Moving your website to another language involves many steps and many options. Getting this process right is critical, and this article covers every aspect of the process, from translating the site to marketing the site to the search engines used by your target customers.
translate your website
A lot of time, effort, and money goes into localizing websites. A professional website localization project may involve:
* Find good translators (or a good agency)
* Choose the right “flavors” of target language for your target markets (eg European Spanish, Latin American Spanish, etc.)
* Protection of HTML and other code
* Localization graphics
* Extraction of text from areas of the site driven by programs
* Change detection for frequently changing websites
* Continuous localization of changed pages (without retranslating the entire page)
Mere site translation, no matter how professionally done, does not guarantee that your site will be seen by the global audience you expect.
In the same way that search engines should be at the forefront of everything you do on your English site, this same spirit should be used on translated versions of your site.
Ideally, global search marketing planning should start before the site is first found, but if it doesn’t, it’s important to know what steps can be taken to rectify the situation.
This article describes the process of attracting visitors to your multilingual website. Typical Multilingual Search Engine Optimization
Most global organizations have a website optimized for search engines that they then localize, ignoring the optimization of localized sites.
Most webmasters are not hired for their language skills and therefore site localization is a painful and intimidating process. After this process, entering the even more unknown area of search engine optimization or multilingual pay-per-click management is actively ignored or avoided.
There are two common misconceptions about website marketing for multilingual websites:
1. Optimize the site in English, then translate it well and it will be optimized in the language.
Multilingual search engine optimization is often ignored due to the belief that if the English site is optimized for search engines, the language sites will be too. This is not the case.
2. For PPC, just translate your ad text and keywords.
Imagine a set of English keywords for a site that sells an auto glass replacement service. The marketer or PPC executive would use their industry and language knowledge to expand a set of keywords that a user might type into a search engine. They may come up with terms like “vehicle glass replacement,” “car glass repair,” “window repair,” etc. For this simple service, there are a multitude of ways to describe the window, vehicle, and replacement service that generate a large number of keyword combinations. A good translator would take each one and translate it into the most common and most sensible alternative in your language. Unfortunately, this will lead to keyword reduction. Windshield and windscreen can be translated to the same common term in French. Replacement and repair can be translated to the common term used in French for glass replacement. This is not what is required.
If a site is simply translated without regard to the country’s search engines, it will allow an English-language searcher to reach the site and then switch to the desired language. However, it will not easily help a user to find your site in their language.
It is these new customers who find your site on foreign search engines that will bring the most incremental business from the localized site. How to Localize a Site and Stay Search Engine Friendly
Fortunately, there are some simple steps that can be taken to ensure that the site remains searchable in the language. However, just like your English site, to maximize the ROI of localized sites, outside help may be required. simple steps
1. Find a quality localization company.
Be sure to ask for examples of websites they have previously located, and have your people back home (if you have them) validate the translations against the reference sites.
2. Get your page-by-page keyword glossary translated and approved FIRST.
A lot of effort went into generating keywords for each page of the English site. Your English pages are rich in these keywords. Put the same effort into translating these keywords. This must be done first, before any page localization begins. These translations must be approved by your in-country marketing representatives, if you have them, or double-checked by your translation company (using specialized marketing translators) if not.
3. Make sure the site is professionally localized.
The site should be well-formed (no broken HTML or other code), well-translated, and should not contain broken links (links to pages that have not been migrated to the language site and therefore throw an error). Quality localization requires a quality localization company that uses specialized tools to protect the page’s code and check it after the localization is complete.
4. When translating the website, please use the keyword glossary ELECTRONICALLY.
Don’t leave it to chance. Your translation company should use the translated keyword lists in electronic glossaries so that translators are automatically prompted for the approved language version of the keyword whenever they are translating an English equivalent.
Following these steps will ensure that the site has the correct basics and that the engines can effectively index it for the correct keywords. However, to make sure you get the right prominence in the search engines, you should keep reading. Advanced Multilingual Search Marketing
If you want to perform in your foreign markets and fully capitalize on your localization investment, you should consider the following:
1.Domain
Geolocating your site in the eyes of Google involves more than changing the language. Changing the language does not guarantee that your site will appear in local searches. You have to consider the domain. Some companies build a .com website, with folders or subdomains for multiple languages (IBM) while others build local versions of the site using each country’s top level domain (Nokia). The first option may be cheaper and easier to implement because it means you can use one content management system for all content on a server. However, the top level domain gives Google additional information that will give it weight in search results.
2. IP address
Google maps the IP address to country, and when looking for relevance in search results, it will score locally hosted domains higher than non-locally hosted ones. In other words, it is better to host the French version of your site in France. This can be cumbersome and expensive, so consider whether you can beat your competition without it. It is not the only factor that Google considers so do not think that this is essential.
3. Tools for webmasters
It is now also possible to select the geographic location using Google Webmaster Tools. But for now only entire sites can be geolocated, not individual folders, although that is promised for the near future.
4.Links
In the same way that you have created a large number of links to your English site, the language version is a rich and often untapped source of links. Local links from local domains in the local language are important. You may need outside help for this, and again the question is what do you need to do to beat your competition? Just like with English SEO, links are an important part of success.
5. Engine-specific optimization
This involves identifying important movers by country for your target market. Google is not necessarily the dominant player in every country. In China, for example, at the time of writing, you won’t find Google in the top ten sites. An engine called Baidu is by far the most used site. To identify, and then optimize and monitor these engines, you will need the support of external specialists.
6. Pay per click (PPC) in each location
PPC is the fastest method to achieve search engine prominence in any country. Professional multilingual PPC allows you to quickly succeed in a foreign market, but it’s also a fantastic method of keyword targeting so you can discover the most powerful keywords in your target language. Running a PPC campaign may also not require full website localization, which can be an expensive exercise. It’s often efficient to localize just one landing page. However, make sure your landing pages are culturally optimized because they are critical for collecting conversions.
Conclution
We hope this article has shown that there are some basic steps that can be taken during the localization process that will start the search engine optimization process on the right track. These basic steps will easily fit in if your localization company knows the ins and outs of search engine optimization. Be sure to try them.