Create a Multilingual Marketing Policy - Creative Word

 

Modern marketing strategies have had to shift up a notch, or two, in recent years. Keeping ahead of your competitors is vital if you want to be successful, and having a multilingual marketing policy will help you achieve this level of success.

For any business to be placed in the top search engine rankings they will be required to navigate technical Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategies.  This will drive traffic towards their site and increase potential customers.

Combining SEO with Translation will offer you a multilingual marketing strategy that raises your profile, boosts your rankings and gives an excellent return on investment.

 

SEO Basics

According to MOZ “SEO is a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid) search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.”

As you can see SEO is a complex system which combines many aspects of your site including images, text, design, links and so on, in order to give you a ranking on search engines.

If your site has limited language accuracy, has been designed for one country (or language) but hasn’t been fully translated, or has erroneous design flaws from a conversion to a new language, then you are likely to lose out on the top spots.

Ensuring your site is properly structured for each location, language and region is vital to its SEO success.

If you are operating in two or more countries, you’ll need to boost your SEO ratings through use of a multilingual marketing policy.

 

Multilingual SEO

When targeting a new country, region or overseas market it is vital you structure a multilingual SEO strategy to reflect this.

In many cases what works in one territory won’t work in another. For instance, if you are a UK based company that wishes to trade in Dubai, you’ll have to consider altering images (for religious reasons), be aware that the Arabic language reads right-to-left, and consider text expansion and contraction for design reasons.

Here are the main points you should consider when creating a multilingual marketing policy:

 

Host Location

Location of your host server for your website can affect your rankings in different territories.

If you are considering a move to a new region then it is worth hosting your site on a server closer to the new location in order to improve the site’s efficiency and speed.

Consider different restrictions and rules for each location before changing servers.

 

Keywords

Keywords are vital to SEO. However, be aware that they are unlikely to be the same in each country and may require alteration, or a complete change depending upon location.

Research how potential customers use keywords, and operate searches, in your new target location as this can save time and money later.

Analyse keywords to identify traffic volume in each location and never assume that this is the same, as even in the same country there can be regional difference in language and dialects.

 

Localise your site

Localisation (or L10n) is a far more involved process than merely translation, and involves the method of altering language, dialects, images, humour, idioms and so on, for each specific target audience and area.

Design, layout, symbols, currency, date formats, and colours are all carefully selected in the localisation and transcreation process in order to give the best result based upon precise requirements.

 

If you are considering expanding into new overseas markets, it is vital you create a multilingual marketing policy to support a smooth transition.

Creative Word offer a profession translation and localisation package that is tailored to your company’s requirements.