SEO according to Google means “the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine.”
Making your multilingual website ‘SEO-friendly’ is about helping it get found in search engines. An.‘SEO-friendly’ makes it easy for search engine spiders to assess what your website is about and to then help rank it according to certain keywords.
When launching a website that has been translated into foreign languages, there are some basic steps one should take to ensure the website is as SEO-friendly as possible.
Invest Properly in Keyword Research
Make sure you invest time and resources in researching the keywords that will populate your pages’ content, meta tags ans alt tags. Don’t simply send your current English keyword set for translation. Start from scratch and properly understand the search terms people are using in the countries you are targeting.
Check Out the Competition
There is great value to be had in looking at what your competition are doing SEO-wise. Carry out a SWOT analysis of your top 3 competitors in your new language or country and take note of the terminology they are using as well as their top keywords.
Consider Your Geographic Hosting
Hosting your website in the country or countries you plan on targeting will help with SEO. Google will see your website as being ‘local’ and essentially give your SEO-brownie points for being so. As well as locality it also helps with other aspects such as page load time.
Use Hreflang Tags
Search engines can usually work out what language your website is supposed to be in but using Hreflang tags saves the search engines doing any work and guarantees they get it right.
Localize Don’t Translate Content
Localisation of content is essential in making sure the words speak to and connect with the audience. Simply translating English text into a foreign language is never really good enough if you truly want to provide good CX on your website. Write your content specifically with your audience in mind and what you want them to do on your website.
There’s More to Life Than Google
OK Google pretty much dominates many countries but it doesn’t rule the world. Look at local alternatives in terms of search engines and identify which you want to track and get ranked for. For example, if you are looking for success in China then you need to be thinking about SEO for Baidu as it sees a whopping 85% market share in terms of searches. Other countries also have similar alternatives.
Get Local Backlinks
Backlinks are vital to SEO; a sure-fire way of giving any website an SEO-boost. Aim to get backlinks from websites in your target country as this will help your local rankings. Search engines see it as a sign of trust if websites link to one another.
Consider UX
When translating a website many people simply use their current design, usually in English, and then add in translated content. User Experience (UX) is about making sure your website looks and works as it should, i.e. providing a fluid, positive experience. When taking a website abroad, it may sometimes be necessary to change areas such as navigation, colours, images, etc in order to provide good UX. For example, when launching a website for an Arab language audience it would be best to reverse the navigation and layout elements to be arranged and read from right to left as opposed to the traditional Western style of left to right.
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