I’m frustrated.  As I started  research on Spanish language SEO strategies I was flabbergasted just how few US companies have done any Spanish SEO on their websites.  The biggest eye opener were car dealers in Miami. 

Car dealers are fiercely competing for new and used car sales in English.  Type into Google ”BMW Cars Miami” and you will see a full list of BMW car dealers; Google Maps as well as organic listings.  Now type in “carros BMW Miami” or “autos BMW Miami” and see that all but 1 or 2 dealers are invisible on Google Page one.

This is not about BMW cars  since this problem spans across all brands. From my review, less than 10% of the major car dealer brands in Miami have utilized effective Spanish SEO strategies. 

This issue applies to any business and industry which has not taken baby steps to add Spanish SEO strategies to their website.

SEO Strategies in Spanish

The Miami BMW example represents an opportunity for us and the first Miami BMW dealer that calls us. However, this example is symptomatic of how US websites are being built.  Companies that operate in areas with large segments of native Spanish speakers are missing the boat if their website does not include targeted pages to popular Spanish search phrases.

• What part of your marketing budget is allocated to reach Spanish speakers living in the United States? 
• Does your business operate near communities that contain a high percentage of native Spanish speakers? 

If the answer is yes, then you should reconsider retesting effective SEO strategies to get your message in front of US consumers who can read Spanish. 

Is Spanish Language Marketing Passe?

About six years ago there was a big buzz in the business community about marketing to “Hispanic” people in the United States.  For many business owners their marketing attempts did not result in much success.  I am suggesting that business owners reconsider how the Internet can be utilized to market to this growing demographic.

In April 2009, ComScore, Inc. released a report on the U.S. Hispanic Internet market, finding that the Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, representing 11 percent of the total U.S. online market. During the past year, the growth of the U.S Hispanic Internet audience outpaced that of the total U.S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages consumed, as Hispanic online adoption and engagement accelerated.

“It’s well known that the Hispanic market is a growing and increasingly important segment to advertisers and marketers,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix. “However, any business attempting to effectively reach this segment needs to understand the behavior of the U.S. Hispanic online consumer as a fundamental component of their marketing and media strategies.”  Read the full Comscore Press Release.

Spanish Internet Marketing

I encourage business owners to setup a series of tests to see how much incremental web traffic and sales can be added with just a little attention to Spanish SEO.  My initial testing looks very promising so if you are looking for new ideas to grow sales, this is one not to miss.