Multilingual SEO Best Practices
Developing a multilingual website that generates international traffic and increases online visibility begins with high-quality translations of your content and proper localization of your SEO data. This article will discuss multilingual SEO — what it is, why you need it, and how you can optimize your website’s SEO for multiple languages.
What is Multilingual SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your webpage content to improve your ranking on popular search engines like Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) and increase online visibility for your business. SEO makes it easier for search engines to find and display your content to users when their search query is relevant to your website or specific pages. Similarly, multilingual SEO is the process of incorporating localized keywords into your content to ensure your translated content can be found by your new international market.
Why Do I Need It?
Whether you have a multilingual website that targets more than one language or a multi-regional website which targets different countries, every page of localized content should be translated with your target demographic in mind — ensuring the proper tone, messaging, and cultural elements of the reader. Businesses that optimize their content for keywords, phrases, and the cultural nuances of the target audiences’ language and location, can increase their rank on search engines. The higher the website ranks, the more likely the user will click on your page. However, suppose the SEO data does not reflect the changes made to your newly localized content. In that case, search engines will fail to recognize your website as a reliable source of information — leaving your website on the last page of the search results and out of reach for potential customers. When done correctly, multilingual SEO can significantly increase traffic to your website, improve the customer experience, and generate more revenue for your business.
Multilingual SEO Best Practices
To ensure that your multilingual content translation is understandable and attainable to your target audience and their preferred search engines, include the following best practices in your SEO translation process.
1. Hire an expert
Automated translation applications that provide quick and inexpensive translations of your website content are popular amongst new businesses looking to expand their global reach. However, these tools often provide inaccurate or unknowingly offensive translations. These mistakes can negatively affect your audience and the user experience, resulting in missed revenue opportunities and poor representation of your brand. To ensure technically accurate, culturally sensitive translations of the highest quality, hire an experienced linguistic translator for your website and SEO translations.
2. Identify keywords and phrases
Identifying keywords and phrases is the first step in performing multilingual search engine optimization. Keyword research helps us “speak the language” of our target audiences. Having a clear understanding of what they’re searching for and how, will allow you to tailor your content to increase global ranking, thus connecting them with your products or services. To identify the best keywords that align with your offerings, look for phrases with high search volume and low to medium keyword difficulty. Assign one to two keywords to each page, and then use them as the foundation to drive your content creation process.
Try one of the following tools to conduct your keyword analysis:
Expert tip: Using a web analytics service like Google Analytics, review the traffic coming in from your target location and note the keywords your visitors are using to reach your website.
3. Search Engine Optimization
Once you’ve identified the keywords and phrases in your target language, the next step in your search engine optimization process is to incorporate your keyword into the following areas of your website.
- Meta Descriptions: The most effective meta descriptions will be no longer than 160 characters and include the keyword phrase at the beginning of the text.
- Page Title: Include your keyword in the page title and throughout your webpage content. As a rule of thumb, primary keywords should show once every 200 words of copy, while secondary keywords are only used once or twice throughout the entire page.
- Title Tags: An HTML code representing the web page title plays a crucial role in organic SEO ranking.
- Alt Tag: Also referred to as “alt description,” an alt tag is the descriptive text for an image on a webpage. Be sure to include the keyword in your image description.
- URL: SEO-friendly URLs are short in length and include the keywords.
Multilingual search engine optimization is possible and effective at any stage of your website translation and localization process. Follow these best practices to increase traffic and generate more revenue for your business.
If you’d like to learn more about how BURG Translations helps you ensure high-quality translations, contact us today.