For a business to succeed in today’s market it needs to have a visible online presence and rank highly on local search engines – this means localising keywords related to your products, services, industry, and brand so that you can attract local customers, and they can find your business easily on their mobiles and social media platforms.
But how can you localise these vital keywords if you don’t speak the language?
Read on to find out…
Keyword Research for Local Audiences
According to Google, “76% of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.”
That’s almost 30% of sales which are being generated by local customers who have completed an online search and then acted upon their findings.
But if these customers can’t find you online, you’re potentially missing out on additional sales!
Targeting a local audience requires an in-depth knowledge of the language and culture so that you can create content with the right keywords.
The right keywords will then enable search engines to rank you effectively and ensure that customers searching for your products are able to find you.
But if you don’t speak the language this becomes much more difficult.
And it isn’t just a case of translating your original keywords as sentence structure, dialect and colloquial language all play a part in how we organically search online.
Conducting research into how your audience will search for your business is essential. Use the following tips to start:
• Look at your competitors – what keywords do they use? How well do they rank on search engines? You can learn by their successes and their failures!
• Audience research – it should go without saying but understanding your audience is vital. Do they prefer email marketing? Are they predominantly mobile users? What demographics best fit them? The more you can find out, the better you can tailor your keywords to fit your audience
• Search Engines – Google may be available worldwide, but it doesn’t mean it is the first-choice search engine in every location. Do some research on which search engine is most popular in each region
• Research how Search Engines rank – all search engines give advice (often for free) on how they rank websites. Find out what will work best for each particular search engine and adapt your keywords and content accordingly
• Consider related phrases – look at different ways of saying the same thing – your audience might not always use the most common variations and phrases
Localising Keywords for Global Audiences
Research is a great first step to understanding what keywords you should be using for specific areas, but when targeting global audiences and localising keywords for a particular audience, language barriers and cultural changes make this more complicated.
You might have a local team who can help with this localisation (especially if they’re native speakers and have experience of translation and localisation) but if not, consider using a Language Services Provider (LSP) for this task.
A professional LSP can help with the following:
• Website Localisation
• Localising Keywords
• SEO optimisation for multiple languages
• Design for multilingual audiences
• Cultural adaptions
Ensuring the above elements are correctly localised and translated for each language and region is crucial when targeting a new audience or moving into a new territory.
Your audience expects high quality website translation and as “72% of consumers spend most of their time on websites in their own language” adapting your site to their native tongue is vital.
Localising keywords so that potential customers can find you online and ensuring your website is accurately translated and localised, gives the greatest chance for success in a competitive global marketplace.
The following tips are helpful when choosing local keywords:
• Industry keywords – your research from the section above should give you some insight into what keywords your competitors use, and these can be adapted so that they fit with what your local audience will actually search for. This list will form the basis of your keywords. For example, a Middle Eastern law firm looking to move into the UK might consider:
Family Law firm
Divorce Lawyer
Solicitor
Court representation
• Keyword Modifiers – the next step is to modify these keywords so they fit what your audience will actually search. Continuing with the above example, your audience might search:
Where can I find a good family law firm?
How much does it cost to use a solicitor?
Best divorce lawyer near me
• Location – next you need to add specific locations linked to your geographic region that will tie in with what your customers search. These would include names of cities, towns, villages, and so on. Our Middle Eastern law firm’s potential clients might search:
Best law firm in… (specific area)
Divorce lawyer in… (specific town/region)
Where is my nearest lawyer?
These tips are generalised and will help make a positive start on localising keywords for a global audience, but for targeted guidance and to ensure you have the best chance of success, talk to the localisation experts at Creative Word now.
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