The web has closely knit the world with information available within milliseconds. Search Engine Optimization for the various sites ekes out information to users on the topic of their choice. Having a global presence has given rise to content in various languages spoken across the world. There are many websites in languages other than English. But the question is does the search engine locate these sites?
The answer is YES. The predominant language of the internet is English, but around 60-70% of the world’s population is not fluent with the language. They are more comfortable in receiving information in their native language. The search engines are well aware of this fact. The search engines do not have a discriminative approach to sites with languages other than English. They do provide users with the option to search as per their language preference. The only requirement is that the multilingual sites should be SEO’ed to be searched as multilingual sites i.e. they need to be optimized in the language in which your site is written. SEO agencies in India offer optimization of sites in several target languages.
The principles of Search Engine Optimization for the sites in English are more or less the same for multilingual sites. The following tips may help in getting your multilingual site SEO’ed –
Translation –
You can translate the English keyword or identify the relevant keywords in the target language. This is a helpful technique but needs to be executed carefully. It is important to remember that keywords are mostly words of convenience targeted by marketers to get the customers looking for information. The mere translation of the English keyword may not hit home in the targeted Non- English speaking country. For e.g. the word ‘car insurance’ when translated in French is ‘assurance voiture’ which is not the local term used for car insurance in France. The local term used there is ‘assurance auto’. Hence if you SEO your site for the term ‘assurance voiture’ you will not get the desired results as the French will seek information for car insurance using the term ‘assurance auto’.You can get the content of the site translated in the similar manner to drive more traffic. It is important you take the help of a linguistic expert of the targeted country to evaluate the effectiveness of the content of the website.
SEO Firms take measures to get the translation done with the regional slang and phrases in mind.
On-site Optimization –
It will benefit if you have the IP address of the same country that you are targeting. Search engines look for the IP address location and rank the website higher as per the country. For better results launch the site with the local TLD like .fr, .de, .nl etc. In many countries using the local TLD is beneficial than plenty of inbound links.
Keyword in URL –
The URL of the page should also contain the keyword of the targeted language. For e.g. the URL companyname.com/products-and-services/spanish.html will have a URL like companyname.com/productos-y-servicios.html.
Off-site Optimization –
For a non-English website off-page optimization you will have to research the local press release distribution sites, niche directories, local partner websites and other top visited local sites to feature the link to your website. Be sure to use the translated keyword in the link anchor text.
SEO professionals in India use various other tried and tested formulas to get sites of non-English content to a top ranking in the targeted area. An SEO agency understands perfectly that optimization for such sites is language sensitive and mere translation will not dish out the desired results. Hence using a combination of effective translation, on-page search engine optimization and off-page search engine optimization used for non-English websites can drive top rankings for multilingual websites in search engines.
