Ryan Buddenhagen, May 7, 2012
On this blog, I have touched on the importance of catering SEO efforts to the local context of a particular culture in many different posts. It is the underlying theme of my international SEO writing as it is massively important for brands and yet it is not done enough. When businesses expand their operations into different cultures or countries, the people that make up their audience changes based on culture, language, and the political-judicial landscape that they find themselves operating in.
Companies must research and understand the cultures they are catering to in order to better align their content, web design, and tone to match the tendencies and preferences of those in this audience. They also need to understand the language that is used by the audience if it is different than that which the company normally conducts business. The marketers for these businesses and the SEO companies they partner with need to take a look at the language and assess how it is used by the people, specifically for keyword research. They must ensure that they are using the most accurate words (as used by the local audience) to describe the concepts they want to communicate in the keywords and keyword phrases. Additionally, the political and judicial structures can dictate a great deal in terms of privacy, patent concerns, and censorship as seen with many tech companies recently. The judicial system comes into play in this regard and companies must prepare for the legal structure and regulation that is experienced there, specific to their industry.
The term glocalization is used in many areas of international operations, especially PR, and it aptly describes the experience of companies expanding into new markets, or more accurately, what companies should do when they expand into these international markets. The term joins the words "global" and "localization." Maynard (2003) offers an excellent introductory definition of glocalization being "the process whereby global corporations tailor products and marketing to particular local circumstances to meet variations in consumer demand" (in Maynard & Tian, 2004, p. 288). This definition guides the catering that should occur in this process.
For more information regarding glocalization and how it relates to SEO and the web presence of businesses in new markets, reach out to me directly at rbuddenhagen(at)webimax.com and @ryanwbudd.
