If you are familiar with doing
business in Germany you know that English is widely used as a
second language. And you easily come across Germans who speak
English well.If you
speak English and want to get more international clients, you
should seriously consider targeting Germany.
Business In Germany
Germany is the world's third
largest economy and is the largest national economy in Europe.
Germany is the world's largest exporter of goods, and is home to
the third-highest number of international migrants.
Germany's population is over 82
million. It has the largest population in the European Union.
E-Business Is Also Dynamic
In Germany
Germany also has the largest
amount of internet users in all of Europe and one of the highest
rates of internet penetration.
Need Visibility In German?
The German market is an
interesting candidate for international business.
If the level of English is good
and fairly wide-spread in Germany, should you rely on the
Germans speaking your language? Do you want to show your
willingness to communicate with them on their territory?
English or German?
Relying on Google or local
German search engines?
Those are not the real
questions. If you want to sell to Germany, you will increase
your company's visibility in Germany by having your company's
website registered with the local German search engines.
There is a large portion of the
German online community using the German search engines.
And depending on your area of
activity it might even be vital for any sales at all. You might
not have a choice.
But getting your website
registered with the German search engines is fairly easy... with
a little help from the free online translation tools. So don't
miss out on such an opportunity.
If you would like to see more
details on these two submission processes, you can find them on
the the Cindy King website under Foreign Lingo.
First Step For German Search
Engine Submissions - German Content Page
The first step is to get one
page on your site in German.
You need at least one page in
German to submit your website in the German search engines.
An easy way to do this is to
create a new page or blog post that is a translation of your
product descriptions or of the services that you offer.
How can you do this quick and
easy?
Use the Google English to
German translation page You can find this page by replacing the
'www' with 'translate' in the Google web URL address on the top
of your screen. Once you are on the Google translate page:
- Copy your text in English
- Paste your text in the
main window
- Select translate
- Hit Enter
The text is instantly
translated and you will have document in German to work with.
Abacho Search Engine
Abacho is the first German
search engine that will be covered. Abacho was founded in Neuss,
Germany in 1996 as a full-service advertising agency that merged
with Spider, Aladin and Eule in March 2000 to form the new
Internet search engine tool. The company rapidly became an
expert in the field of Internet search engine operations.
Abacho's search engine tool is
one of the top ones in the German-speaking market. It is also
present in Austria, Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and Turkey with country-specific Abacho versions.
Submit Your Website To
Abacho
Once your German page has been
created and is live on your website you are ready to go.
Submitting your website to
Abacho.de is an easy one step process.
From the Abacho site to locate
/abacho_dienst/anmelden.html
All you have to do is enter
your full URL in the open field.
Hit the URL "anmelden" (Register URL) button and your site is
queued to be spidered and registered.
The page does say that it can
take up to four weeks for the spider to visit your site and
Abacho excludes discriminatory, racist, sexist and adult sites.
As stated above, Abacho also
has nine other sites that you can use, each of these sites is
identified on Abachos page by a country flag. On each country
site there is a link just like the URL "anmelden" link, and it
is in the same place on the screen. This link allows you to add
your translated URL to that country search engine.
Allesklar
The second German site covered
here has two professional service offerings and one free
service.
Of course you can choose to
sign up for the paid services. If you need assistance properly
using either of these services, you can request help from the
Cindy King website Foreign Lingo section.
The free Allesklar.de service
is located on a sub menu /listingshop2005/index.php
Look for the the "gratis" (free) column on this page
Click on the "auswählen" (select) link in this "gratis" (free)
column
Entering Your Website
Details On The Free Allesklar Service Option
Entering your site here is a
bit more complex than the previous site.
In addition to your URL, you
must include contact information.
The first requirement is to
enter a country and city.
Choose your country in the
list. They are listed in German. Find out what your country is
called in German, if your country is not in the list:
Note - "Sonstige" at the end of the list = Other
Then enter your city under "stadt"
(city).
After entering these details
hit the "weiter" (Continue) button.
More Required Details
The next page requires a dozen
bits of information.
Use the city that you
referenced in the last step and take special care on the address
line.
There is a box on the far right
side of the Straße und Nr.* (street and number) field which is
your house number. This field must be filled in.
This list is a translation of
the long screen below.
All information with a * is a required field:
Anrede means "Title" in English
- Vorname* means "First
name" in English
- Nachname* means "Family
name" in English
- Telefon* means "Telephone"
in English
- Fax means "Fax" in English
- E-Mail* means "E-Mail" in
English
- (Wird Ihr Benutzername.)
means "(If your user name.)" in English
- Passwort* means "Password"
in English
- Passwort-Wiederholung*
means "repeat Password" in English
- Anschrift means "Address"
in English
- Firma means "Company" in
English
- Kontaktperson means
"Contact person" in English
- Straße und Nr.* means
"Street and Number" in English (please note the highlighted
number box)
- Ort* means "City" in
English
Make sure you fill out all
required lines.
REMEMBER you must
include the street number.
Once complete, click on the "Registrieren" (register) button and
you will be 3 mouse clicks away from being done.
Terms and Conditions of
Service
After completing the fields
referenced above and clicking the "Registrieren" (register)
button you will come to your final page to complete.
You are required to click the 2
boxes below to accept the terms and conditions of the service.
Your last click will be to hit
the "bestellung senden" (Send order) button after having checked
the two boxes and you will be sent to the completion page.
After that last click you will
get a screen showing that "die registrierung war erfolgreigh"
(The registration was successful).
Your website submission to
Allesklar was successful.
What Next? Now That Your
Website Is Visible In Germany
If you have followed these
instructions, your website is now open to the German economy.
In general there is a large
portion of the German population that speaks good English.
What can this mean for you?
Well, depending on your particular German market, you might be
able to start a communication campaign in English, or at least
partly in English.
Localization of your website
should be easier. You can go through different stages of
translating your website and still communicate with your German
market. During this transition phase your German market will
probably be able to understand you.
There are too many factors
directly linked with what you have to offer and the
corresponding German market for your products. But the
communication barriers to selling your product will be easier to
deal with here than in some other foreign countries.
