This is a guest post by Lingo24
So you’ve had your website translated into Spanish (and Latin American Spanish), Traditional Chinese, Arabic and half a dozen other languages and you’re ready to go truly global with ten websites fully localized for their foreign markets. You’ve sweated and pored (or possibly paid someone else to sweat and pore) over the content and design and you’re sure you’ve got the cultural and linguistic nuances just right. So far so good, but it’s all to no avail if people can’t find the site to begin with. The basics of SEO remain the same whatever language you use – keywords are king and factors like link building retain their importance – but you should bear in mind a few dos and don’ts when dealing with multilingual SEO.
Do: Invest in country-specific domains where possible
There’s certainly debate concerning the necessity for country code top-level domains (.fr for France or .ru for Russia, etc) for every localized version of your website. The issue is the cost and level of maintenance involved but, in pure SEO terms, having a localized domain, especially one hosted on a server in that country, will boost your localized rankings.
Do: Consider subdomains and subfolders
If your resources won’t run to separate top-level domains for each language or country, you should at least create subdomains or subfolders on your main site to host your language and country specific content. An appropriate subdomain (fr.website.com, ru.website.com) will still be considered a homepage for listing purposes by some directories while a subfolder (website.com/fr, website.com/ru) at least makes a level of differentiation between pages of content.
Do: Build local links
Good link building is integral to all SEO but the thing to remember here is location. As well as strong links that are pertinent to your content, you’ll want incoming links located in your target country. This will help boost your rankings, not only with locally dominant search engines like Yandex, but also with Google’s country-specific search engines (google.fr, google.ru, etc). This means targeting high Alexa ranking sites hosted in your target countries, and as such may require a multilingual approach to your online marketing (for instance, posting comments or guest posts in Russian online media to link to your Russian site).
Do: Conduct research on your target country and in-country competitors
It might seem obvious but the more research you do on your target market, the more likely you are to be successful. Take a look at competitors that are already successful there. Don’t just copy them – sometimes it might be more useful to come from a slightly different angle than a dominant local competitor – but gauging what they’ve done right and taking this on board is never a bad idea.
Don’t: Directly translate keywords
Literal translations should never be relied upon as keywords. Even if the translator yields a technically correct translation (which isn’t always a given), it won’t take into account regional variations, common misspellings or alternative search terms that a non-native speaker would not be aware of. Local knowledge and good localized keyword research are the keys here.
Don’t: Assume that one language = one market
Different countries might share the same language but usage can vary greatly by location. American English and UK English differ on many words and colloquialisms, while Indian English has its own peculiarities. Similarly, the Spanish spoken in Spain differs from that spoken in Latin America, where usage again diverges greatly from country to country. It might not always be worth setting up separate sites for countries with a common language but, at the very least, you should have a native speaker check your content, and also research your keywords individually for each market, to ensure that your Spanish site, for instance, uses all the possible relevant Spanish and Latin American Spanish keywords.
Don’t: Have multiple languages side by side
Google’s Webmaster Central Blog has the following advice: ‘Avoid mixing languages on each page, as this may confuse Googlebot as well as your users.’ The same goes for every major search engine. Keep it as simple as possible, avoiding side-by-side translations, with monolingual localized sites or separate pages for each language.
Don’t: Assume that Google rules the world
Okay, so Google is the most widely used search engine in the world, but in certain markets local competitors rule the roost. In Russia it’s Yandex, while in China it’s Baidu. These search engines don’t have a great market share outside their local spheres of influence, but within them they’re huge. China has a web-using population of 200 million – two-thirds the entire population of the United States – so make sure you find the dominant search engine(s) in your target market and concentrate your efforts accordingly.
About Lingo24: Global translation and localization company Lingo24 was launched in 2001 and now employs some 4,000 professional freelance translators covering a hundred different language combinations. Follow Lingo24 founder Christian Arno on Twitter: @Lingo24chr.
