Japan: URL's Are Totally Out

[Drewbert]

Old blog post, but interesting reading. Hopefully it hasn't been posted b4...


http://www.cabel.name/2008/03/japan-...tally-out.html

[seamo]

If they are totally out where does my type-in traffic come from?

I even have a parked, mixed language Japanese/English URL typo that had 49 type-in's and 13 clicks last month. Someone understands URL's in Japan...

[Alphamale]

I know this is common now in Japan, but it just seems so bizarre.

I mean company X spends X on advertising "search for whatever name" to reach our company

then company Y buys the top slot on Goog or Yahoo for a fraction of Company X budget and steals all their traffic.

I can see it working for the big brand names. But big brands aside it's a hellofa gamble

This to me is screaming out the need for something better, something that is guaranteed not to leak your advertising ¥ to others - and yeah i'm biased, but I think this just reinforces the need for native url's.

[rhys]

It's a passing phase. Japanese companies have been driven to this in recent times from desperation of letting Japanese search for their websites in Japanese. The SEOs in Japan are a little behind the ball on this, but they will eventually make it an impractical practice for companies to keep doing. Just as it would be a practical impossibility to make it work in the States. Why advertise to send folks to someone else's website. Eventually the drift will be back to domains, IDNs this time.

[touchring]

Originally Posted by rhys

It's a passing phase. Japanese companies have been driven to this in recent times from desperation of letting Japanese search for their websites in Japanese. The SEOs in Japan are a little behind the ball on this, but they will eventually make it an impractical practice for companies to keep doing. Just as it would be a practical impossibility to make it work in the States. Why advertise to send folks to someone else's website. Eventually the drift will be back to domains, IDNs this time.

well said, 100% true.

[Alphamale]

Originally Posted by rhys

It's a passing phase. Japanese companies have been driven to this in recent times from desperation of letting Japanese search for their websites in Japanese. The SEOs in Japan are a little behind the ball on this, but they will eventually make it an impractical practice for companies to keep doing. Just as it would be a practical impossibility to make it work in the States. Why advertise to send folks to someone else's website. Eventually the drift will be back to domains, IDNs this time.

yep, I read this like a huge warning sign that "English url's don't work for advertising in Japan we need something else"

good to see stuff like this.

[Alphamale]

and just to give a balanced opinion:

Does IDN pass the radio test though?

"visit hoken.com" [spoken in Japanese of course]

does the listener visit "hoken.com" or "保険.com"

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by Alphamale

and just to give a balanced opinion:

Does IDN pass the radio test though?

"visit hoken.com" [spoken in Japanese of course]

does the listener visit "hoken.com" or "保険.com"

That is precisely why it only can be IDN. That is the entire point and has been right from the start!

[261275]

The vast majority of Japanese and the world for that matter don't speak read or write English and if they do to a certain degree it is obvious they prefer they're language so this gives the companies a chance for the user to arrive at they're site, even though risking losing that customer to a competitor i guess they feel it is still better then him going no where due to language constraints.
All that is very temporary which is what's really important.
Hopefully the ICANN marketing campaign (2009) for IDN's will do what it needs to.

Regardless, For those that still have patience to try and explain others what really is going on, http://www.domainstate.com/showthrea...359#post447359 is waiting for you.

[bwhhisc]

Keywords might be part of a good marketing strategy, but in the end you will need a "Domain Name" to get to the website. Nothing is going to change in that respect. The wild card IMO is type-in. Once browser support and idn.idn is in place will users try to "type in" what they are looking for?? That could tilt the whole equation in another direction.