Japanese language website promotion

[maninderwalia]

Hi!A person in Thailand contacted me asking me if I could promote a site which was in Japanese language.
I had no answer.
Any suggestions please!

[ihelpyou]

hmm. Just saw this... sorry!

You might want to know the Japanese language a little before pursuing something like that. I would anyway.

[daikon]

Here is a list of search engines in Japan: http://www.ejapaninc.com/seo/chart.htm

[ihelpyou]

Welcome to the forums daikon! :hi:

Thanks for the useful link!

[masterkahdeksan]

Here's also a list of Japanese search engines.

http://global.webpositioning.jp/japanese-search-engines-lists.html

[kneelsit]

:hi: Welcome daikoni. You have come to the right place..

As to the question on Japanese language site Maninderwalia
I would treat that one with a great deal of caution.

In any case the site should be picked up by the Japanese version of google. However, the big problem with an eastern language
is keeping track of and fixing broken links I have just taken down
both my chinese and japanese versions as they were causing
me no end of headaches and bringing little in the way of hits.

Best to play it safe and politely decline.

[kneelsit]

:hi: So sorry Welcome to you TOO masterkahdeksan .

You almost slipped past me there.

Tell me do the Japanese tend to buy very much online yet? I have
had a few sales - from my english language site, just wondering.

[daikon]

In my experience Japanese buy online as much as any other nationality. People here are comfortable with credit cards, comfortable with shipping proceedures. One advantage Japan has is that you can have your order shipped to a convenience store, then go there and pick it up whenever, so you don't have to worry about being home at the right time. And the country is blanketed in convenience stores. In fact, Japan 7-11 does so well that it has bought it's US parent.

This site, for example, does over A$50K in sales per month: http://www.sskamo.co.jp and all they sell are soccer products. http://www.rakuten.co.jp said they did over 1 billion yen in sales last year.

Maintaining and promoting JP sites is, obviously, much easier when you are proficient in the language and work on a JP OS, which how I get by doing SEO here in Tokyo. Also, it's almost imperative to have all of your copy written by a native Japanese speaker who has marketing experience, ie, you should localize your content rather than just translating it.

It may be safer to decline, yes, but then by doing so you may be limiting yourself.

[kneelsit]

Thanks for that info Daikon. I will keep in mind what you say
about the Japanese buyers and when funds permit may consider upgrading and re-issuing my Japanese site.

Good to hear an opinion from a local resident.

[kneelsit]

BTW notices that neither of you have posted your websites in your profiles - come on don't be shy!


:)

[daikon]

This is me: http://www.ejapaninc.com/seo

[Kal]

The latest edition of the Marketing Sherpa Buyer's Guide to SEO had some great info on optimising web sites in foreign languages and the considerations in doing so:
http://www.sherpastore.com/page.cfm/1759?a=ds (not an affiliate link)

The person interviewed about it was the owner of http://global-reach.biz/ and his site has lots of useful info about translating services etc. (You can also purchase his company's services if you want to outsource).