more...

You are browsing the archive for Germany.

by admin

Plasticine Art Showcase: Shape Your Imagination

March 17, 2010 in Featured weBlogs by admin

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

by admin

Working with multi-regional websites

March 17, 2010 in Google by admin

  • Webmaster Level: Intermediate

    Did you know that a majority of users surveyed feel that having information in their own language was more important than a low price? Living in a non-English-speaking country, I’ve seen friends and family members explicitly look for and use local and localized websites—properly localized sites definitely have an advantage with users. Google works hard to show users the best possible search results. Many times those are going to be pages that are localized, for the user’s location and/or in the user’s language.

    If you’re planning to take the time to create and maintain a localized version of your website, making it easy to recognize and find is a logical part of that process. In this blog post series, we’ll take a look at what is involved with multi-regional and multi-lingual websites from a search engine point of view. A multi-regional website is one that explicitly targets users in various regions (generally different countries); we call it multilingual when it is available in multiple languages, and sometimes, the website targets both multiple regions and is in multiple languages. Let’s start with some general preparations and then look at websites that target multiple regions.

    Preparing for global websites

    Expanding a website to cover multiple regions and/or languages can be challenging. By creating multiple versions of your website, any issues with the base version will be multiplied; make sure that you have everything working properly before you start. Given that this generally means you’ll suddenly be working with a multiplied number of URLs, don’t forget that you’ll need appropriate infrastructure to support the website.

    Planning multi-regional websites

    When planning sites for multiple regions (usually countries), don’t forget to research legal or administrative requirements that might come into play first. These requirements may determine how you proceed, for instance whether or not you would be eligible to use a country-specific domain name.

    All websites start with domain names; when it comes to domain names, Google differentiates between two types of domain names:

    • ccTLDs (country-code top level domain names): These are tied to a specific country (for example .de for Germany, .cn for China). Users and search engines use this as a strong sign that your website is explicitly for a certain country.
    • gTLDs (generic top level domain names): These are not tied to a specific country. Examples of gTLds are .com, .net, .org, .museum. Google sees regional top level domain names such as .eu and .asia as gTLDs, since they cannot be tied to a specific country. We also treat some vanity ccTLDs (such as .tv, .me, etc.) as gTLDs as we’ve found that users and webmasters frequently see these as being more generic than country-targeted (we don’t have a complete list of such vanity ccTLDs that we treat as gTLDs as it may change over time). You can set geotargeting for websites with gTLDs using the Webmaster Tools Geographic Target setting.

    Geotargeting factors

    Google generally uses the following elements to determine the geotargeting of a website (or a part of a website):

    1. Use of a ccTLD is generally a strong signal for users since it explicitly specifies a single country in an unmistakable way.
      or
      Webmaster Tools’ manual geotargeting for gTLDs (this can be on a domain, subdomain or subdirectory level); more information on this can be found in our blog post and in the Help Center. With region tags from geotargeting being shown in search results, this method is also very clear to users. Please keep in mind that it generally does not make sense to set a geographic target if the same pages on your site target more than a single country (say, all German-speaking countries) — just write in that language and do not use the geotargeting setting (more on writing in other languages will follow soon!).
    2. Server location (through the IP address of the server) is frequently near your users. However, some websites use distributed content delivery networks (CDNs) or are hosted in a country with better webserver infrastructure, so we try not to rely on the server location alone.
    3. Other signals can give us hints. This could be from local addresses & phone numbers on the pages, use of local language and currency, links from other local sites, and/or the use of Google’s Local Business Center (where available).

    Note that we do not use locational meta tags (like “geo.position” or “distribution”) or HTML attributes for geotargeting. While these may be useful in other regards, we’ve found that they are generally not reliable enough to use for geotargeting.

    URL structures

    The first three elements used for geotargeting are strongly tied to the server and to the URLs used. It’s difficult to determine geotargeting on a page by page basis, so it makes sense to consider using a URL structure that makes it easy to segment parts of the website for geotargeting. Here are some of the possible URL structures with pros and cons with regards to geotargeting:

    ccTLDs
    eg: example.de, example.fr    		 Subdomains with gTLDs
    eg: de.site.com, fr.site.com, etc.    		 Subdirectories with gTLDs
    eg: site.com/de/, site.com/fr/, etc.    		 URL parameters
    eg: site.com?loc=de, ?country=france, etc.
    pros (+)
    - clear geotargeting
    - server location is irrelevant
    - easy separation of sites
    - legal requirements (sometimes)    		 pros (+)
    - easy to set up
    - can use Webmaster Tools geotargeting
    - allows different server locations
    - easy separation of sites    		 pros (+)
    - easy to set up
    - can use Webmaster Tools geotargeting
    - low maintenance (same host)    		 pros (+)
    (not recommended)
    cons (-)
    - expensive (+ availability)
    - more infrastructure
    - ccTLD requirements (sometimes)    		 cons (-)
    - users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone (is “de” the language or country?)    		 cons (-)
    - users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone
    - single server location
    - separation of sites harder    		 cons (-)
    - segmentation based on the URL is difficult
    - users might not recognize geotargeting from the URL alone
    - geotargeting in Webmaster Tools is not possible

    As you can see, geotargeting is not an exact science (even sites using country-code top level domain names can be global in nature), so it’s important that you plan for the users from the “wrong” location. One way to do this could be to show links on all pages for users to select their region and language of choice. We’ll look at some other possible solutions further on in this blog post series.

    Dealing with duplicate content on global websites

    Websites that provide content for different regions and in different languages sometimes create content that is the same or similar but available on different URLs. This is generally not a problem as long as the content is for different users in different countries. While we strongly recommend that you provide unique content for each different group of users, we understand that this may not always be possible for all pages and variations from the start. There is generally no need to “hide” the duplicates by disallowing crawling in a robots.txt file or by using a “noindex” robots meta tag. However, if you’re providing the same content to the same users on different URLs (for instance, if both “example.de/” and “example.com/de/” show German language content for users in Germany), it would make sense to choose a preferred version and to redirect (or use the “rel=canonical” link element) appropriately.

    Do you already have a website that targets multiple regions or do you have questions about the process of planning one? Come to the Help Forum and join the discussion. In following posts, we’ll take a look at multi-lingual websites and then look at some special situations that can arise with global websites. Bis bald!

    Written by John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst, Google Switzerland

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

by admin

Multilingual Marketing and SEO

March 11, 2010 in Resources by admin

  • English may have emerged as the international language of business and, subsequently, as the default language of the World Wide Web, but consider this: 75% of the world’s population speaks no English whatsoever.

    With this in mind, the need for businesses to talk to international customers in their own language can’t be overstated. Even though English is the most widely spoken second language, the fact remains that most consumers will search for products or services in their native tongue first.

    So for any business looking to go global, the need to ‘think local’ means you should be aware of the multitude of cultural and linguistic complexities that you will face when entering foreign markets.

    For example, the French in France and the French in Canada (Québéquois) is largely the same, but there are enough dialectal differences between the two forms of French to mean that distinct marketing strategies are essential when targeting each market.

    By way of illustration, ‘weekend’ is simply ‘le weekend’ in France, but in Canadian French it is ‘fin de semaine’ (literally, ‘end of the week’). And ‘courriel’ is email in Canadian French – a contraction of ‘courrier électronique’ – but simply ‘email’ in France.

    There are many such differences between the French dialects in France, Canada, Switzerland and Belgium which help to highlight the importance of properly localizing your services for each specific target market. The same can also be said for German (Germany)/Swiss German, Portuguese (Portugal)/Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish (Spain)/Latin American Spanish and, closer to home, US/UK English.

    So assuming you intend to properly localize your website for international markets, there are a number of issues you must consider when optimizing the content so that you gain as high a position on Google as possible.

    Firstly, there is the domain name. Your choice of name is entirely up to you, though you may want to consider something that is suitable for the country that you’re targeting – your brand name may work just as well abroad, but you are best using the services of a specialist translation/localization company who can research any potential negative connotations of your name in your target market.

    Equally important is your choice of web host as the server they use should be located in your target country – Google considers the IP address of the server in its algorithms, so make sure you ask where their server is based before committing to using their services.

    Then there is the issue of keywords. There is a strong argument that says you should NEVER translate keywords, simply because even a direct dictionary translation may not be what people use to search for a service or product locally. They may use colloquialisms, abbreviations or acronyms instead.

    In the same way as you would use something like Google’s keyword tool when identifying the most popular industry keywords in English, you should thoroughly research the key search phrases that are incorporated into your new foreign language website too.

    Localization and SEO should underpin any international online marketing strategy, as it will not only help ensure linguistic and cultural nuances don’t impede your entry into new markets, but also your visibility is maximized on foreign search engines.

    About the author

    Christian Arno is founder and Managing Director of Lingo24, a global translation services provider that specializes in website localization.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

by admin

Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: March 2010

March 11, 2010 in Featured weBlogs by admin

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

by admin

Thomas Strohe of Intergenia: Everything Is More In WebHostingDay 2010

March 11, 2010 in Hosting by admin

  • thomas-stroheLast year was my first one at the WebhostingDay. I have made and interview with Kirsten Nothbaum of WHD team titled “WebhostingDay Brings Together The Brightest In The Industry” and went to the show after that. Some pictures from WebhostingDay have been published here after the conference. One year later I’m planing to go to WHD 2010 which takes place in the same Phantasialand near Cologne again. The 2010 event is focused on cloud computing and I have an increased expectations to learn some new things about the emerging cloud hosting industry, that I don’t know… I think it wouldn’t be hard ;)

    The last year’s WHD was well organized and anyone who I met there said very kind word about the team behind the show. It is worth to attend. A month and a half before the show B10WH.com speaks to Thomas Strohe, the man behind the event. Take 10 minutes of your time to read our interview with him.

    Hi Thomas, let me ask you first what is the difference between last year’s WebhostingDay and WHD 2010? Will you welcome more participants this year, is there a growing commercial interest, or any new sessions?

    Of course, we hope that at least as many attendees as last year will sing up. And regarding current numbers, it looks more than promising (registration is still possible until March 4th). With regard to official WebhostingDay partners – these are the companies having talks or/and exhibiting at the fair – and media partners we could already achieve an increase as compared to 2009. Now there are almost 80 partners altogether, while there were about 60 of them last year. Therefore, we will have a completely redesigned fair area, more keynotes and more rooms for the so-called hosting.SESSIONs.

    Has the cloud computing trend changed the agenda of this year’s WebhostingDay, if you compare it to 2009 even? Last year “cloud computing” was more a “magic phrase” than and something tangible. When you are looking at this year’s WHD, at the sponsors and participants, can you say that we have made a step ahead in process of moving to the clouds?

    Yes, even last year the cloud was a very popular topic, which will be the case again this year. A great number of talks and sessions carry the word cloud in their title or it is at least mentioned in the abstract. Many of the presented solutions are designed for cloud computing or cloud hosting. Moreover, CloudCamp, a bar camp with experts from the cloud sector will be held again in the framework of WebhostingDay.

    Please tell the readers of B10WH.com more about the WHD sessions. Which ones do you find most interesting, and which one was harder to organize? Who of the industry’s “marterminds” was harder to bring to speak at WHD?

    In fact nobody had to be convinced to speak at WebhostingDay. The event is highly appreciated, and we even had to call off some potential speakers due to a lack of free speaking slots. But this was necessary, you know, as the schedule would have blown otherwise. However, panel discussions have now been added to the agenda, which allow for multiple speakers at a time to discuss current topics. These are probably very interesting for the audience, since different points of view are presented.

    A part from IT giants like Microsoft and Intel last year Parallels looked like the one of the most important partners of WHD? Who is staring this year?

    We are glad that we were able to enthuse those big players like Microsoft, Parallels, Intel, AMD, HP and Fujitsu for WebhostingDay again. But also the smaller businesses are very valuable partners for us, which either want to establish themselves or their products on the German market, or come from Europe and want to gain new customers from America or Asia by this means. The combination of “old hands” and newbies is what makes the event more diverting and interesting for visitors.

    Do you have any partners who joined WHD for the first time this year?

    Yes, there are several partners who have joined for the first time, e.g. GateSecure, who will be presenting a web filter, Genotec, an ISP from Switzerland, and STULZ, who work on data center cooling solutions, to name but a few.

    On the website you say that WebHostingDay 2010 is “the most important web hosting event in the world”? Is the WHD really the biggest and most important event in web hosting industry? Do you compete for the top spot with HostingCon… or the WHD is focused mostly on the European web hosting markets?

    Looking at the numbers of visitors and exhibitors, WebhostingDay really is the world’s largest web hosting event. And even if the majority comes from Europe today, we can detect a clear development to more and more international audience. By the way, we do not see HostingCon as a rival, but both events as having a friendly coexistence.

    As an organizer of a major industry event you receive a lot of insight information which helps you to better understand the market’s developments. Let me ask you is the North American web hosting industry more innovative than the European markets… if we look at the cloud computing we will see that most cloud hosting providers we can find on the market are American?

    I don’t think that North-American web hosting companies are more innovative than European companies. But the continent as a whole gets more attention due to giants like Google or Amazon. The potential of the cloud has been recognized in Europe, of course, and many companies begun developing very specialized solutions for B2B purposes. As many innovations are not targeting the end user, they are not talked about so much in the public. When visiting WebhostingDay you will be able to meet many of those companies and solutions.

    How do use see the German hosting market from a cloud computing perspective? Are the German businesses more skeptical or enthusiastic when it comes to cloud computing and cloud hosting infrastructures?

    Basically, German companies are open-minded for this topic, but it will probably take some time until a majority of companies has changed their infrastructure respectively. Especially in times of uncertain economic situations, people will likely wait and see until new things are tried and tested before investing into them.

    I hope you can answer a question from a provider’s perspective. What do you think would happen with the “good old server” within the next year? Do you see many people who used to use physical dedicated servers to migrate to virtual machines?

    As far as the respective offers are attractive regarding price and performance I see potential indeed. We have been offering virtually dedicated servers ourselves with one of our brands for many years now, which have gained more and more approval over the years. If the performance of these systems can meet the highest professional demands in future, it is likely that many people will choose this alternative in order to save some cost.

    There has been a lot of talk about the financial crisis. It has become the most used “word” and probably the most used explanation of anyone’s business failure within the last 2 years… Is the current financial situation in Europe and Germany hitting the web hosting sector?

    Luckily, the hosting industry has suffered quite little from the crisis so far. That is because server-based applications are used in every modern company for daily work, so that they cannot really cut down on them. Of course it happened here and there that some clients broke away because they became insolvent, but generally speaking it did not hurt the industry so badly.

    Now I have a question about the WHD 2010. I’m curious why don’t you change the place or the time when WHD takes place? It is always in Phantasialand, which is OK, but if you decide to host the event between May and September there shall be much more fun for the attendees?

    We are very satisfied with Phantasialand as conference venue, because it offers, for instance, a central location in Germany that can be reached easily from everywhere. Additionally, it has the equipment we need and we have made good experiences in working together with their team. Regarding the time, it is quite close to CeBIT, which attracts many visitors from abroad. That way they get the chance to combine both events in one journey. And if we made it in summer, the theme park would normally be open to the public and it would be impossible to close it for the event without causing unnecessary cost.

    Did you get yourself in any funny situations during the last year’s WHD or through the years. Something related to the organization, any mistakes taht you would share today?

    There are always some minor mishaps, of course, which cannot be avoided even by the best organization. This begins with the weather – in 2008 our signposts in the park were blown down by the strong wind – and continues in technics, e.g. when one of our presentation notebooks falls down in the lecture room and has to be replaced quickly. But apart from that we have been spared from greater disasters so far. No speaker that became ill shortly before the event or complete power outage etc. Let’s hope it remains that way!

    I’m sure that every entrepreneur has a story to tell about who did they get down to their business. Please tell me yours!

    I founded my first company when I was only 15 years old and sort of operated it from my room. I had the idea to start the company when I detected a market gap in Germany in the area of dedicated hosting. It was an advantageous time for the IT sector and the company was able to grow quickly. Together with the brothers Jochen and Christoph Berger I founded Intergenia a few years later.

    What did make you to organize WebhostingDay. You would have a successful business without being involved in this venue. Does it help you to stay connected to others in web hosting industry and do you learn anything from being part of it?

    That’s right, even without being organizers of a hosting event we would have been equally successful as a company. But we actually had in mind then that by exchanging views between industry colleagues many valuable synergies could develop from which all involved parties could profit. Even if it would only mean to get to know each other better, which makes business easier in the follow-up. There had just been no such forum in Europe before. I wanted to close this gap.

    Thank you very much for taking some of your time to talk for B10WH. See you in Cologne.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

by admin

A green search engine?

March 11, 2010 in Search Engines by admin

  • Could you ever imagine that each click you do online can save our rainforest? According to Ecosia search engine this is doable.  Functioning as a non profit organization  since December 2009 and founded by Christian Kroll in Wittenberg of Germany, Ecosia became gradually popular with an amount of 76.600 daily users.  So, how it works? Each user with every click online saves 2 m² of rainforest as Ecosia cooperates with WWF and donates a total amount of 80% of its  revenue.  The procedure of search is supported by Bing and Yahoo, a fact that adds credibility to an effective search and some features such as personalizing language, maps and  images make the website environment appealing. So far, Ecosia operates in 30 countries and time will show if users will embrace this green search engine. Perhaps you are the next one…

    by Jona Gjoni

    Sources: www.ecosia.org

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »