Customized Search Engine Marketing - Tapping into US Hispanic and Latino Markets
Search Engine Marketing - a multi-tiered strategy designed to increase the amount of Web site traffic driven by high placement within Search Engine rankings – has come a long way since the mid-nineties. Originally based upon the fundamentals of keyword research and meta tag manipulation, Search Engines today rely upon intricate ranking algorithms, further complicated by the emergence of variables such as paid placement, contextual advertising, localization and global segmentation.
As Search Engine properties have increased in complexity and number, so too has the world’s online audience become more diverse. In fact, the number of US Hispanic Internet users will reach 21 million by 20101. The US Hispanic Internet population is a relatively young one, estimating that there will be 12.1 million Hispanic users under the age of 35 by 20101. In addition, Hispanic mobile users are far more likely to watch mobile video or listen to music side-loaded from their PCs on their mobile phones, with 51.5 percent of them doing so, compared to 31 percent in the total US mobile population2. Hispanic users are also more likely to access news and information via a mobile browser and to play mobile games2. At a time when Mobile Search is a rapidly growing facet of the Search industry, these findings are increasingly relevant to Search Marketers.
Tapping into the immense buying power of this nation’s officially largest (and rapidly growing) minority, the US Hispanic online population is proving to be an essential means of revitalization for many eMarketing initiatives. Major Search Engines and Directories, such as Yahoo! en Espanol, MSN Latino, Univision, QuePasa and AOL/Ford Motor Company’s Mi Negocio (the first Spanish language forum for entrepreneurs) are already well on their way to accessing the US Hispanic market share. Predominantly English Search Engines are now indexing and ranking Spanish content, and Spanish-language-sponsored Search results (paid ads) are becoming more prevalent and competitive.
‘Spanish Search Engine Optimization,’ currently generating a great deal of industry buzz, has proven to be quite profitable when conducted properly, at the right time and for the right audience. Many Pay Per Click (PPC) programs, for example, are able to provide attractive rates for Spanish terms - thereby leveraging higher traffic volume for far less cost when compared to English key terms. In addition, higher organic results can often be driven by content written in Spanish as this, although rapidly increasing, page volume is now less competitive when compared to the quantity of indexed English content.
The online Search behaviors of the US Hispanic population is complex - comprised of immigrant, second/third generation, bilingual, and non-English speakers originating from more than 20 countries - all with different values, linguistic variations, cultural traditions, financial profiles and educational backgrounds. Although marketing to Hispanics can be a daunting task, the key to successfully engaging the Hispanic market lies in strategic modeling, segmentation and localization of the target audience.
These variables necessitate a thorough knowledge of one’s target audience. For example, studies show that many English-speaking Hispanics prefer to conduct Search queries in Spanish over English when given the option. Is your audience bilingual? Do you require entire pages of text written in Spanish, or would translated bullet points and descriptions suffice? Should your entire Web site be written in both English and Spanish? What are the Search and buying habits of your audience?
Understanding the intricacies involved in launching a Spanish Search Engine Marketing campaign is crucial to successfully reaching the US Hispanic online audience. Although perhaps a small portion of the current market share, US Census figures project that the Hispanic population will continue to grow almost five times faster than the general population over the next 50 years.
Addressing the requirements and complexities of this constantly changing market is now essential to reaching the rapidly growing Hispanic online audience of today, as well as tomorrow.
1“Que Pasa En El Internet?” eMarketer. 13 April 2006.
2“US Hispanic Audience Is Young, Diverse, Built for Mobile Advertising.” MarketingCharts.com. 22 June 2007.
