| LED Digest 2555: International Languages & SEO |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.WillMaster.com/Master : the LED's Key Sponsor Master Series Software - Get Connected with Your WebSite www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. December 14, 2007 Issue no. 2555 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Text Resizing Option? ==-- ~ Amy D. Moore --== Small Biz Marketing: Networking ==-- ~ Ivan Jimenez --== International SEO ==-- ~ Peter D'Aprix ~ Maty Matyszak ~ Tom Aman ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Amy D. Moore Subject: Text sizing > I am creating a new site and was > wondering if I should offer visitors > the option to change the size of the > text using a script or CSS. - Cyril Hallard, LED Digest 2553 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1968/190/ My initial response is scripting in a text-resize option on your web page can't hurt. Let's face it, a majority of the people using the Internet are not fully aware of most features of their system (and systems they might borrow) and using Accessibility options to increase script size either on the system or within the browser isn't such a popular thing to know about. I believe it is important to design to your target audience in the first place, regardless of whether you choose to add a script or not. In order to design a good site you should have some idea of the demographics of your site visitors and size text accordingly. You should design your colors accordingly as well realizing that some 20% of men are color blind. Sure, you can download a plug-in for Firefox that will modify browser colors if you are colorblind, but how many people know that?! Any additional objects in your design might distract from your message. That includes all kinds of "helpful" things from annoying midi files playing when a page loads up to text resizing buttons. Certainly different people are annoyed by different things but I have never seen text resizing buttons that didn't sit in the most valuable piece of web page real estate. Placing them anywhere else would render them useless. If you're making a site for tweens, teens, 20-somethings and even 30-somethings RSS feed buttons in that space could be more useful (since they'll get to read your content on their own reader set however they want). I'm sure there are other snazzy web applications this group can come up with to improve web interfaces that can sit in that real estate (right at the top - usually on the right for some reason). If your customers would perceive you are providing them a helpful service by providing these buttons, that you show care and concern for their needs and that perception generates good will on your site that could convert into better achieving the site's goals - then by all means it is a relatively easy thing to do. I coded one of these for a client, Lin Schreiber, who is a life coach for baby boomers: http://revolutionizeretirement.com/. She also has audio right when the page loads too (against my professional advice to allow it to be only started by the visitor). The other sites I always see text resizing buttons on are public radio stations. For Lin I believe her intent was altruistic, but it sure doesn't hurt that she shows some level of empathy for her target market who tends to not learn about getting the most out of their computers or their optometrists! Amy D. Moore http://InternetSupportService.com Multimedia, Databases, Programming since 1996 ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= Tips for you- # - A hijack-proof, spam-resistant form for your web site - no software to install - easy to use! http://willmaster.com/webformLED # - Give Pro.Rate a trial at no cost to you. (If it can be published on the web, it can be rated.) http://willmaster.com/prorateLED Watch this space for more great tips! ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Ivan Jimenez Subject: Marketing for Small Biz - Networking > What are some specific, useful marketing > activities for small business owners? - Mari Bontrager, LED Digest 2553 Wow! I'm not sure if there's much else to add for Mari. It looks like Michael covered it all: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1969/190/ I would like to emphasize his recommendation of networking with the right people. I'd add to that that instead of attempting to network like everyone else does, flip it around and make people want to meet YOU. How does one do this? It's actually simpler than you think and you'd be amazed how easily you could do it. 1. First, familiarize yourself with a handful of publications that have good readership. These publications can be newspapers, magazines, blogs, forums, leaflets or pretty much anything people enjoy reading. 2. Become an active participant when possible and let writers / journalists / reporters know when they do a good job. Bottom line, show up on their collective radars. 3. Once there is a relationship and you've proved your value, ask how to contribute. Maybe you could write a piece, offer to be interviewed or even share a story. 4. Make everything you do newsworthy (don't just position it in a newsworthy way). 5. Now that you're (sort of) friends, let them know about everything you're doing. Because you've involved yourself in so many newsworthy things, your new friends will welcome your calls and emails. 6. You're a local star and guess what? People are suddenly interested in you! What does this mean, you've flipped the networking table and people are now chasing after you and seeking your expertise. Once the above system is working well, you can focus on all the other aspects of optimizing your business. Ka looks awesome (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/cirquedusoleil/ka/). I'm looking you up (Jim) when I'm in Vegas! LOL. Ivan Jimenez http://www.swisslogic.com Swiss precision. Miami spice. Tactical web design & marketing since 1998. -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Peter D'Aprix Subject: International SEO > Don't mention anywhere on your site terms > like "UK English" or "British English", this > really winds us up. It's just English, it's > our language remember (the clue's in the > name). It's bad enough that you've butchered > it, please don't imply that you invented it > too. - Barry Mills, LED Digest 2551 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1966/190/ An interesting topic and one that I have debated with family and friends since the internet started at which time there was a penchant for using "in-group" slang and abbreviations in email. I was especially concerned because English is probably one of the most taught second languages in the world and as such, most who speak it as a second language probably speak it more correctly than many of us for whom it is a first language. So regional, in-group or subculture slang will only appeal to a small group of site visitors leaving everyone else out of the loop. So, if I may, I would suggest using language that is understandable to the widest range of people you think will be coming to your site is the best course. So if you want the biggest return on your investment in your site (ROI), make it understandable to all in the target audience. I was also amused at the marvelous arrogance of Mr. Mills who obviously is British and feels he has some ownership of the English language. Having spent my youth in England, been educated in a freezing Dickensian boarding school scrubbed by the breezes off the English channel, even I could not understand what passed for English in the West country or London south of the Thames and many other regions. And at that time, my English was pure Thames Valley since unless it was, I was ridiculed for my American pronunciation. Later, I realized that I was no more ridiculed than the "okies" from the local town. Certainly, there has been a downward spiral in England in language even amongst (amoungst) the well educated. Which only proves that language is a living, evolving thing that responds to cultural changes. In our web inspired and world wide media distribution, with everyone being exposed to every one else's slang and regional accents, "American" English (and yes, Mr. Mills, there is definitely an American English with its own spelling, just as there is Scottish and Irish English) Americanism's have oozed into English English as have English English expressions made their way into American language. French has its police state with its Academy Francaise clamping down on foreign pollution, but that does not stop "le week-end, le pull- over, le hamberger etc. from becoming part of todays patois. Parisians who buy vacation cottages in the Dordogne can't understand a word the locals speak any more than they can understand the country people of Provence. Language has only one real function; to communicate. If it fails in that, it is failing you. Of course another of its functions is to establish group identities and make the users feel special and a member in good standing. Both can be utilized in a web site depending on the target audience. So for the widest audience use the language that everyone can understand. If you are only offering English (generic) on your site and you want a world wide audience, make sure it is text book English as it might be taught in any English Language course. For a narrow target audience, use the language (or a version of the prevailing language) that is used by that audience themselves slang and all. It will communicate better and make them feel catered to. And if there is any doubt about your meanings, include photographs and/or illustrations to make sure the important points are clear. Lastly spelling. Not much really to do about that. There are words that are spelled differently in American English as opposed to English English. Even some words have different meanings; such as "through". In the US when applied to telephone conversations, it will usually mean you are finished. But if you were going through an operator in England, it might mean whether you have made the connection as in "have you been put through?". One wonders how the allies managed to win the war with American and English operators handling calls from callers of both nationalities. Frankly I don't think it is possible to get everything right. We just all have to be tolerant of differences in language and remember it is there to communicate ideas and specifics. If we get hung up in the form of the language itself when the meaning is perfectly clear, we only have ourselves to blame. Peter D'Aprix - Visual Communications http://peterdaprix.com -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Maty Matyszak Subject: International SEO British English refers to a set of spelling and grammatical conventions used in the United Kingdom. It's just a technical term for an English standard. 'British English' is more precisely a type of English used by the upper-middle class in south-east England. It is not - and never has been - spoken by more than a small minority of the population, even within the UK itself. Both English as a language, and the English as a people benefit hugely from the fact that English is a very large international family of dialects, all busily cross-fertilizing each other. American English has greatly enriched the language, and 'butchering' is a rather chauvinistic way of referring to different usage. After all, we don't still use the 'pure' language of Chaucer or Shakespeare. In internet terms, we need to forget the misconception that there was ever a 'golden age' when everyone spoke the 'perfect English' of South Kensington. If any of the different versions of English that one finds on the net helps to convey an idea or emotion more clearly and precisely than the 'standard' version - go for it, and hope it catches on. I agree it is not appropriate that a website should say that it is 'British English' or 'American English' - if you can't work it out from the type of language being used, you probably don't need to. What you do need to explain, where required, is that though English and Americans refer to some of the same measures e.g. 'gallons' they settled on different (though both originally British in this case!) standards. It might be called English, but the Brits have to face up to the fact that we don't 'own' the language, and never really did. As they say in American, 'Get over it'. Maty Matyszak -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Tom Aman Subject: International SEO Like Isaac Asimov, I find the English language, in all of its variations, totally fascinating. I have a book somewhere around about the history of English (also ran as a series on PBS many years ago). One thing it details is that most of the "accents" heard in the U.S. of A. (and Canada, as well) can usually be traced to some area of Britain - leftovers from the way the early immigrants spoke. It traced everything from the New England twang to the southern drawl and a lot in between. One area I know of is the Ottawa Valley (Ontario) accent, tracable back to the Scots who initially settled there. (I suspect that Vivien Leigh, who played Scarlet O'Hara in the 1939 movie of Gone With The Wind, although English by birth, had no trouble sounding like a Southern Belle since her English accent worked well for the area represented.) Even the convention for naming the letter "Z", called "zed" in England and Canada and "zee" in the U.S. traces back to those early times when the language was still settling out - the proper name to use depended on your origins. I suspect many of our spelling differences and the differences in the way we refer to common items just reflect a natural evolution that has led to differences in various regions because of the physical separation between various groups and is probably an ongoing thing. I sometimes wonder if, with things like TV, movies and now the Internet, these differences will eventually disappear so there will be basically only one form of the language in pronounciation and in spelling. Tom Aman Aman Software http://www.cyberspyder.com (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world." - Ludwig Wittgenstein |
