Tips 1:
Spanish isn't Spanish everywhere. From the recent SES Latino conference in Miami it became very clear that Spanish isn't the same in all Spanish speaking countries. It was even said that there are as many different versions of Spanish as there are countries who speak it.
So the key when creating Spanish pages for your website is to create unique Spanish pages written for each Spanish country you are trying to communicate with. So you may need to have a sub site for Argentina, Mexico, Columbia,…
If not you will miss out on SEO opportunities as in different Spanish speaking countries they will use different words that mean the same thing, as well as you won't be speaking to them in a way that will resonate and compel them to take action.
Tip 2:
Use images of flags to denote areas of your site that are focused on specific countries, and words to describe areas of the site that are in a different language. So that means don't use an image of a Mexican flag to communicate to people that this link will take them to a Spanish area of the site. An image of a Mexican flag should communicate that it will take them to an area of the site that focuses on Mexico. If you have a Spanish language area of the site have a text link that say “en Espanola”.
Tip 3:
In Brazil they don't speak Spanish, they speak Portuguese. So be sure to have the areas of your site that are meant for your Brazilian audience in Portuguese not Spanish or English.
Tip 4:
When writing in a foreign language write all of the body text with the proper accents, and use the non accented spellings in meta content such as title tags, alt tags, keywords,… as well as in your footer area.
Tip 5 :
When marketing to Hispanics in the USA be aware that over 20% of them will only be influenced by Spanish language ads to Spanish language sites. 30% will work with bilingual sites and ads, and the other 50% of Hispanics accept and work with English language ads and web pages. So if you are marketing to American Hispanics it is advisable to have at a minimum bilingual ads and web pages. For this you can even run tests with Spanish ads going to English and Spanish landing pages and then to English and Spanish web sites. As well as English ads going to English and Spanish landing pages and then to English and Spanish web sites.
Tip 6:
This isn't limited to foreign language site, but it came out at the conference. Recent case studies have shown that when combining banner or display ads with Pay per Click ads that online purchases increase by more than 200% and offline purchases increased by more than 85%. Get your message in front of people in different ways, different places,…
Tip 7:
Google dominates the Latin American markets with a 72% market share followed by Yahoo with 17% and MSN with 2%. So from an SEO & SEM perspective if you are in Latin America focus your strategies on Google.
