LogoWebProNews reports that: "…Google and Univision are talking about a partnership that would improve the prospect of search engine marketing using Spanish language."

It’s a good thing that someone has finally noticed that Google, whether it be the Mexican version, or another version in Spanish, is used by millions of Spanish speakers worldwide, including US Latinos (some who search in both English and Spanish) — the group marketers are really after. Google, of course, knew this, and localized its sites long ago. But up until now the Latino market seems to have been an afterthought with regards to search engine marketing. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, if you speak Spanish, try searching Google for something you really want to purchase in that language. Say, a baby stroller. Type in carrito bebe and you’ll come up with something, but the results will be far less appealing than those you’ll find in English. And, if you are a Latino in the US, you are out of luck, because most of the results you’ll find are for products located in Spain, Peru, etc. Now try googling baby stroller. You’ll get Wal-Mart, BizRate and thousands more options.

This two-part article by WebProNews’ Chris Richardson talks about the present and the future of search engine marketing geared toward Latino consumers. For more background, check out Nacho Hernandez’s post on the topic on Search Engine Roundtable, referenced in this article.

Google And Univision Focusing On Spanish Search Marketing
Chris Richardson | Staff Writer | 2005-06-27

As more and more Hispanic users gravitate to the Internet and all that it offers, their exposure to search engines and the marketing associated with them increases as well. However, is there sufficient Spanish language support to provide these users with a seamless Internet shopping experience? Probably not…

So to remedy this, Google and Univision are talking about a partnership that would improve the prospect of search engine marketing using Spanish language. According to Nacho Hernandez, who posted this story at Search Engine Roundtable, Univision has one of the largest portals catering to the Spanish-speaking population in the United States.

A partnership like this will only improve the current state of Spanish-speaking supported search advertising, which currently hovers around non-existent. Nacho provides sound reasoning why an agreement like this would be successful:

"I believe the objective of encouraging advertisers to translate their websites into Spanish mainly relies on the fact that U.S. Hispanics sometimes think in Spanish, therefore they will search in Spanish. Other times they think in English so they will search in English. They are not a "one size fits all" user, nor the statistics of how many are Spanish preferred versus English preferred reveal how dynamic the user is when searching. In my opinion, they are bi-lingual and bi-cultural. It’s important to target U.S. Hispanics in both languages…"

WebProNews    READ MORE OF PART ONE   READ PART TWO