The web is inherently international, but does just placing something on the web equate to international marketing?

How do we reach the greatest audience? Place the listing on the company website, syndicate it out to multiple locations and maybe write a blog post or “share” it on social networking sites. These are all very good tactics, but there is a less glamorous side that is equally important: making sure the information is understandable from multiple language and location perspectives.

Selling clients search for and want to find their home on international sites like www.relohomesearch.com and www.luxuryportfolio.com, and we place them here and on other sites. The websites they will search to see their home marketed and their interpretation of the content can be quite different than that of someone from abroad.

When marketing to a global audience, it may not be possible to include “apartment” “flat” and “condo” in the same web description. That would just be weird. Taking a closer look at those descriptions is definitely warranted.

Someone from London will connect “apartment” and “flat”; however, what will he/she make of “C/A/C?” And really – will someone explain to me what a “tear – off roof” is? Here are some more of my favorites: “mn lvl office”, “surrnd snd” and “wndw”. English is my first language, and even I had difficulty getting some of these.

Look at it this way:

German: Zimmer
English: Room
Web Description: Rm

Getting from “RM” to Zimmer requires at least a 3-step process whereas if “Room” is used the translation becomes much easier for the reader. In addition, if you are participating in a site using an automated translation system or if a user attempts to use the Google Translate tool, the meaning of these abbreviations will not be correctly expressed.

Another issue arises when syndicating website listing information to third-party websites. Most listing descriptions are written in the context of their appearance on the main corporate website. Most of these sites contain rich content further describing the neighborhood/town and its amenities which in that context would not necessitate inclusion of that information in the web description. If the syndication site doesn’t also contain this information, the property description will be less effective as readers are unable to identify the location and lifestyle benefits of the property.

In a global context: Stay away from colloquialisms, slang and abbreviations. Write property descriptions as stand-alone articles expressing every benefit and feature of the listing.

I would love to hear your favorite abbreviation nightmare or colloquial confusion story.


Posted by: Sharon E. Michnay, CRP, GMS, WRS, Executive Director, Corporate Business Development, Halstead Property. Sharon is a member and former chairperson of the LeadingRE Advisory Council.