce two concepts: Localization and Internationalization. According to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):

Localization (l10n):

Is the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of the specific target market (a "locale").

Internationalization (i18n):

Is the design and development or modification of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.

The best way to translate or localize an application/website is to follow a 2-step process:

1. internationalize the application first and then
2. localize the application into the desired languages (locales).

Unfortunately, most translation and localization customers do not follow this path; the majority skip the first step and just try to localize their products with no prior preparation. On the surface, this choice might appear to save time and money, but in the long run the result is quite the opposite. Internationalization dramatically saves time and money by having key tasks performed just once, which reduces the effort to localize an application into other languages.

Benefits of Internationalization

Internationalization's key concept is to convert your locale-dependent application, which might have been developed for English or any other language, into a core, locale-neutral application and a collection of satellite locale-dependent components (often referred to as resource files). Use of this method will make your code application completely independent of the locale; it can be shared between all localized versions.

Common Internationalization Issues

This new locale-neutral application will need to accommodate and resolve certain issues that are usually present in any locale-centric application. There are many of these internationalization issues; several common examples are listed below.

Locale Implementation:

The application must have a locale layer that allows the user to select the locale that should display at any given time. Also, many applications, and especially web-based applications, will try to detect the best locale for each particular user and select it as a default option. The locale layer will be responsible for storing the selected locale for the rest of the application layers.

Encoding:

When any application needs to store or retrieve content from any type of media (disk, memory, etc) it needs to use a specific encoding for that task. An application that is targeted for any locale must use an encoding that will support any possible writing script or language. The most common encoding in use today is Unicode.

Content Externalization:

As described above, any type of content that might change based on the locale, such as text, images or media, must be externalized from the core application and put into external resource files. When the application is localized, the core application does not need to be modified for each locale, but only the resource files corresponding to those locales.

Locale Sensitive Formatting:

Each locale has specific rules to display numbers, currency and date/times. Dates in the USA are displayed in a different way than in the UK, even though the language is English in both locales. An application that is correctly internationalized and locale-neutral should accommodate this situation and display locale sensitive information in the way users expect for their specific locale at any given time. Most modern programming languages have libraries in their frameworks to help developers achieve this goal with minimal effort.

User Interface Layout Localization:

Some languages display text from left-to-right while others (such as Arabic layout) display text from right-to-left. Also, some languages need more space to express the same message: English to German text translation might expand the number of text characters by 33% or more. A locale-independent application must also accommodate these issues and dynamically modify the user interface (UI) to present text and labels to the user in a clear and well-organized fashion.

Application Localization Goals

In summary, adapting an application for a specific language and locale involves more than just translating visible text. It is a much more complex process and, ideally, the steps described in this article should be considered from the first day of application design and development. Having all internationalization issues in mind while designing an application will dramatically save time and money when that application is localized into other languages.

Although more applications are now being developed with internationalization in mind, all too many of them are still being developed with no foundation for internationalization. Fortunately, there is some good news for developers in the later category: many tools have been developed to help localization engineers and programmers test and fix the types of issues described in this article. Tools of this nature facilitate this highly complex process, especially for repetitive tasks like extracting content from an application.

Globalization Partners International (GPI) has developed a suite of globalization tools to achieve these goals. You can explore them under the Tools sections of our website. GPI also offers internationalization and globalization consulting services and can evaluate your application. Partnering with GPI before you localize or translate your application will ensure that you avoid many mistakes and will also save you considerable time and money on your localization projects.

For more information, contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com, or you can reach us by phone at (866) 272-5874.

Growth of Russian E-Commerce

Russia's main economic partner is the European Economic Union (EU), which accounts for more than half of Russia's external trade. Private consumption accounts for over half of Russian GDP and has been the primary driver for growth in the Russian economy in recent years.

• Small, specialized companies currently dominate Russian e-commerce.
• The majority of Russian online sales are paid for with cash upon home delivery.
• The Russian advertising market will increase to $17.2 billion in 2010, making Russian the sixth largest global market for advertising.
• Russian B2C (Business-to-Consumer) e-commerce is still somewhat limited due to low penetration rates on the Internet, restricted purchasing power of Russian consumers and limited use of Russian credit cards.
• Some grocery stores in Moscow and St. Petersburg now offer online ordering, illustrating growth of Russia's online market.

Russian Consumer Values and Decision Making

• Russian Family and Friends: Home shopping is growing quickly in Russia as there is a tradition of accessing goods and services from a network of family and friends. Russian home shopping does not refer to western-style home shopping channels, but instead to sales people coming to a person's home to sell goods directly.
• Russian Fashion: Following European fashion trends is considered an important sign of Russian consumer status.
• Convenience: Russian consumers prefer shopping at small shops close to their homes rather than going out-of-town to larger stores.
• Price: Russian consumers are very price-sensitive and want to get the most value for their money.
• Preference for Russian Brands: Russian consumers believe that Russian brands are less expensive than products from overseas. Purchasing Russian brands is considered patriotic, and Russian brands are believed to be healthier because they are made from local ingredients.

The Russian Language

There are approximately 227 million Russian language speakers worldwide. Russian is the most widely spoken Slavic language, and it belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Russian is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages, which also includes Belarusian and Ukrainian.

The Russian language uses  33 letters and a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet. Russian letters are divided into 11 vowels, 20 consonants and 2 letters that do not designate any sound.

Russian uses both print and cursive Cyrillic scripts. Russian is usually spelled and pronounced phonetically, but there are several unique rules to the Russian writing system and pronunciation.

Russian Website Localization Considerations

Russian Icons and Symbols

An ancient culture like Russia has a long list of symbols and icons that carry special cultural meaning. It is very important to be aware of Russian cultural perception in order to avoid serious cultural blunders or inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

• Flowers: It is rude to present a woman or hostess with an even number of flowers, as this number of flowers is reserved for funerals.
• Gestures: It is considered rude to point a single finger. The full hand should be extended instead.
• Hand Shaking: It is considered rude and impolite to shake hands with gloves on or across a threshold.
• Bragging or boasting: It is believed that bragging can have a negative effect on a project or venture and prevent future success.
• Religion: Many Russians keep religious icons in their homes. According to Russian Orthodox tradition, it is frowned upon to either wear shoes or to say something negative about someone in front of a religious icon.
• Weddings: Rain on a wedding day means that the couple will be wealthy.

Russian Meaning for Color

• Red: Bolsheviks and communism
• Orange: Creativity
• Yellow: Hope or hazard
• Blue: Depression or sadness

Russian SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

The key to successfully promoting Russian websites is to appropriately localize website content and carefully select Russian keywords. You should also register local Russian domains and then promote them through local Russian search engines, affiliate marketing, as well as online and offline branding and positions appropriate to the Russian language.

A Russian SEM campaign should be multi-dimensional for both short-term and long-term success. Using Russian PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns on targeted Russian websites and Russian search engines is one way to produce immediate results and also to become familiar to consumers that are targeted in various Russian-speaking locales.

Your long term Russian SEM plan should also include the use of targeted Russian keywords and possibly some keywords in other languages from the selected consumer locale. Since Russians prefer to sense personal relationships with companies they do business with, it is important to capture this feeling through carefully crafted advertisements. One way to accomplish this is by procuring specific Russian domain names.

The top level domain in Russia is .ru. In addition, other domains that are popular in Russia are .com, .org, .net, .info and .biz and variations of these with .ru either before or after them. Russia also has responsibility for the legacy domain ".su", representing the former Soviet Union, which is being phased out (CIA World Factbook, 2007). There are currently approximately 4,822,000 websites being hosted in Russia (CIA World Factbook, 2008). Cyrillic domain names have been allowed and registered in Russia since 2001. Therefore, it is a good idea to have a Cyrillic domain name for easier local recognition and further website cultural customization.

Getting Maximum Results from Russian SEO and Russian SEM

When globalizing and localizing your Russian website it is important to research cultural and linguistic issues for the specific Russian locale which you are targeting. Your localization agency should have extensive experience in this market and should be able to provide you with appropriate Russian keywords for Russian SEO (search engine optimization) and Russian SEM (search engine marketing) based on glossaries created from previous translation projects. Make sure that your localization partner has sufficient experience localizing Russian keyword lists and optimizing Russian SEO.

Globalization Partners International has created a more extensive overview of globalizing websites for Russian consumers in a white paper, Website Globalization and E-Business Russia, which is available via a free download. You may contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com with your specific questions about this market and your project goals. You may also request a complimentary Quote for your project as well.

Growing E-Commerce in Arabic Countries

The Arabic Internet market is much larger than many people outside of this region realize; it is experiencing rapid growth.  Recent research indicates that there are currently 56 million Arabic-speaking Internet users and this number will increase to 82 million by 2013. That will be a 46.4 percent increase in just over two years!

Although English is widely spoken in the business world throughout the Middle East, many companies outside of the region still have the misconception that they can continue to keep their web content in English-only because it is "the international language of business".  Most global companies have launched products and businesses in the Arabic region via English-only websites with the assumption that Arabic-speaking customers can simply search and find services using English keywords.

Arabic SEO Strongly Preferred by Consumers in Arabic Countries

Research has progressively revealed that in most cases Arabic Internet users prefer to search using Arabic keywords to find more specific and accurate results. This is especially true when the search is related to regional topics, cultural-related words, local news or events, and regional products or services. Consumers in Arabic-speaking markets prefer to select Arabic keywords as their first option. Naturally, this requires companies to localize all content on their website in Arabic, and have a culturally appropriate user interface. For specific examples of cultural and regional issues specific to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates, see our blog on Arabic Website Localization for the UAE.

Many Arabic consumers don't speak English; in some Arabic countries like Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, English is not as commonly used as French. This further underscores the need to have the Arabic language as a primary choice for this region.

Arabic Website Localization

Your first step is selecting the right translation agency as a partner to properly structure your website and provide suitable Arabic website localization, as well as create effective SEO optimized for this language and market. Your localization partner will need experience in the Arabic region and Arabic language for several reasons:

• There are six major Arabic dialect groups.
• Arabic SEO is unique and will require different keyword and tag strategies for various markets, like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, etc.
• Some graphics or images may carry negative cultural connotations that are not obvious to consumers outside of the region; your localization agency partner must be well versed in all of these issues.

A localization company that fully understands these issues and has appropriate depth of experience with regional Arabic markets will provide the most accurate content and optimal presentation for your Arabic website, empowering you to reach the right target users in Arabic countries.

Arabic Website SEO

Arabic search engine algorithms and position techniques are quite different from their English counterparts. It is critical for web developers and localization engineers on your project to have a full grasp of all issues specific to the Arabic language in order to obtain optimum Arabic search results. Appropriate experience with these project requirements can "make or break" your success with Arabic speaking consumers.

Recent Trends with Arabic Search Tools

Google has announced significant improvements in the way users search in Arabic on Google search. Google has also provided a new tool for Google Arabic Transliteration. Other Search Engines, like Bing and Yahoo, are also providing many enhancements for Arabic search. All of these initiatives will help raise the bar in terms of Arabic SEO quality and effectiveness.

How can your website get ahead of the competition in this high  growth market and get top ranking in Arabic search results?

As an Arabic speaker, user of Arabic websites and specialist in Arabic SEO and localization, I can answer this question. SEO strategies have various tasks and manageable functions to achieve your SEO goals. However, we also need to talk about specific points more related to Arabic language and Arabic SEO, not just the regular tasks of general content optimization, web analytics, link building, etc.

Arabic Key words

To select correct keywords for your Arabic website content and Meta tags, you need new "organic" research on selected keywords. You cannot afford to simply depend on translated keywords: you are often required to create original Arabic keywords related to your product or services.

Google provides tools to search Arabic keywords, find related keywords and the most popular keywords used on Google's search engine. But that alone is not enough; additional assistance is required to successfully reach customers in Arabic countries.

Why is a localization or translation vendor your best option to provide you with Arabic keywords and content?

There are many reasons why a localization vendor or translation agency is your best solution:

1. The right localization agency will have years of experience with the specific local and regional Arabic dialects, which can be quite different from one country to another.
2. You should choose a localization agency that has demonstrated the ability to provide you with a large amount of Arabic glossary content for each specific country. Your vendor should have sufficient experience in Arabic markets to derive terms and phrases for your glossaries from previously translation projects. This will help you select or create the right Arabic keywords for each country and each target market.
3. Choosing the right localization agency will also ensure that you write accurate content suitable for the local target culture and avoid any unsuitable website content that may be forbidden by religious or cultural customs.

Arabic Search Engine Challenges

I believe the Arabic language poses a unique challenge when it comes to content and keywords because the entire Arabic-speaking region contains very special traditions and regional differences. This challenge requires a partner with strong experience in the specific region you are targeting. Only a localization partner with solid experience in specific, regional Arabic translation and localization can ensure that your Arabic content is optimized and provide you with the right set of Arabic keywords to ensure that your target Arabic customers will find you.

Arabic Domain Names

Widespread support for Arabic domain names is a fairly recent development. An Arabic domain name pre-registration service has been launched and will solve many problems associated with domain names and SEO keywords in the future.

Egypt is launching the first Internet domain name to use the Arabic script, following ICANN's decision to allow non-Latin top level domains. Many other countries are following Egypt's lead, including the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

You will need to move quickly to register your Arabic domain name before it is taken. Arabic domain names are a big step towards achieving your highest ranking and best Arabic search results in market segments like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates.

Arabic URLs and Encoding

URLs are limited to a few set of characters, "the English alphabet, the numbers, dashes, and a few others". These characters are based on American English as defined by the ASCII standard for historical reasons. All other characters, like English punctuation and Arabic characters, have to be encoded.

Wikipedia, for instance, has a summary of international domain names and URLs that allow use of non-ASCII characters.

Focusing on Arabic URLs and using non-ASCII characters is becoming an essential step for Arabic website optimization and linkage. Implementing your Arabic keywords in your URLs and links will help to get better indexing in Arabic search engines.

GPI's Services in Arabic Localization and Arabic SEO

GPI has done extensive work with Arabic localization, including massive, scalable websites in Dubai. Other projects have extended into Arabic SEO and PPC keywords for Ramadan promotions for major resorts in the Arab Gulf region.

To obtain more information on GPI's services and get answers to your specific questions, contact GPI at info@globalizationpartners.com.

There are seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE). They are: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ras al-Khaimah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, and Fujairah. Each of the emirates is named after its principal city.

If you want to conduct successful on-line business in the UAE, there are many factors to consider, from cultural and linguistic to consumer preference. This blog will provide guidance in understanding Arabic consumer behavior and Arabic cultural values strategic to your success in the United Arab Emirates.

Doing Business in Dubai and the UAE

• ECommerce penetration in the UAE is the highest of all the Arab states at 25.1%. (Khaleej Times, 2008)
• According to the UAE Ministry of Planning, the UAE is the most wired nation in the Arab world and one of the top nations of the on-line world.
• 84% of the on-line users looking to make a purchasing decision on a product gather on-line purchasing recommendations. (AME Info, 2007)
• 52% of Internet users in the UAE have created their own on-line content. This includes creating web pages, writing personal blogs, uploading photos, music or videos, and participating in on-line gaming.  (AME Info, 2007)
• Web 2.0 Internet usage in the UAE is presently dominated by younger males. As sites become more established, their user base is expected to grow to include females and older male users.  (AME Info, 2007)
• Currently there are 29 free trade zones in the UAE, with another nine in development. The Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai is the most prominent. In these free trade zones, foreign companies are permitted to establish wholly-owned branches which are exempt from the requirement to appoint a national agent (sponsor).Islam is the official religion of the UAE, with the majority of the population being Sunni Muslim and approximately 20% of the population being Shi'a Muslim.
• The social life in the UAE is greatly influenced by tribal values. This is due to the fact that the Emiratis often identify themselves by tribal origins, and in smaller states, primarily associate with those who share their tribal affiliation.

Insights into UAE Consumer Values

• Tribal Values: Tribal values are derived primarily from Islam and the family's heritage. They influence political, social and financial endeavors. (Culture Grams, 2008)
• Prestige: It is considered important to carry items that give a person prestige and these items can be designated by consumer segments. These include western items and technology gadgets. (AME Info, 2008)
• Family: Family ties, both nuclear and extended, are extremely important to UAE consumers. It is expected that people will share resources with their family. Although women play a central role in the family, it is considered unacceptable for them to live alone. (Culture Grams, 2008)
• Product Type: Husbands are key decision makers when purchasing luxury items. On the other hand, wives play a decisive role when it comes to household items.
• Price: UAE consumers seek out the best product price for the quality and required benefits.
• Quality: UAE consumers look for high product quality and durability. (www.dfat.gov.au, 2009)

Arabic Language in the UAE

The Modern Arabic dialects are considered to be a part of the Arabo-Canaanite sub-branch of West Semantic languages. They have over 200 million native speakers. There are six major dialect groups of Arabic: Egyptian Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Levantine Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, East Arabian Arabic and Gulf Arabic, which is the primary language spoken in the United Arab Emirates. (Wikipedia.org, 2009)

The Arabic alphabet derives from the Aramaic script. It bears a resemblance to Coptic, Cyrillic, and Greek Script. The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters. Moreover, letters change form depending on where they appear: beginning, middle, end of a sentence, or on their own. (Omniglot.com, 2008)

Arabic Language Facts and Tips

• Diacritics: These marks placed above or below letters usually represent vowel sounds or other modifiers.
• Numbers: Arabic numbers can be represented by either Hindi or Arabic numeric digits depending on the dialect of the target region.
• Text expansion: When some languages such as English, are translated into Arabic, the text can expand up to 15-20%. This means the text takes up more physical space on the page and the words inside the graphics, tool bars, tables, etc. can all expand.
• Bi-Directional: Languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi are written primarily right-to-left (for strings) but are often referred to as bi-directional text because numbers and Latin based characters are written from the left-to-right. So, the resulting text, while primarily right-to-left oriented, contains some left-to-right elements, necessitating a bi-directional reading style. Bi-directional text is sometimes referred to as BiDi.
• Tables: Avoid using too many nested fields and indents as these can reduce available space for text expansion after the translation. In addition, because Arabic is read right-to-left, the tables will need to be reversed.
• Letters: Arabic letters change shape depending on context. Moreover, each letter has up to four shapes: Initial form, final form, medial form and isolated form. Letters that can be joined are always joined. (omniglot.com, 2008)

Cultural Factors for Arabic Website Localization

When localizing web content into Arabic for UAE consumers, many factors must be taken into consideration, from layout and color to cultural correctness and meaning associated with certain images.

Culturally Correct Website Globalization for the UAE

• Collectivism: The UAE is a collectivist culture. The targeted websites may be culturally customized by emphasizing values important in collectivist cultures. Research suggests there are several web-specific features that can be included in a site to make it more appealing. For example, a theme that emphasizes family.
  
• Masculinity - Femininity: Although the UAE is a culture that shows a slight preference for masculinity, the blending of certain feminine values into a website is considered appropriate. There are numerous ways masculinity can be depicted, including achievement orientation, success, product durability, and a sense of adventure and fun. Femininity can be expressed by creating a website focused on softer themes with a softer-sell approach.
  
• High-Low Context: The UAE is a high context culture. Incorporating elements such as harmony and aesthetics can help to customize your site for the UAE market.
  
• Power Distance: Since the UAE scores high on the power distance value, cultural customization may be achieved by adding elements that emphasize honor and recognition, like displaying awards that a company or brand has received.
  
  
  

Symbols and Icons Appropriate for UAE Culture

An ancient culture like that of the United Arab Emirates utilizes a long list of symbols and icons that carry special cultural meaning. It is important to be aware of them to avoid any cultural blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

• Hands: The entire hand should be used when pointing, as pointing with just one finger is considered rude. The use of left hand is considered rude. Shaking hands, eating and gesturing should be done with the right hand, though passing items with both is acceptable. (CultureGrams, 2008)
• It is considered bad luck to step across a doorway with the left foot first. (World Trade Press, 2008)
• It is considered bad luck to return to a building (usually home) to retrieve a forgotten item. (World Trade Press, 2008)
• Bismillah: In Arabic, it literally means "In the Name of Allah". This is spoken as a gesture of respect and acknowledgement before undertaking a number of activities including prayer, eating and as a general expression of sincerity. (about.com, 2008)
• Allah - Muhammad (Sala Allah Aleyh Wa Salam): Images of people and animals are forbidden by Islamic law; therefore, calligraphic art is used as an alternative form of creative expression. High offense is taken in the pictorial rending of any religious figure, such as Allah or Mohammed. Therefore, calligraphic art is used as an alternative form of creative expression. (about.com, 2008)

Spatial Orientation for Arabic Website Globalization

Spatial orientation refers to how web content is structured. According to Wendy Barber and Albert Badre, authors of "Culturability: The Merging of Culture and Usability" (1998), spatial orientation has a direct effect on website usability, because it affects visual perception. Manipulating the orientation can change the user's comfort level. What is user-friendly for one country may be vastly different for another.

The Arabic Language is read right to left. In addition, the usage of pictures and graphics should be carefully considered in placement, in order to ensure the layout be culturally sensitive and aesthetically pleasing.

Use of Color for Arabic Website Customization

For the United Arab Emirates certain colors carry specific meaning and symbolize aspects of their culture.

• Green: Holiness or luck
• Blue: Immortality, a protective color
• Yellow: Strength, reliability, happiness and prosperity
• Red: Danger or evil
• White: Purity or mourning

Arabic SEO and SEM in Dubai and the other Emirates

The key to promoting a website internationally is to create localized content and keywords, register local domain names and then promote it through local search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and promotions.

Long term search engine marketing plans should include the use of keywords in both Arabic and English, as these are the primary business languages in the UAE. In addition, it is important to remember that there are many different expatriate sub-groups in the United Arab Emirates that prefer to speak their national language. Therefore if attempting to target one of these groups, research should be done on their preferred language in order to properly target the correct search engines and keywords.

The top level domain in the United Arab Emirates is .ae. Other popular domains are .com, .org, .net, .info, and .biz. At present there are approximately 6,000 websites being hosted in the United Arab Emirates. (CIA World Factbook, 2007)

General Rules for Arabic Domain Names

• The Arabic top level domain which is being used for an Arabic domain name trial is امارات
• The Arabic domain name will look like: اتصالات.امارات
• The dash/hyphen ( - ) character is used in Arabic domain names as a separator e.g دولة - الإمارات.امارات
• Maximum number of dash/hyphens ( - ) must be considered

Search Engines in the UAE

• Search Engine Colossus
  www.searchenginecolossus.com/UAE.html
• Internet Services UAE
  www.indexuae.com/Top/Computers_and_Internet/Internet_Services
• The Emirates Network [TEN]
  www.theemiratesnetwork.com/dir
• The Search Engines of United Arab Emirates
  www.search-engine-index.co.uk/country/united_arab_emirates.asp
• United Arab Emirates Search Engines
  www.searchengineguide.com/pages/Regional/Countries/United_Arab_Emirates/index.html

Summary for Successful On-line Business in the UAE

Due to language and cultural complexities, there are many critical considerations to review before localizing your Arabic website or content for UAE consumers. GPI has produced a more comprehensive white paper on Website Globalization and E-Business for the United Arab Emirates that covers these issues in depth.

This blog gives you a good overview of the primary issues to consider before localizing your content for markets in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the other Emirates. Since each company's goals and challenges will differ based on industry, product and target audience, you may wish to contact Globalization Partners at info@globalizationpartners.com with your specific questions or issues.

6. SINGLE-LINE RUNNING PAGE HEADERS: many standard templates included with FrameMaker have a predefined, single-line running header that will automatically pick up text from certain paragraphs (e.g. Heading1). Most FrameMaker users will author content with headings that are short enough in English for the repeated text to display on one line in the page header. Problems occur when post-translation text expansion causes Heading1 text to become too long to fit on one line of the page header.
   This can become a gnarly problem if it repeats too often in a project. Your translation vendor will have to (a) redesign the target language template to allow multiple lines (which may throw off page breaks) or (b) communicate with you in how to reduce word count in specific headings so the translated version will fit on one line.
   SOLUTION: if you are using this template style, stick to short headlines in English, or redesign your template to allow the running page header to break to a second line.
7. SIDE HEAD LAYOUT: one of the most popular templates provided with unstructured FrameMaker is "Report, Sidehead". This template uses FrameMaker's unique ability to have certain paragraph headings "jump" into the outer, side head margin. The template allows for about 25 to 28 characters to fit in the side head area.
   Believe it or not, when source English is translated into Hungarian, Dutch, and a handful of other languages, it is not uncommon for a single word to have more than 25 characters. This leads single words that break a line in the side head region, with one or two characters on the second line. Obviously, this is unacceptable. The only "cure" for this problem is to modify the side head paragraph in the following ways: (a) reduce the point size (b) change the font (c) condense the text or (d) increase the width of the side head margin, which will decrease the margin of body text and change all page breaks.
   SOLUTION: if you must use a side head style, you may want to have your translation vendor pre-translate text strings for all of your side head paragraphs to determine maximum word length ahead of time. Then, you can modify your English template to have a side head margin and font point size combination that will work with all languages.
8. "PACKED" SINGLE PAGE TABLE IN ENGLISH: many FrameMaker documents have tables that must fit on one page. Over several years of updates, additional information may have been squeezed into the table until it completely fills the page. Point size and table margins may have been reduced (e.g. 7 point type with 3 point cell margins). While this may look acceptable in English, it creates an "impossible" situation in the translated, target language.
   Language expansion is magnified in table cells because narrow margins cause more line breaks to occur. With languages like German, Dutch and Russian, language expansion may be quite dramatic. If the source text is already at a very small size and cell margins are not generous, the only option left is to allow the table to break to another page.
   SOLUTION: If tables must fit on one page in English and all languages, allow for about 35% expansion of table cell content.  Otherwise, redesign your table (and reconsider page breaks) to allow the table to break with repeating table row headers.
9. FORCED PAGE BREAKS: it is a common practice with many word processors to insert manual page breaks to achieve attractive space at the bottom of the page, or have a significant paragraph start a new page. If you insist that all target translated languages have page breaks identical to your English source, your translation project will have more billable time during post-translation desktop publishing.
   Due to text expansion, if page breaks must be maintained, you may end up with some target language documents that have partial paragraphs displaying at the top of a page, followed by a lot of white space. This problem mainly occurs with customers new to translation who are not familiar with text expansion.
   SOLUTION: if you must match page breaks between source English and target languages, maintain a generous margin of white space at the bottom of each page to allow for language expansion.
10. TEXT LINES VS. TEXT FRAMES: this problem is less common and occurs most frequently in older, legacy unstructured FrameMaker documents. Many docs that were created for English only contain text lines (created from the drawing tools) for call outs and annotations within anchored frames. Such text is invisible to translation tools, and causes English text strings to appear in the illustrations of translated documents. Text contained in text frames within anchored frames will be visible to the linguist and will be translated.
    Text lines are very expensive to correct, because there are no tools to locate them, and your translation vendor DTP staff cannot even use copy and paste to replace the text! We have seen many documents that have what appears to be a multi-line paragraph of text in an illustration. On closer examination, the text is revealed to be a series of text lines, stacked over one another.  If you select an anchored frame and press Control-a for "select all", any text lines will have handles around them, as in this screen capture.
    
    SOLUTION: best practices for creating content for translation recommend that you use number indicators in graphics, and then a numbered "keyed" table under the graphic. This eliminates the need to translate text layers in illustrations. If you do have documents that contain text lines in anchored frames, manually replace them all with text frames before submitting your documents to your translation vendor.

SUMMARY: If you follow all of these guidelines in preparing your FrameMaker content before submission to translation/localization, you may decrease some portions of your project costs by as much as 33%. Naturally, you can use the money saved with these techniques to move your content into more languages, extending your company's reach into even more global markets.

You LSP (Language Service Provider) should be able to analyze your FrameMaker documents before translation and provide advice during the Quote phase, before translation and production begins. GPI offers a service that includes DTP consulting and making minor redesigns to your templates to optimize your content for localization and translation. This service will ensure that all of your FrameMaker documents will move through translation and target language publishing with minimal effort.

Our intention is to provide you with practical guidelines that will empower you to submit the cleanest content possible, and substantially reduce translation costs by eliminating unnecessary corrections.

Lots of consumers, lots of money

Based on various research estimates, the online user population in China is approximately 298 million with approximately 64 million Chinese accessing the Internet via broadband connections. It is estimated that 70% of Chinese users access the Internet from home, 37% from the workplace and 27% from Internet Cafes.

China boast more than 700,000 websites and a solid foundation for eCommerce development. Last year Chinese online users spent almost $12.5 billion on Internet purchases and Chinese Internet users grew to 266.6 million with the Internet access market reaching up to $26.4 billion.

Chinese Culture and Values

China is a traditional society full of symbols, rituals, values and contextual elements.
At a macro-level, Chinese culture can be described using several cultural values. A country's culture is made unique based on which of these values are incorporated into daily life and the emphasis it puts on each.

• Family: China is a group-oriented or collectivist society where relationships, network of relationships and harmony in relationships is valued over individual needs and goals.
• Role Familiarization: The importance of hierarchical relationships in Chinese society can be traced back to Confucius' five cardinal relations between sovereign and minister, father and son, husband and wife, old and young, and friends. Chinese tend to balance the roles and harmonize their relationships based on the five cardinal relations of Confucius.
• Reciprocity: Reciprocity and interdependence in inter-personal relationship is taken seriously in Chinese society.
• Trust: "Xin" (trustworthiness) is the most valuable philosophy among Chinese consumers. This sentiment can be seen captured in the belief that "once a liar, always a liar." Personal reputation and prestige are important to Chinese; a proverb says: "a man needs a face like a tree needs its bark".
• Chinese consumers look for monetary value - "Stretch a penny." There is a Chinese saying "never make a purchase until you have compared three shops".
• Chinese may appear to be "suspicious and cold" towards strangers with whom relationships have not been established. Such an obsession has caused much emphasis on relying on established relationships (guanxi) and relationship networks (guanxiwang).
• Guanxi: or proper connections (social networking in its most profound sense) is an important aspect of a Confucian society like China. Creating "Guanxi" through business partners, affiliates, online networks, or local Chinese companies is crucial for business success in China.

Chinese Consumer Decision Making

Here are some unique insights into a Chinese consumer's mind, based on theoretical and applied research in academic circles:

• Chinese consumers generally rely on internal research based on past purchase experiences to make future purchase decisions.
• Chinese consumers in general, frequently use Word-of-Mouth or referrals from friends, family, and colleagues to gather market information.
• Chinese consumers tend to be somewhat risk-averse when shopping. Providing free trials and demos may reduce this anxiety.
• Chinese consumers tend to consciously look for well-known brands that have high prestige or are considered high quality.
• Chinese consumers, in general, tend to be very price-conscious and seek both extended information search and the evaluation of alternatives when making a high value purchase.

Market segmentation is an exercise in carefully identifying profitable and accessible consumer segments based on socio-demographics, geographics, and psychographics. Segmentation is unique to each company and product. Here are some general insights int Chinese consumer segments:

• China's Elite and nouveau riche: In China more than 400 million people live on less than $2 a day but there is an emerging and fast growing elite class which shops at Armani, Gucci, Cartier, Ferrari, Bentley, and Hugo Boss. These are the high brand-conscious and prestige-oriented Chinese consumer segments who like to indulge in conspicuous consumption.
• China's Generation Y: Success-driven, educated, information savvy and surprisingly loyal to Chinese values and culture but also open to Western ideas. They are good candidates for Western brands and are fashion-conscious.
• Trendy, Perfectionist Consumers: These are predominantly females who love to shop and associate foreign brands with quality and style.
• Traditional, Pragmatic Consumers: They don't like to shop much and basically look for products based on price and not style. Predominantly male consumers and generally go for less expensive local brands rather than expensive or stylish foreign brands.
• Confused by Over Choice Consumer: Like traditional and pragmatic consumers they are not big on shopping and they prefer local Chinese brands over unknown brands and foreign brands.

The Chinese Language

Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages and is spoken by more than a billion people making it the most widely spoken language in the world. Mandarin happens to be the most widely spoken Chinese dialect, followed by Wu (Shanghainese), Yue (Cantonese), Min, Xiang, Gan, Hakka and other dialects.

Chinese is written using characters called ideographs. There are approximately
50,000 characters found in the standard Chinese dictionary. The majority of Chinese characters consist of two elements 1) a signific, which indicates the meaning of the word, and 2) a phonetic, which indicates the sound.

Language Tips and Facts

• When working with Chinese remember it is a double-byte language and thus single-byte will not work. Double-byte Chinese character sets include: GB and Unicode for Simplified Chinese, and Big Five and Unicode for Traditional Chinese.
• Chinese names actually create visual representations imbued with meaning - thus when developing brands online or offline make sure your brand names carry meaning relevant to the Chinese consumer. Example, the P&G brand - Pamper means "helping baby's comfort" or the brand - Whispers means "protection and comfort"
• Chinese is full of homophones which are words with the same pronunciation as another word. Numbers like 8, 6, 9, are homophones for auspiciousness and prosperity. The number 8 reads as 'Fa' (Cantonese) which means "to make a great fortune in the near future".
• Traditional and Simplified Chinese: Today traditional Chinese characters are used in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macua, and simplified Chinese characters are mostly used in Mainland China and Singapore.
• Chinese can be written both vertically and horizontally.
• Chinese is generally written without any spaces between words, and even lines can be broken at any point. Chinese names should be written with surname first followed by the first name.

Chinese Cultural Correctness and Web Customization

An ancient culture like China has a long list of symbols and icons that carry special cultural meaning. It is important to be aware of them to avoid any cultural blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols.

Some examples:

• Number 8 tends to be a lucky number.
• Avoid the use of the numbers 4 and 7 which may relate to death.
• Animals: 2007 was the Year of the Pig, which is considered lucky. Other good luck symbols are the Dragon and Tortoise (Dragon - Yang, Tortoise - Yin) which bring good luck and health. A three-legged frog is a symbol for good luck, too.
• Clocks may symbolize death.
• Red: The Chinese lucky color. Red generally expresses joy, prosperity, luck and happiness. The use of red or a carefully selected shade of red (several sites in China use shades of red as a background color) can have a good impact on the visual imagery of the site.
• Spatial orientation refers to how web content is structured. According to Wendy Barber and Albert Badre, authors of "Culturability: The Merging of Culture and Usability" (1998), spatial orientation has a direct effect on website usability, because it affects visual perception. Manipulating the orientation can change the user's comfort level. What is user-friendly for one country may be vastly different for another. Chinese consumers prefer website spatial placement and display that would generally be perceived as "cluttered" by most western consumers. This screen capture is a good example.

Internet and Search Engine Marketing in China

The key to promoting a website internationally is to create localized content, localized keywords, register local domains and then promote through local search engines, affiliate marketing, online and offline branding and promotions. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) appropriate to the target audience cultural values and language is also critical.

According to the Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) the top level CN domains registered have reached more than a million. Now i-DNS.net International Pte. Ltd., in partnership with CNNIC is offering Internet domain names completely in Chinese characters. According to CNNIC guidelines the Chinese domain name must have at least one Chinese character. You may select from Chinese characters, ASCII letters (A-Z same as a-z), numbers (0-9) or hyphen (-) to compose your Chinese domain name. The length shall be limited to 20 characters (letters) (cnnic.net).

Summary

Due to language and cultural complexities, there are many critical considerations to review before localizing your website or content for Chinese Consumers. GPI has produced a more comprehensive white paper that covers these issues in depth.