Friday, October 12, 2012

Make a Plan for Your Business to Develop E-Commerce Website


Online shopping is the latest trend for purchase customer’s valuable goods. E-Commerce website development making a craze on people’s mind. Why it should not? All the facilities are providing to the consumers according to their relevance. Making E commerce website can now greatly expand to your business globally.

Ability of selling your personal products is the extra qualification in your business. There are several criteria of an E-Commerce website development that you need to consider. Once have a look on your competitor sites what they have look, feel, design and services providing. Make sure that your design should be attractive to the customers and it should provide proper way of the products and its information.

E-Commerce website development is becoming a popular business shopping cart development.  E-Commerce websites are providing the most cost effective way of promoting your business. An E-Commerce website will comes up with many features and benefits to you. Visitors can reach to your site through internet easily. It will become beneficial.

Any of the website is offering sale of products, it becomes necessary for it. The web development service should make sure that they design the safest websites for their clients. This profit goes to for the talented website development and marketing professionals. Who are providing their website to the customers with safety? E commerce has taken a credit today and people consider it convenient and easy to shop online from the comfort of their own homes.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Why Web Site Design is Important

The internet is now widely used by people for a number of purposes like for online shopping, to get information, to book tickets, to reserve hotel rooms and many more applications. There are a lot of individuals and companies who market their product and services through the internet. There are a number of websites that you can find over the net and it is through these websites that their products and services are made available to the public; hence it becomes necessary that you design your website flawless and make it attractive, informative and functional so as to attract more and more customers and retain them. A good web site design would be appealing to the eyes and would have easy to understand, informative and interesting contents that would capture the interest of the visitors. A web site design can be made simple and static with simple HTML format as well as made more lively using moving images or animation with the help of flash. What type of web site design is to be used depends on the purpose of your website.

If the website intends to market a product then it need to be designed very attractively at the same time should not be too heavy that it would take a lot of time to load. HTML pages loads very easily than flash web pages. Approaching and consulting a proficient web site design firm would help you design an ideal website. There are a lot of aspects that you need to consider before designing a website like the logo, the contents of your website, how it should be functioning, how many pages it would require, the main objective of the website etc. A good design should incorporate good graphic design, be very informative, user friendly and functions just right with minimum errors. There are a lot of reputable firms offering services for designing websites. Choose the ones that provide you quality services at affordable rates. Even if your products and services are very attractive and ideal it won't get noticed if there is no well designed website to promote it and attract the customers. Hence to increase your profit it is necessary that you do a good website design.


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2773044

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Importance of Web Designing and Development in Creating a Website Design

The role played by a website simply cannot be ignored by a business house!

In modern times website is necessary to have a web presence for small and medium sector enterprises. It helps them expand their business as they are able to reach their products and services to a wider market at a reasonable cost. Creating a professional and attractive Business website has become necessary for business houses. It will help the establishment grow and nurture.

Creating a website involves two main actions:
  1. Web design
  2. Web development
The foremost step in the creation of a website is the creation of a template by the professional and highly qualified web designer. A web developer works on the template by coding the structure of the website. Later on, the web designer again works on the completed site by designing it to make it look colorful, attractive and eye-caching. This is how a website is created. It is a Superb process and hence, not everybody's cup of tea.
Site owners either possess in-house team of designers and developers or contract out the work to service providers. They take care that they choose reliable service providers, so that they obtain the best results for the same. It proves cheaper to hire a service provider than maintaining an in-house team in majority of the cases. Website design and development is useful in the creation of a website. It is not possible to have a site if this step is not undertaken.

Web design Los Angeles and development are two sides of the same coin. A site can simply not do without either of them. They are the pillars for the official website of a company. Online promotion requires a website for the business house without fail. If it is not created appropriately, one is likely to not get the expected results from the endeavor. Importance of web designing and web development can simply not be ignored in an online marketing campaign. It is not only important for the web promotion of the business house online but also in the branding of the business house or establishment to certain extent.

These are just bulleted points which show the importance of web designing and development in creating a website design.
  • However the fact is that web designing and web development are now become mandatory to make an attractive website.
  • The more attractive website you present to the audience the more influence it will get in terms of visitors and clients!
Apex Global Solution offers a wide array of website Design services, web development, SEO, multimedia development services and lots more. Apex Global Solution best Web Design LA and Web Development California.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6945576

Thursday, March 15, 2012

SEO Web Site Design in Los Angeles

Search Engine Optimization is also known as SEO and is one of the most important elements of online visibility. SEO Services Los Angeles has several different tools that can be effectively used for making your website content highly optimized or for creating SEO website design in Los Angeles.

The fact is that search engine optimization (SEO) is more of a technical process that initiated the adaptability of certain key factors on your website to help your website in getting a higher rank in search results. If you are new to website design then you might ask why SEO in web design LA?

The answer is that SEO website design is no more just another aspect; it has become an important requirement that you can't do without. The time has passed when having a company or business website was enough; now the only way to fight online competition is by having optimized websites.

SEO website design in Los Angeles stresses on user friendly design layouts that will be easy to use by both the webmaster as well as the SEO California specialists. SEO website design in Los Angeles offers several benefits like cross-browser compatibility and layouts that follow W3C compliant and have a clean as well as functional markup for content.

There are two important aspects that you need to be clear about while focusing on SEO website design Los Angeles and they are:

The Design Layout: The firm that you choose should be able to use the various elements of design in a meaningful manner to portray the organizational values and offers made to the customer. The design layout apart from being neat, clean and attractive should follow all W3C compliant or standards so that it can be ranked by different search engines. One of the important aspects that most people are unaware of is that Flash animation can't be read by search engine spiders. Hence if you design a website in flash then it will look very attractive and good but then it will not be optimized by search engines and will have low or no ranking at all. Secondly, the website layout should be made in such a way that the content boxes and navigation look neat and not complex.

Content on your website: Content is one of the most important aspects of SEO California and website design in Los Angeles. All search engine spiders will go through your content in order to rank your website and index it too. You need to focus on the active content on your website and ensure that they are keyword driven. Keywords are basically important words that not only define your business area but are also used the most by visitors for finding their requirement. For example: If you have a business that sells gardening equipments then you need to lay emphasis on keywords like gardening equipment, gardening tools, garden tools, landscaping tools etc. These are the type of keywords that most of the visitors will use while looking for spade, rake, pruning shears etc.

For further information, please visit Web site Design Los Angeles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1338367



Friday, March 2, 2012

Why Is Web Design In California So Different Than Everywhere Else In The Country?

The marketplace for California Web Design is an entirely different world than you will find anywhere else across the United States of America. Most people just don't understand just how competitive the marketplace is, why it is increasingly competitive, and why it will continue to grow and further isolate the rest of the volume web design market. Big corporations are bringing their business to southern California because it is the nucleus of leading-edge graphic design, web design, and general marketing.

No one denies that southern California has one of the most ideal living climates in the world. Never too hot, certainly never too cold - everyone wants and tries to live there. The job market has always thrived and opportunities are endless. All of this is evidenced and proven by the catastrophic and consistent population growth figures over the past 30 years. As a result, the cost of everything in so cal has shown dramatic increase. Therefore, with cost of living increasing over the past 30 years, naturally only those who can afford it actually remain. The end result is a market booming with talent, wealth, opportunity, and inevitably - fierce competition.

Such fierce competition within the California web site design industry has created a few conglomerate companies who dominate the mass marketplace by providing the highest quality of web design services at the most competitive prices. The competition, synergies, and efficiencies of these more professional and well financed companies make it near impossible for individual developers and contractors to capture new business and keep existing customers. The more professional the web design market becomes, the more that these individual developers must join corporations and accept a full-time job with a full-time salary rather than trying to maintain an uncompetitive business in a marketplace where the tide is against them.

All of this has naturally led big brand businesses to the ever competitive market. It has also led the medium sized businesses, and these days even the smallest of businesses. These companies offer a broad range of services for small and large customers at astonishingly competitive prices and provide unmatched customer service along with it. This trend is only going to continue as every new day progresses. Eventually every industry consolidates - its just a matter of time.

Nick Friend, President of Breathing Color, Inc., is a principle-centered entrepreneur who has many years of experience in developing and executing innovative sales and marketing strategies as well as building, training, and leading national and international sales forces.

His ability to recognize market opportunities, build successful business models, and lead organizations has been demonstrated with multiple business ventures including Schematics Productions, Inc., a niche focused men’s apparel company that was acquired by a large manufacturing company and is still in operation today. Mr. Friend has studied california web design.

Web Development Los Angeles, Web Design Los Angeles

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/679984

Thursday, March 1, 2012

California SEO - How To Locate A Great California SEO Company

Brian Garvin said about how to locate great SEO Company in California

If you are located in the state of California and are looking for SEO services, it's probably a good idea to find someone who represents the company to personally meet with you for a free consultation. The truth is when it comes to SEO, most people don't really understand it. Some will tell you that the more backlinks you get the better your website will rank. Well that is partially true but not exactly true.

Link Quality

While that statement has some truth, there's a lot more strategy involved and if you're looking for California SEO Services, there are a few more things you need to be aware of. Google also ranks sites not just on the quantity of links, but the quality of incoming links as well. One good link from a Page Rank 5 for example is better than 100 PR2 sites that have been spammed to death.

Variety Of Link Sources

The other thing Google likes to see are inbound links from a variety of sources. For example if you have links coming from Video Sites like Video Jug, social Networks like Facebook and Twitter, Article Directories, Social Bookmarking Sites, Press Releases Online and Yahoo Answers, google will think your website is very important and will eventually rank it accordingly.

There is no downside in getting links from all over the place except for the amount of time it takes to do this. SEO is a very time consuming task and as a general rule it is counter productive for almost any offline business to try to do it themselves. The reason is that you can literally drown yourself doing this type of work yourself. Not to mention there is a learning curve involved.

People ask me when California SEO should be outsourced and I tell them that if a business is making $5,000 or more net profit per month then they should seriously consider outsourcing all of their SEO tasks. Living in California is expensive but the average disposable income is a lot higher so it all balances out.

California SEO Services can literally double or triple the business for any company in the State of California. Once you start ranking on targeted specific keywords for your business, you'll quickly notice a spike in traffic. Chances are you will increase your client base as new prospects start swarming the pages of your website.

Source: http://portal-info-help-colin-morlan.ru/page-245066/593047

Monday, February 20, 2012

Why Your Website Design Is Critical In Attracting New Clients

Websites are the first line of communication a business has with potential clients. It is the easiest way for people interested in your services to find your company and research it and assess your company's viability. A custom web site is the easiest way to describe what services your company offers, and more importantly, how to order and purchase your products. In today's market, potential clients have access to hundreds of websites for everything under the sun. Making your company's website stand out is critical in attracting and keeping new customers.

Creative web development and web maintenance is paramount in establishing a sense of confidence in potential clients surfing the web who land on your site. Even the smallest typos, slow links and distracting features such as popup windows or flashing ads can make clients click away from your business to a more user friendly web design. That's why it is more important than ever to design a web platform that conveys the real character of your business, emphasizes the strengths of your company and cleanly and neatly outlines ways for customers to interface with your business. Reaching new clients and securing new revenue is easier with a stable, well-structured, secure site.

Professional website design can make the difference between attracting clients and Keeping them. On a site that is easy to navigate, the viewer can move quickly and efficiently through different pages while always having an easy link back to the homepage. A site that is customer friendly subconsciously reflects a business that is well-designed and customer oriented. Keeping information on each page current and clearly organized creates a sense of trust and confidence in the viewer that extends to their interaction with your business. If they feel they can trust your website, they will trust your business as well. Keeping them on your page helps ensure their business.

More than ever, companies need to focus on website maintenance and website trends. Creating easy and secure checkouts is critical to finalizing a transaction. And in today's fast-paced virtual economy, keeping your business's website easy and quick to use is critical when there are limitless options available to potential customers. Finding a reliable company to design, maintain and improve your company's website can make the difference in growing your revenue. The best way to increase your business is to invest in a web platform that supports your company's standards and invites new clients to stay and use your services, rather than those of your competitor.

Apex Global Solution is web marketing and website Design services Provider; we have highly qualified web developer, designer and SEO Experts. AGS is Best Web Development Company and Internet Marketing Company in California. Email us at: info[at]apexglobalsolutions.com Or Call 213 624 2600

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6669980

Monday, January 30, 2012

Grassroots SEO - Strategy, Process & Life Cycle

If you're a patron at search events, conferences and workshops, you might walk away the way I typically do: full of "stuff" to try but no clue where to start. Weeks go by, your notes become a beautiful art piece with dozens of brown coffee cup circles and doodles, eventually getting crumpled into a ball and tossed across the room just next to the trashcan you were aiming for.

There goes another $1,300 of inspiration without actionable takeaways. In this post, I'm going to give you a way to organize information you receive (and some of my own tactics) into what you will now and forever call an "SEO Strategy."

There are rockstars who multi-task and play all the search channels at once, optimizing content, creating links, rendering videos and engaging with social media elements while juggling 12 bowling pins and guzzling an energy drink. Good for them. For the rest of us, let's stick to something a bit more palatable and a lot more doable.

Below you'll find the basic layout of your 6-12 month campaign, starting with what's in your SEO strategy. Let's start with milestones. You can put your milestones into a Google Spreadsheet in bold, font 24. Paste items in between milestones respectively, as you grow in your understanding of SEO best practices and techniques.

You can also use project management tools, such as TeamWorkLive.com or Basecamp, both of which allow you to calendar your milestones and create assignable task lists beneath them. If you're an agency, you can create templates and cookie cutter your boilerplate SEO campaign. Example:

Milestone 1 - Your SEO Strategic Plan (1 Month)

You are going to get to hundreds of ideas and tools thrown at you for keyword research, spying on competitors, finding link opportunities and elements to consider when planning your SEO campaign. Problem is, most presenters don't actually say "okay, add these line items to your research to-do list, phase 1 of 5 in your holistic SEO strategy", they just say "here's some stuff you can do".

What's in Your SEO Plan?

Below is a list of reports and actionable lists to carry over to your project management system (or spreadsheet). The planning phase can take up to a month, but will save you a lot of time and frustration later in the campaign. Remember, this is boilerplate, so you can squeeze in new research and data-mining tasks you pick up from events. Isn't it nice to have a place to start putting the "stuff"?
  1. Obstacle Analysis Report (OAR) - This report will help you discover potential crawl and indexing issues. It has little to do with content, and is mostly focused on how search engine-friendly a website is. Criteria might include: checking for broken links and duplicate content, analyzing HTML and XML sitemaps, optimizing robots.txt and .htaccess files, to help crawlers get to the content you want indexed and away from the content you don't. The OAR might also include a review of Webmaster Tools, an audit from your seomoz.org campaign, and possibly data from similar online tools. Basically, your on-page "stuff" goes here.
  2. Competitor Analysis Report (CAR) - This is your baseline report, your Day 1, your "aha" moment, where you get to discover some exciting things about your competition, and some occasionally depressing things about your current SEO performance. Having access to Hitwise is the most ideal starting point (if you can afford it). If not, tools such as Compete.com, SEMRush, KeywordCompetitor, and OpenSiteExplorer.org can give you really nice insight into where your competitors are earning links, what keywords they are getting traffic from (AdWords and natural search), and even tell you how much more money they spent on specific keywords last month versus the month prior (a keyword performance indicator). For local businesses, WhiteSpark's Local Citation Finder does a darn good job of finding competitor business citations and sorting them by seomoz.org's own Domain Authority for easy prioritizing.
  3. Link Analysis Report (LAR) - This report is fun. Using tools like those in the seomoz.org arsenal, or possibly giving Ontolo a spin, you'll be seeking out and creating an organized inventory of link opportunities. Categorize your opportunities by classifications such as: Web Directory, Business Directory, Industry Blog, Regional Blog, Industry Portal, Industry Forum, Industry Experts, Niche Social Networks, and so forth. From here you have a few choices of how to store the information. I prefer Buzzstream, an Eric Ward-approved link tracking software, but Google Docs will do the job as well. If you do use a Google spreadsheet, break your classifications into their own tabs or link building becomes unmanageable.
  4. Keyword Discovery Report (KDR) - You'll already have a boatload of data from the first three reports to help with this, possibly the most important, report. You can also explore a number of other tools to help tally up all the keyword opportunities. WordTracker and Google AdWords will provide some excellent ideas, but nothing will beat what you'll find in your own web analytics and Webmaster Tools (provided you are actually tracking conversions and/or sales). With competitor data, you can run pivot tables in Excel to learn about the frequency of keywords the major competitors appear to be receiving traffic from. Purge out the terms that are too broad or not searched enough to be bothered with, sort by relevancy and search volume and you've got yourself a list of keywords to optimize for.
Now that you have all this terrific data, what the heck do you do with it? Here's where actionable items or deliverables come into play.
  • Put your OAR items into a To-Do List within your project management system (under the milestone of On-Page SEO)
  • Put your CAR items into a Google spreadsheet so you can track and monitor changes over time
  • Put your LAR classifications into one or more To-Do List within your project management system (under the Off-Page SEO milestone), put the opportunities into a spreadsheet or Buzzstream
  • Put your KDR into a Google Docs spreadsheet, create a new tab called Content Tracking Spreadsheet with a column for just the top 100 or so keywords, and create columns to track Page Name, Title, Meta Description, Has Video?, Image Name, Image Attributes, Has 450+ words of Content? Matt Cutts Didn't Throw Up, Is Engaging? etc. In your PM system, your content writing tasks can be assigned (put the list under the On-Page SEO milestone)

Now that the technical stuff is done, you get to start the creative and social media campaign planning. Pull a group of super smart people into a room for a full day and come out with awesome link bait, widget, tools/giveaways, and other creative link building strategies to add under your respective milestones.

Now that the technical stuff is done, you get to start the creative and social media campaign planning. Pull a group of super smart people into a room for a full day and come out with awesome link bait, widget, tools/giveaways, and other creative link building strategies to add under your respective milestones.

Milestone 2 - On-Page SEO (2 Months)

There are thousands of smart (and sometimes silly) things you can do to optimize your website. You already have a To-Do List assigned in your project management system to square away OAR findings, and a To-Do List for your content team based on the keyword themes you want to optimize for. This initial phase of your SEO shouldn't take more than 60-90 days and typically isn't rocket science.

You're going to get all sorts of new ideas from the seomoz.org blog, Search Engine Land, SEO Roundtable, and thousands of Tweets if you follow #seo in Twitter. Therefore, if you're using a project management system, your template will be growing and growing over time.

Local and Ecommerce websites will have a few special To-Do Lists for data feed optimization, location-based landing pages, and a few other things you might extract from David Mihm's Local Search Ranking Factors or elsewhere.

Milestone 3 - Off-Page SEO (3 Months for the Basic Tasks, 6 for Moderate)

Mike Essex wrote an excellent post awhile back on 99 Ways to Build Links by Giving Stuff Away. I also like to use my Meetup.com group to have everyone provide 1-3 creative link building ideas to everyone who requests ideas, along with some crowd-sourcing tools, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk and similar services. Choose the top ideas based on the business and industry and add them to an Advanced SEO To-Do List in your project management system. You will definitely need to create several project briefs for each idea so it makes sense to the tech and marketing teams.

I keep a Google spreadsheet going that has nearly 400 link building opportunities now (thank you Eric Ward).

You'll also have a list for Basic Link Building (industry destinations and directories), Moderate Link Building (outreach, and slightly more technical than submission-based linking). Advanced link building tasks are really more of an initiative and can be tracked outside of the the project management system as ongoing marketing innovation.

Milestone 4 - Social Media Optimization (1 Month for Setup)

This milestone gets a bit tricky and requires getting in bed with those crazy social media people we all love. Perform an audit of all the current destinations our SMM teams are working with and insure they all contain relevant keywords, profile links, and (if location-based) business name, address, and phone number.

Next, seek out new social media opportunities, such as niche social destinations, popular social networks that have not been claimed yet (Google+ might be a good start). You might even buy lunch for the social team, and then try to give them training on how to blog with keyword-rich links every so often. If their eyes start going crazy as if you fed them after midnight, run away and try again another day. If not, train your social team, in distributing content, video, and micro-blogging to give you a serious lift in ranking. The trick is to make them think it was all their idea.

Milestone 5 - Video & Mobile (2 Months for Setup)

Technically, you can break video and mobile into two different milestones. But for the sake of the novel this post has become, let's bundle them together. For video, I recommend having a quick chat or consult with a pro, such as Mark Robertson of ReelSEO on campaign, channel and distribution ideas. Get ready to setup some video XML sitemaps and to start distributing video to relevant sharing networks. Also be prepared to start using video ads (PPC), which may help long term placement on key YouTube videos.

For mobile, you'll want to slip ONE task in for Milestone 2, insuring your mobile users have a custom experience that's mind-blowing and award winning. The rest will revolve around the creation of mobile apps for your products, mobile search optimization, and possibly even a few short code campaigns. We love Vegas, so I'm always excited to get my MB SMS offers from Mandalay Bay).

I've Completed My Milestones, Now What?

If you get through all the milestones (6-12 months on average - some might overlap, but they don't have to), your project management system should be empty of tasks. If so, you're no longer in Production Mode, you're now in Operations Mode and need only use your link and campaign tracking tools (here's a sample) for your day-to-day SEO initiative. However, you may elect to start over and repeat the entire process annually, depending on the results from the first round.

Now you have 5-6 vehicles of SEO in an organized form. You may decide to create a page for each milestone on your yellow notepad when you attend SEO conferences and events. If a presenter gives you some cool "stuff" to do, you should be able to easily classify the task into one of these buckets, so later you can update your project management template, as though you were putting another piece into a seemingly endless puzzle; which beats the heck out of creating scribble for your crumble ball with beautiful coffee rings on it.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Do Businesses Need Web Development and Internet Marketing Companies

It cannot be denied that the modern world is the world of internet. People prefer to involve internet in every task. Right from searching for local shops to hiring service providers for business, everything can be done online. Internet has successfully provided employment to many. Today, it is hard to imagine a world without the internet.
In such a scenario, how can businesses leave out this aspect? Be it a small, medium, or large enterprise, it is good to have an online presence. A website that represents the business house has become mandatory for entrepreneurs. Though it asks for some investment at the initial stage, you are sure to derive a lot of benefit from it. You may need to invest in an appropriate web development company and internet marketing company at the start, but you are sure to reap sweet fruits.
Below mentioned is how a good quality Web Development Services will help you:
You may need to build a custom website for your business. You may not be able to do it yourself as it requires complex coding and thorough knowledge of web development. Hiring an in house team may prove expensive. Besides, you may find it redundant after a short span of time. It is advisable to hire a web development company instead. It will assist you in building a professional website for your business and maintaining it.
Below mentioned is how a good quality internet marketing service will help you:
A website for your business also helps in lead generation. You can obtain new clients or potential clients by the medium of your website. But you need to indulge in internet marketing to achieve this goal. Hiring the services of a reliable Internet Marketing Company becomes compulsory in such a situation. You can continue concentrating on your core business while the external service provider is bringing business for you.
As an entrepreneur, you need to work considerably. You need to have strong leadership skills so that you can get the maximum out of your team. You can reduce half the load from your shoulders if you hire a web development company and an internet marketing company that you can count upon. It may seem to be a bit expensive. But at the end of the day, you are getting way more than what you pay for!
Business houses find it beneficial to hire a Web Development Company and an Internet Marketing Company for their website. It may seem to be expensive but it is recommended.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6837455

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

What Would Google Bot Do?

When building or optimizing a website you have to keep in mind you need to do things so the website can be found in search engines pretty well. Therefore you have to ‘obey’ to the rules of Google. And since Google sends its bots around to find what site is relevant it might be a good idea to consider ‘what would the Google Bot do?’ when optimizing a site.



Resource by: http://www.stateofsearch.com/what-would-google-bot-do/

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Top 5 Considerations For International SEO



Considering a global expansion in 2012? Extending your web presence internationally can be challenging, especially without local resources at your disposal. But, with the right preparations it can be done. Understanding the basic principles of International SEO will ready you to enter a new foreign market successfully. Here are five critical considerations to account for prior to embarking on global SEO.

Goals & Limitations

Don’t rush the process of analyzing your existing resources and identifying potential barriers to entry. Future changes are likely to be expensive and short-cuts now can eventually be detrimental to your SEO.

Start by assessing your target market. Are you focused on a region (Latin America), a language (Spanish speakers), or a single country (Spain)? These are important distinctions that will impact all other decisions to follow.

Assess the strengths and limitations of your existing content management system (CMS). Assess and plan for various IT questions such as how you intend to handle subdomains and directories or if you’ll be able to localize URLs.

Review external factors like legal requirements, whether local hosting is a necessity, or if specific advertising laws are relevant to your industry

Search Engine Selection

Identify which search engines are most popular in the countries you're targeting. Don’t assume the search engine landscape will mirror that of the United States.

In many foreign countries, Google’s presence is far more pronounced, while in others, a local or regional company dominates. In Europe, Google accounts for more than 90 percent market share. In Russia, Yandex is the most prominent search engine and in China, Baidu is the front-runner.

When considering which search engines to target, take note: unless a user has unique personalized settings, most search engines default to the user’s local version. Meaning, if you're in Germany you will automatically be directed to Google.de. As a result, it's essential to do keyword research as well as rank checking on the local level.

Site Structure Considerations

Given any technical limitations you identify, choose a web structure that is optimal for your business’s aims. In addition to server site and other local signals such as addresses, phone numbers, links, etc., the format you select will impact search engines’ assessments of your target market. Likewise, these assumptions will ultimately determine your rankings within that geography.

You may choose to use a country code top-level domain like site.fr, a generic top-level domain (GTLD) like fr.site.org, a subdirectory with a GTLD like site.com/fr or a URL parameter like site.com?loc=fr. The pros and cons for each are different.

When selecting a structure the answer is not absolute. What may be the best choice for a large enterprise service provider with operations worldwide may be detrimental for a small B2C focused on expanding into Canada.

Decide if you want a uniform format and design for all your expansion locales or if you’d prefer to have flexibility and diversification between websites. Cultural and linguistic differences should drive these decisions. A picture of a tall, blond woman may be right for a women’s magazine in Germany but not one in Japan.

Language localization also requires advanced planning. Without it, your translators might encounter space problems. For example, on average, German words are 30 percent longer than English words. Determine in advance, if you plan on keeping wireframes the same across all languages; establish clear guidelines for style, script size, word or character count; and leave space in your original language layout for localized text length variation.

Optimization Principles

As you research strategic keywords, be sure to perform your analysis and search volume assessment on a local level in order to understand which queries are most relevant for your market. Page optimization basics apply regardless of whether your site is targeted toward the French market or the United States.

Drive page optimization by inserting your target keywords in the URL, title tags, meta description, header tags, and page content. Don’t forget to optimize pictures and videos with localized captions, headlines, and alt-texts. Often image optimization presents a comparably easy opportunity to drive additional traffic.

To gain authority in your target country or region, focus on inbound links from local sites. For example, try to obtain links from French bloggers and newspapers if you're targeting France. As with link building anywhere, the more interesting and relevant your content is, the greater your chance to earn a link.

Localization Guidelines

Users will be less likely to provide credit card information, sign up for your newsletter, or simply trust you, if their experience is flawed by a less than professional translation, so don’t rely on automated translator tools (albeit powerful but not perfect) such as Google Translate for your website.

Once you have your perfect translation, it still may need to be optimized for search. For example, more colloquial terms frequently have higher search volumes. Using a keyword more than once may be better than using a synonym that is rarely searched for. Striking the right balance between an SEO friendly localization and an eloquently worded translation is key.

Lastly, consider cultural factors when deciding how to allocate funds. In depth product research may be more crucial in some countries than in others. China is an excellent example of a market where you’ll likely need to spend more resources to understand the nuances of the consumer psyche.

Without a doubt, cultural relevance and content quality will affect conversion rates.

Source by: http://goo.gl/XokeI