Hi Everybody: I planed to create a japanese version of my website as I thought japan was a major market of my products. Do you guys also think that I would attract more traffic from Japan only by adding a Japanese version? Or I wish you could give me some suggestions on how to promote it in Japan? Thanks
I think that best possible way is to opt for demographic advertising. PPCs give a good and effective way of demographic advertising. You can make use of it.
Thanks for your replies. What i mean was that whether only by adding japanese version can help. Can "goole.com.jp" or "yahoo.com.jp" automatically index our japanese pages and bring us traffic without submitting them or doing anything else?
I think firstly you need to know Japanese language a little.Then you can exchange link with some Japanese websites . also try to get backlinks from Japanese sites. Also sing PPC advertising with targeted traffic from Japan can help you.
Two things come into my mind, if you want to make a Japanese language version: First, better find a web host in Japan. Google will read the japanese even if it's located in the US or europe. But for SEO, it's always recommended to have the server "geographically in place". But then, there are so many cultural aspects that we don't understand and also the Japanese have their own conventions for different markets. You wanna understand the rules perfectly well before playing ball, right? So, the second is to not just make a Japanese version with your own design. Find Japanese pages selling the same products, study the designs and use a similar design. Even better to have a japanese professional to help you design the website. Then you are ready to play ball! Edit: I don't know much about Japan, but as I noticed that you are in China. I can mention that I have lived in China for a couple of shorter periods, and that I know that japanese and chinese conventions are very, very different. But I guess you understand that, and thus the value of my advice above. Good luck.
Very helpful and I must say you have a deep insight. Also I wish you could share why you said japanese and chinese conventions are "very, very" different. Thanks
Thank you for your kindness. I am no real expert though. You know, just entering a supermarket in US, some European countries, China or Japan, are all very different experiences. The atmosphere, the colors, how the employees meet and speak with you, will be different. This goes for internet as well. How you work with colors, how you address your customer (or visitor), and even how you guide them through the site, will be different for different countries. In my experience, chinese webpages looks more like american then japanese. My wife worked briefly with translations. She taught me that how you address your client (or visitor) is extremely important. You want to use language in such a way so you get a local "flavor", using local expressions. And think about that the language change very quickly. There are expressions that are "in" and those which are not. And new expressions might be used that no one would think about for even one year ago. So hiring a japanese living in japan should be the best thing to do, to write the texts and to design the page. Then you can have another japanese in your country, some one easy to get in touch with, who can work with "quality control". Good luck with your work. /David