Hispanics are now the largest ethnic minority in the US, representing 58% of minorities or over 35 million people. Between Latin America and Europe there are an additional 300+ million Spanish speakers. Almost 50 million of the world’s Spanish-speaking population now actively uses the Internet.

What about the other 290 million? That is the great news, because with just 15% of this population actively using the Internet, there is a huge growth curve ahead for those e-commerce businesses that can learn to be successful with Spanish-speaking markets today.

Spanish speakers are not only jumping on to the Internet in record numbers, but worldwide their spending power is growing in excess of 5% per annum. The result: this online market should exceed $1 trillion in spending power by 2015.

Where and how can companies tap into the online Spanish-speaking market? By finding a search engine optimization company that specializes (and has learned the hard knocks) in Spanish-language search engines and that has top-notch English to Spanish translation talent.

Rather, the challenges have to do with the Spanish language itself. The point: Your success lies in finding an SEO firm that uses organic, search engine friendly techniques and that has teamed up with experienced English to Spanish translation experts.

Your Spanish SEO firm should also understand that there are many Spanish-speaking markets. Translation: They should know that key words for Cuban Americans will differ from those for European Spaniards which in turn will be different than those for Mexicans. They also need to understand that Spanish search engines produce different results in the U.S. vs. Argentina vs. Chile, and so forth. So, how do you get started? Try a simple search for “Spanish SEO” on your friendly search engine.