Website Globalization and E Business Germany

Globalization Partners International White Paper | 2012

Website Globalization and
E-Business Germany
The Website Globalization and E-Business Series includes a series of brief reports on country-specific
website globalization and e-business topics. The series includes:

• China • Russia
• Japan • Argentina
• Germany • France
• US Hispanic Market • United Kingdom
• Brazil • United Arab Emirates
• India

This series of reports is meant to be a primer on e-Business as well as a collection of language, culture
and website globalization facts by country. These reports are by no means a complete coverage of
these topics. For more comprehensive or customized reports on country-specific Website Globalization
and E-Business topics, please email mspethman@globalizationpartners.com.

No material contained in this report may be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written
permission of Globalization Partners International. The information contained in this White Paper has
been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable, but neither its completeness nor accuracy can
be guaranteed.

© Copyright 2008 - 2012 Globalization Partners International. All rights reserved.
® All Trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The Website Globalization and E-Business paper All graphics used in this report were provided by Flikr, Google Images and other free internet resources
was researched and written by: for pictures.

Martin Spethman
Managing Partner Globalization Partners International helps companies communicate and conduct business in any
Globalization Partners International language and in any locale by providing an array of globalization services including:
mspethman@globalizationpartners.com
Phone: 866-272-5874 • Translation
• Multilingual Desktop Publishing
Nitish Singh, PhD, • Software Internationalization & Localization
Author of “The Culturally Customized Website”, • Website Internationalization & Localization
“Localization Strategies for Global E-Business”, • Software and Website Testing
and Assistant Professor of International Business, • Interpretation (Telephonic, Consecutive, Simultaneous)
Boeing Institute of International Business, John • Globalization Consulting
Cook School of Business, Saint Louis University. • SEO (Global Search Engine Marketing)
singhn2@slu.edu
Phone: 314-977-7604 To learn more about Globalization Partners International, please visit us at blog.globalizationpartners.com.

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I. Market Introduction and Stats

Country % of Average Number Fast Facts Numbers
People of Items Bought
Online Online Q3 & Q4 General Stats GDP $2.94 trillion (2010)
Daily Economy Growth Rate 2.5% third quarter 2011
(www.tradingeconomics.com)
UK 57% 17
Population 81.4 million (July 2011 est.)
Denmark 64% 15.5
Internet Internet population Approx 65 million, 80% of total population
Norway 51% 14.25 (June 2011)
Belgium 55% 5 Online spending 12.1 billion € Q1, Q2 2011, 26% increase
Netherlands 54% 6.5 (www.telecompaper.com)

Germany 47% 9.5 Future Estimates German e-commerce is projected to exceed
37 billion euros ($53 billion) in 2014, according
Sweden 62% 15.5 to Rakuten (Japanese e-commerce firm)

Italy 39% 3

France 67% 6.5
L Germany is the fifth largest economy in the world with a GDP of approximately 2.94 trillion (based
Source: The European Interactive Advertising
Association (www.eiaa.net), 2009. on CIA 2010 estimates).
L Germany has a population of 81 million highly educated people.
L Germany has the largest online population in Europe. (2011).
L The German online population has grown steadily from 29.2% of the total population in 2000 to
80% of the total population in 2011.
L The number of broadband connections in Germany grew to 26.9 million at the end of Q3 2011,
according to DSLWeb’s quarterly update.
L According to a Forrester report, German consumers prefer to pay for online transactions with an
electronic direct debit rather than with credit card.
L According to socialbakers.com, Germany had over 21.6 million Facebook users by November 2011.
The top 3 brands on Facebook by number of fans were McDonald’s DE, Lufthansa and Kinger Riegel.


II. German Culture and the Online Consumer

Cultural Values German Culture and Values
Individualism: Cultures like Germany that are high on
individualism tend to value individual goals over group
goals, independence and self-expression.
Germany is a Western society that shares some
Power Distance: A belief in authority and hierarchy of the common symbols and traditions of other
(high power distance). Cultures like Germany that are Western cultures, yet it has its own unique
high on power distance accept power and hierarchy
in the society and are low on egalitarianism. In such and rich culture. At a macro-level the German
cultures, less powerful citizens are accepting of
unequal power distribution in society.
culture can be described using five cultural
Masculinity – Femininity: A belief in achievement values based on the work of Hofstede (1980).
and ambition (masculine) versus a belief in nurturing Professor Geert Hofstede conducted perhaps
and caring for others (feminine). Masculine cultures
like Germany value clear gender roles, material the most comprehensive study of how values in
possessions and success.
the workplace are influenced by culture and is
Low Context: Low context cultures are societies
that are logical, linear and action-oriented. Usually the author of several books including “Culture’s
information is explicit and formalized. Most of the Consequences” (2nd, fully revised edition, 2001), and “Cultures and Organizations, Software of the
communication takes place in a rational, verbal and
explicit way to convey concrete meaning through Mind” (2nd fully revised edition 2005).
rationality and language.
Uncertainty Avoidance: The importance of
predictability, structure and order (high uncertainty Hofstede demonstrated that there are national and regional cultural groupings that affect the behavior
avoidance) versus the willingness for risk-taking and of societies and organizations that are very persistent across time. Hofstede’s research also showed
an acceptance of ambiguity and limited structure (low
uncertainty avoidance). People from cultures high on that cultural values like Individualism-Collectivism, Power Distance, Masculinity-Femininity,
uncertainty avoidance tend to have low tolerance for High-Low Context and Uncertainty Avoidance can be used to categorize various national
uncertainty and avoid ambiguous situations. They
view conflict and competition as threatening and value cultures.
security over adventure and risk.

A country’s culture is made unique based upon which of the five values are incorporated into daily life
The German Online Consumer and the emphasis it puts on each. For example, Germany rates significantly on all five values.
Source Online Activities
Insights into German Consumer Values:
Familiarity Go straight to price comparison
portals
• 42.3% of non-frequent L Loyalty: German consumers usually are inclined to buy from German online retailers.
shoppers
• 56.6% of frequent shoppers
L Privacy and Security: Based on a study completed by Postbank, 77.3% of German e-shoppers
Go straight to search engines
have security concerns when purchasing from a new retailer (not used before). In addition, 77.5%
• 60.8% of non-frequent
shoppers
of consumers are concerned about unknown payment methods. If no security advice is provided,
• 72.4% of frequent shoppers 75.2% of German shoppers will not proceed with the transaction.
(Forrester Research, 2009)

Security • 77.3% of German online L Gender Differences: In 2005, a Postbank report found that the busiest online shopping month for
(Information
shoppers have security
from Postbank concerns about retailers German male consumers was February, whereas it was September for German female consumers.
Study on with whom they have never
Consumer
Satisfaction)
transacted business.
• 75.5% of German online L Payment Options: German consumers prefer to pay for online transactions with an electronic
shoppers do not like unknown
payment methods. direct debit rather than with credit card. 60% of all online purchases are paid for with direct debit.
• 75.2% of German online
shoppers will not proceed with
their purchase, if there is no
security information posted.

(Source: Postbank Study www.postbank.com)


II. Germany Culture and the Online Consumer

Three primary platforms used by online German Consumer Decision Making:
German consumers:
Online German in German 81.5%
Below are some insights into the German consumer mindset based on theoretical and applied research
in academia (Walsh et al, 2001; Fan and Xiao, 1998; Singh et al, 2004, 2005):
Online auctions 67.5%

International Online Shops 22.3%
” Familiarity: Based on a study conducted by PostBank, nearly three-quarters of online shoppers
(Postbank Study: Consumer satisfaction with online
retail increases www.postbank.com/) visit retailers with whom they have a purchasing history. The shoppers go directly to the
homepages of these businesses.
” Security: Germans primarily shop online from trusted brands. The first time these consumers visit
a site they actively look for a security policy or advice.
” Time: Germans tend to be very time sensitive and operate in time-energy conserving mode.
Purchasing Behavior: German consumers make nearly one-quarter of all purchases during the
business lunch break from noon to 2 PM.
” Gender-and-Age Difference: German men as well as the younger age groups are significantly
more likely to use online auction sites.

German Consumer Segments:

Market segmentation identifies profitable consumer segments based on themes such as socio-
demographics, geographics and psychographics.

Germany’s demographic make up can be generalized into the following categories:

€ Factual German Consumers: This consumer segment has a knack for finding factual information
and value-orientation. Perfectionism is highly rated by this group when making decisions. These
German consumers are prepared to make an effort to find the right, high-quality product.
€ Demanding Comparison Shopper: These consumers switch brands on a regular basis, looking
for the best value, which is not always price related.
€ Impulsive Consumers: This segment tends to be indifferent to brand, shopping experience and
product differences. Consumers in this group tend to make purchases based on impulse decisions.
€ Hedonistic German Consumers: These consumers tend to be driven by emotions and confusion
based on “too many choices”.
€ Shopping Enthusiasts: These are consumers who are interested in shopping for new products
and experiences.


III. The German Language

German Language Statistics German is a West Germanic language and a member of the Indo-European language family. Within
Ì German developed as a specific language this group is one of the Germanic languages, related to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, Dutch,
sometime late in the 19th century as well as to English. It is spoken by more than 120 million people worldwide in 38 countries.
Ì The most widely spoken language in the (Wikipedia.org). The primary countries in which German is spoken are Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
European Union is German Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol province of Italy and parts of Belgium.
Ì The top five mostly widely used
languages on the Internet includes
German
Ì 25% of tourists in the U.S.A. are
German-speaking
Ì At 22% of the population, German-
Americans represent the largest ethnic
group in the U.S.A.
Ì Germany has a 99% literacy rate
Ì German dialects with a substantial
difference in grammar and pronunciation
from standard German are found in
regions of Germany, eastern France,
Switzerland and Liechtenstein German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German also uses
Ì The German spelling reform of 1996 was diacritics or marks placed above characters like o and a, which are used to stress a syllable or alter
officially accepted by the governments its pronunciation. (Yunker, 2003). All diacritics are included in the ISO 8859-1 and Windows 1252
of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and
Liechtenstein character sets.

www.germanlanguageguide.com German has three vowels with Umlaut, ä, ö, and
ü. In addition, German uses the Eszett or scharfes
S (sharp “s”) ß. (Wikipedia.org)

Some English words have been taken directly
from the German language without any spelling
changes at all. Some of these words include
(Wikipedia.org):

German Word English Cognate Meaning of German Word
Abseilen abseiling to abseil

Angst Angst fear / angst

Automat Automat automation / machine / automat

Doppelgänger Doppelgänger spectral look-alike of somebody

Kindergarten Kindergarten playschool

Rucksack Rucksack backpack

Wanderlust Wanderlust desire, pleasure, or inclination to travel, or walk

Kraut Kraut cabbage


IV. Website Globalization

Whether you are trying to launch a multilingual website in order to expand the markets for your
products and services, or you are trying to increase your company’s global operational efficiencies by
developing multilingual extranets and intranets, Website Globalization is a requirement to make either
a reality. In order to enable your web presence to communicate, conduct and complete international
e-Business, you need to translate (globalize) your website.

Website translation is also known as “Website Globalization”. In order to truly “translate” a website
into other languages you may need both Internationalization (I18n) and Localization (L10n) services.

+

Internationalization (I18n) involves enabling the backend of a website to handle different
languages, character sets, currencies, submit form data, site search capabilities, etc… and involves
understanding what database and content management systems you are using to author, store and
publish your site’s content.

Localization (L10n) involves translating and localizing the front end of your website into different
languages ensuring all content (text and graphics) is translated in an accurate and culturally correct
manner.

The next two pages detail the steps that may be performed in a typical website globalization project.
The tables list the team members, tasks and standard quality assurance steps utilized in translating
a website.


Subject Matter Cultural Translation,
Source File Project Glossary Localization of
Training and Correctness Editing and
Review Kick-Off Development all Graphics
Research Assessment Proofreading
GO!
• Account Manager • Account Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager
• Project Manager • Project Manager • Lead Translators • Lead Translators • Lead Translators • Lead Translators • Lead Translators
• Localization Engineers • Lead Translators • Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers
Team

• Internationalization Engineers • Localization Engineers • Desktop Publishers
• Web CMS Specialists • Internationalization Engineers • Localization Engineers
• Web Designers • Web CMS Specialists • Web Designers
• Web Developers • Web Designers
• Global SEM Specialists • Web Developers
• Global SEM Specialists
• Companies wanting to translate • A Project “Kick-Off” includes • A Globalization Services • Translation teams develop • Before the actual translation • Translation is performed • All embedded translatable
their website put together all of and confirms the following: Team (GST) will review/study and maintains client specific begins, the source web by a base translation/copy text commonly found in
the source files from their site any reference materials glossaries leveraging any content and overall site writing team, and editing/ navigation buttons, web art
(called a”Localization Kit”) for a
9 The project team provided, including source existing client glossaries design and feature set proofreading by a second and other web graphics are
globalization services provider
to analyze. 9 Project schedules files, demos and general and the latest industry- is reviewed for basic linguistic team. pulled from graphics and
• The files are prepared in order 9 Project specifications client information. specific dictionaries. cultural correctness and translated using the standard
to utilize a translation memory 9 Workflow requirements customizations that may • All translations are completed translation workflow.
tool workflow and preserve Communication • In addition, there may be be required. by human translators,
Tasks

9
any mark-up/formatting code channels client-specific training for utilizing translation • The translated text is then
in order to save time and costs translation teams related • An array of issues are memory technologies that incorporated into the
9 Review & approval
with desktop publishing the to the subject matter of reviewed ranging from the ensure an efficient and original graphic, adjusting as
language versions. opportunities
9 Review current the website. need to culturally customize consistent translation. required, to create a language
• A proposal is generated based on
graphics and adding or “localized” version of
an array of factors including word web authoring and
counts, localizable graphics, local phone numbers to the graphic.
publishing workflow.
target languages and any content comprehensive customization
management systems and of website features based on
workflows to be used. locale specific cultural values.
GPI follows a comprehensive,
customizable and fully
Assurance

documented Quality Control
Quality

Process. Each step in our
translation workflow includes
a series of checklist-based
quality audits to ensure the accuracy of the
translation and desktop publishing. Our client’s
QA and workflow processes can also be easily
Clients are given an opportunity to Clients are given an opportunity to
incorporated into our workflow. review and approve at several stages in review and approve at several stages in
the documentation translation process. the documentation translation process.
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Formatting of
Localization of Delivery Final Edits and SEO and Internet
Language QA / Testing
Multimedia to Client Archiving of Files Marketing
Documents
• Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager • Project Manager
• Lead Translators • Lead Translators • Lead Translators • Desktop Publishers • Lead Translators
• Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers • Editors & Copy Writers • Localization Engineers • Global SEM Specialists
• Desktop Publishers • Desktop Publishers • Localization Engineers
• Localization Engineers • Localization Engineers • Internationalization Engineers
• Web Designers • Web Designers • QA-Testers
• Web Developers • Web CMS Specialists
• Web Designers
• Web Developers
• Many websites have an array • Many websites incorporate various • GPI provides basic Online Localization • After the website and all components • Client provides any final comments for • GPI recommends the client plan on and
of linked documents which may multimedia components which may Quality Assurance (QA) as a standard have been localized, final draft sets of the translation and formatting. conduct some form of global internet
require localization. require localization. line item for all website projects. the source files in all target language marketing (IM) and/or search engine
versions are provided to the client. • Comments are incorporated and final marketing (SEM) in order to drive traffic
• Formatting or desktop publishing (DTP) • Multimedia must be analyzed • This QA checks the language versions websites and documents are produced. to your new language sites.
of these documents includes formatting individually for numerous items. These of your site under selected browser-OS • Client may review and approve all web
the target language documentation to items range from determining word combination for any cosmetic or content for both translation accuracy • GPI ensures the client’s Translation • This may include global search engine
match the original source documents counts in screen text, audio scripts and linguistic issues, and will help identity and design correctness. Memories and Glossaries are updated optimization of the localized web
in terms of layout, fonts, graphics, and graphics, to the analysis of the types of basic functionality issues as well. with any final linguistic changes and content, submission of pages to key
overall design. assets and how they were digitized and • Another round of QA is performed once the final project folder, including all country (locale) search engines and
included in your multimedia. • Typically all testing is client-driven and language versions of a website are in source files are securely stored for pay-per-click marketing campaigns
• Adobe PDF’s can be created and GPI’s professionals can work side by their final hosting environment future revisions if required. through services like Google AdWords
optimized for screen or print and linked • All multimedia can be localized and side with your expert users to perform or Overture.
off of the new website. tested to play in any target languages. Internationalization (I18N), Localization
(L10N) and/or Functionality Testing,
onsite or offsite.
Clients are given an opportunity to review and Clients are given an opportunity to review and
approve at several stages in the documentation approve at several stages in the documentation
translation process. translation process.
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V. German Cultural Correctness
and Web Customization

Cultural Customization: Key Issues
The basis for cultural customization of websites is a theoretically-sound, empirically-validated
framework built on five unique cultural values that account for similarities and differences across
global cultures. Research studies indicate that attitude towards websites, interactivity and
usability of websites, as well as purchase intentions at websites are enhanced when
sites are congruent with the target customers’ cultural predispositions. (See The Culturally
Customized Website, Elsevier, 2005)

The cultural customization framework is drawn from established research and is based on five unique
values: Individualism-Collectivism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Masculinity-Femininity,
and Low-High Context. (See page 4 of this report)

These five predominant country cultural values can be represented in comparison to other countries
using the maps below:

Masculinity - Femininity vs. Uncertainty Avoidance Power Distance vs. Individualism - Collec vism
100 100

Ì Germany Ì Germany
Individualism - Collec vism Index
Uncertainty Avoidance Index

50 50

Masculinity - Femininity Index Power Distance Index
0 0
0 50 100 0 50 100
Arab World Argen na Australia Austria Brazil Arab World Argen na Australia Austria Belgium
Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia
Czech Republic Czech Republic Denmark East Africa Ecuador Colombia Costa Rica Czech Republic Denmark East Africa
El Salvador Finland France Germany Greece El Salvador Finland France Germany Guatemala
Guatemala Hong Kong Hungary India Indonesia Hungary Hong Kong India Indonesia Ireland
Iran Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Iran Israel Italy Jamaica Japan
Japan Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway
Norway Pakistan Panama Peru Philippines Pakistan Panama Peru Philippines Poland
Poland Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea
South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Turkey
Thailand Turkey U.S. Hispanic Market United Arab Emirates United Kingdom U.S. Hispanic Market United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay
United States Uruguay Venezuela West Africa Venezuela West Africa

Cultural Maps for Germany

Tables and section based on the book, “The Culturally Customized Website: Customizing
Websites for the Global Marketplace” – by Nitish Singh and Arun Pereira. Cultural maps are
from Hofstede, Geert. Culture’s Consequences, Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and
Organization Across Nations Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2001)



The Cultural Customization Scorecard
Once we have identified the country’s predominant cultural values using the cultural maps, the next step in customizing a website is to evaluate it on the
relevant cultural values. We do this in the form of the Cultural Customization Scorecard. The score card is produced by analyzing the features on the site
that conform to the cultural values of that market.

The cultural values of interest for the France are Collectivism, Masculinity, High Context, Power Distance and Uncertainty Avoidance. These are carefully
derived based on the cultural distinctions that are meaningful to the members of a given society. (For a detailed cultural analysis of your website please
contact mspethman@globalizationpartners.com)

The Cultural Customization Scorecard™ - Germany
Grading Scale:
Values Individualism Collectivism Uncertainty Power Masculinity Low High
Avoidance Distance Context Context > 90% Excellent Customization on Cultural Value
Cultural 70-89% Good Customization on Cultural Value
Scores
< 70% Poor Customization on Cultural Value

Cultural Customization (Examples)

Â Individualism: This value implies that a
culture is centered on the “I-consciousness”.
The focus of the website should be on self-
reliance, achievement, independence and
individual freedom. Autonomy, competition,
and non-conformity are also cherished in
the German culture. Images used in the site
should reflect these characteristics. Moreover,
terminology should reinforce the theme of
independence. For example, in the Congster website the models show the fun and excitement of using the site. The website also has an asymmetrical
design which can be interpreted as non-conformist.

Â High Power Distance: Sites can be customized
for this value by highlighting awards, the
company’s mission statement, corporate
values and recognition they have received. For
example, Deutsche Bank prominently displays
their awards by category.



Â Masculinity: A website can be customized
for a masculine culture like Germany by using
text and design elements that emphasize
achievement, strength, material wealth
and success, or by highlighting a product’s
durability and its prominent or differentiating
features. The Deutsche Bank site stresses the
performance and reliability of its brand with
quotes like “Passion to Perform.”

Â Uncertainty Avoidance: There are several ways
to design a website for risk-adverse cultures
like Germany. Having a clear navigation and a
secured site for online transactions will help
to eliminate some uncertainty. In the sample
site to the right, the German text states, “Buy
without Risk”, “Many payment options”, “Free
returns” and “Data protection” as ways to
allay online buying fears.

Â Low Context: Low context cultures favor
websites with symmetry and design that
is clean, concise and logical. The etracker
website is a good example of this type
of design. Content is displayed in logical
groupings, and it has a very clean, linear look.
Minimal colors are used.

Website Customization Considerations
Symbols and Icons

The German culture is centuries old and quite diverse due to the varied and turbent history of the German-speaking communities. Because it is so diverse, it
is important to be aware of sensitivities to avoid cultural blunders and inadvertent use of offensive symbols (www.pitt.edu/~dash/superstition.html#work).



Some examples:

L Whoever harms or kills a cat shall meet with
great misfortune.

L A small child will not grow properly if you call
it a little worm or a dummy.

L He who walks between two old women early in the morning shall have only bad luck the rest of
the day.

L Animals: If a stork builds its nest on your roof or chimney, you will live long and be wealthy. It is
not good to kill spiders.

Colors

In Germany certain colors carry specific meaning and symbolize aspects of their culture. (Yunker)

€ Blue: Considered the color of loyalty and formality. For example, government letters are traditionally mailed in blue envelopes.
€ Black: The color of grief, death, hopelessness, as well as formality.
€ Green: The color of hope and conservation. A good example of the use of green, is the name of the German political party, “Die Grünen” (The Greens). It
was formed in the late 1970’s by environmentalists and peace activists.

Spatial Orientation:

Spatial orientation refers to how web content is
structured. According to Wendy Barber and Albert
Badre, authors of “Culturability: The Merging of
Culture and Usability” (1998), spatial orientation
has a direct effect on website usability because
it affects visual perception. Manipulating the
orientation can change the user’s comfort level.
What is user-friendly for one country may be
vastly different for another. A German site will
have similar spatial orientation to an American
site as their text are read left to right.

Mercedes-Benz has a clear, concise layout and logical navigational flow.



Text Length:

When translating a document or website, it is important to take into account how the length of the text will change after translation. There are a variety of
reasons why text expansion occurs. Equivalent phrases in a target language may have more characters or words than in English, and some cultures prefer
using a more formal style than other cultures, avoiding abbreviations, for example. Additionally, for both documents and websites both line and page breaks
may be different in the localized version than in the English version. Finally, the layout of the document or website itself may change depending on the
direction of the text. For example, Arabic is a bi-directional language and is read right-to-left, which will not only switch the layout of the text, but also the
graphics, the tool bars, the navigation bars, and the binding of the book, etc... Similarly, some languages like Chinese and Japanese can be displayed either
in left-to-right character rows or vertical character columns, and the choice influences how document elements such as graphics, figures, tables, call outs,
etc. are arranged in the final document or webpage.

There can either be text expansion or compression when a document or website is translated from English into a target language. For example, German can
expand up to 35% when translated from English. With document localization, there are several steps that can be taken to help preserve the integrity of the
look and feel “layout” of the document. These include:

L Using a larger font in the original language, if it is expected the language will expand during translation. This will help to develop a better feel for the
final size of the document and how the document elements will be laid out relative to the text. If the text is expected to shrink, use a slightly smaller font
for the same reasons.
L Tables and graphics may need to be resized or changed. Some, like the vertical Chinese or Japanese layout, will require more finessing than others.


VI. Internet and Search Engine Marketing
in Germany

The key to promoting a website internationally is
to create localized content and keywords, register
local domains and then promote through local
search engines, affiliate marketing, online and
offline branding and promotions.

DENIC is the central registry for all domains
It is recommended that firms plan on and conduct some under the top level domain.de. In June 2006, they
form of global search engine marketing (SEM) in order
to drive traffic to their new language sites. processed the ten millionth application for .de domain, making it the second top tevel domain, after
.com to have ten million users which is a major hurdle. (www.denic.de)
This may include global search engine optimization of
your localized Web content, submission of pages to
key country (locale) search engines, and a pay-per-click The DENIC is also offering Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), which is a domain that can
marketing campaigns through services like Google potentially contain non-ASCII characters. The introduction of the IDN standard not only permits the
Adwords or Overture.
German umlaut or diacritic, but also a total of 92 additional characters that range from the French é to
For more information on Global SEM Services, see the Danish Ø, which are now included in .de-domains. Unfortunately, the German ß are not included in
www.globalizationpartners.com/SEM
the IDN standard. (Wikipedia.org)

The BMW Germany Lesson
Search Engine Marketing Tips According to Search Engine Journal, even large, globally branded companies are not immune to
Ì German search engines look at both a mistakes in SEO strategies. In 2006, Google removed the German BMW site (bmw.de) from their index
site’s IP address and top-level domains, after BMW was caught using “doorway” pages. BMW was quick to remove the offending pages
such as .de, .fr and others. It does not after some very bad publicity. Google metrics change more swiftly and are more effective today, but
matter where a site is hosted. If it has
amazingly, the doorway pages on the BMW site were “live” for at least two years before being caught.
a.de in the URL, it will be included in
search engines as a page from Germany.
Ì The local German search engines favor The Lesson: Work with your language translation services agency to stay on-top of any recent changes
sites that are in German, hosted in to search engine algorithms that may detect any of your structure as “black hat” SEO techniques.
Germany and have the .de in the URL.
Ì Developing a site in German and using
a .de domain will ensure that it will German Search Engine Insights Top Search Engines in Germany
be seen by search engines, directories
and other sites as a new website. This According to Michael Bonfils of Search Engine Watch, According to www.seowarrior.net, the following list
the following are some trends in German usage of shows some of the more popular local search engines
helps in obtaining additional listings in search engines: in Germany:
local directories, as well as The Yahoo! Longtail keywords in Germany will bring the best Ì Abacho
Directory which will further enhance your results. Of the billions of monthly searches in Germany:
SEO efforts. Ì Fireball
Ì 37% are one-word queries
Ì Make sure that the words used for SEO Ì Sharelook
Ì 32% are two words
are not only linguistically correct, but Ì Suche.freenet.de
also optimal the market. Using local Ì 25% are three to four words
Top German search topics include:
Ì Web.de
language talent to assist with this is
Ì Local search and entertainment (50%) Ì Witch
suggested.
Germany has access to and makes frequent use of
Ì Consider partnering with a good German- Ì Society, computers, electronic (45%) global search engines such as Google.de, Altavista.de,
SEO firm. Ì Travel (33%) Lycose.de and Yahoo.de.

References available upon request.


Resources

Search Engines

ß Abocho ß Lycos ß Bellnet
www.abacho.de www.lycos.de/suche/seite_anmelden.html www.bellnet.com/suchen.htm
ß Allesklar.de ß Bing ß German Business
www.allesklar.de www.bing.de www.german-business.de
ß Acoon ß Witch ß Hamburg Web
www.acoon.de/ witch.de www.hamburg-web.de
ß Freenet ß Yahoo! Deutschland
suche.freenet.de de.yahoo.com
ß Google ß Balloon
www.google.de/ www.balloon.org

Useful Links

ß Wikipedia.org ß Superstitions from Europe ß Budde.com
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ www.pitt.edu/~dash/superstition.html www.budde.com.au
Internationalized_domain_name ß Common German and English Superstitions ß Pago
ß German Culture.com www.unsolvedmysteries.com/usm411962. https://www.pago.de/
www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/ html ß Neilsen Netratings
aa022699.htm ß Forrester Reserach www.nielsen-netratings.com
ß TLK German Culture: Keeping up Traditions www.forrester.com ß CIA Worldfactbook
www.tlc.kherson.ua/~alex/germantraditions. ß Internetnews.com www.cia.gov
htm www.Internetnews.com/stats

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