When setting up a multilingual website, there are some essential SEO factors to consider. Most importantly, you want to make sure people find the right pages for their language and location.
Just like SEO for a project, having media to establish an effective marketing plan is an essential pillar for your business. That is why a communication agency That considers all aspects of both SEO localization and content creation, will catapult your conversions in other countries.
Let's take a deeper look at what localization SEO is and why it's important, plus five tips to improve your multilingual website's SEO.
What is SEO localization?
A multilingual website is any website that offers content in more than one language. And SEO localization is the process of optimizing that website for different languages. This includes the translation of website content, meta titles, meta tags, descriptions and specific keywords.
It's more than just translating content. SEO localization also pays attention to how people search for content and the search terms they use in the locale you are targeting. By using these location-based keywords within your content, you will increase your organic reach in those specific regions.
Multilingual SEO includes:
Creating a website in each target language using a logical structure
Creating unique and localized multilingual content
Satisfy various website development requirements that prevent search engines from penalizing your multi-region websites
Place different language versions of the website within an appropriate schema
Why is multilingual website SEO important?
If you're marketing to different countries, you're likely targeting audiences in many different markets who speak multiple languages.
In this case, basic website translation is not enough, and machine translations do not always make sense and can be viewed as spam.
While it may be tempting to rely on Google Translate for non-English speakers to understand your website content, you'll get much better results if you have a dedicated multilingual website SEO strategy. Because?
Because people tend to search on Google in their native language first. That's why you'll want to optimize your SEO strategy according to what your international audience is searching for in their own language.
Additionally, the elements that contribute to effective SEO also tend to improve your overall user experience, so paying attention to multilingual SEO best practices is a win for both your organic traffic and customer experience.
Multilingual SEO Best Practices
Google has come up with some multilingual website best practices, and there are some methods to improve your localization SEO rankings.
Here are five ways to improve your multilingual website to beat the algorithm and attract more organic traffic.
1. Use dedicated URLs
Your URL is the first part of your website that users see, and it's also where you should start when doing localization SEO. Each of your language or country pages should have its own URL so that Google can crawl, index and rank your sites effectively.
Be sure to include a language indicator in your URLs to help search engines identify the language of the website. For example, an original page could be www.mywebsite.com, while the French version is www.mywebsite.com/fr/.
The location of the language indicator depends on the URL structure you are using. There are three structures to choose from:
Top level domain (e.g. www.mywebsite.fr)
Subdomain (e.g. www.fr.mywebsite.com)
Subdirectory (e.g. www.mywebsite.com/fr/)
Each of these has its pros and cons, and there is no clear winner in terms of SEO, but subdirectories are probably the easiest to set up and maintain.
2. Don't forget to apply hreflang tags
Be sure to use hreflang annotations to help Google determine the language of the page and the region it is intended for. These tags are inserted into the header section of the original page or sent via a sitemap. Multiple hreflang attributes can be added if a page is intended for multiple regions.
The more languages and regions you have, the more complicated this process becomes. It is best to get the help of a multilingual SEO agency to ensure you get it right!
Adding hreflang attributes is also important for multi-region websites in the same language, but they are slightly different for various regions. For example, you may have located US vs. English language websites. United Kingdom. You must inform Google that the content is “canonical” or you will risk having your websites penalized by search engines for duplicate content. By adding hreflang and markup attributes to your sitemap, Google will be able to understand which website goes with which language and country.
3. Stick to one language per page
Google uses the visible content of your page to determine your language, so you should make the language obvious by sticking to one language for content and navigation. Side to side translations are impossible!
Having more than one language on a page also affects the user experience, as it is confusing and context is easily misinterpreted.
In short: When translating a page, be sure to translate all content, including navigation text and user-generated content.
4. Translate the “hidden” parts of your website
SEO incorporates both the content that users see and the content that they don't see, and both are equally important.
When creating multilingual websites, it's easy to forget about the parts “hidden” from your website. This refers to text that works in the background and pages that users only see when they perform a certain action. These include:
Metadata descriptions
Meta tag titles
URL
Alt text for images
payment pages
Contact Pages
Newsletter Subscription Forms
Message error
Meta titles and meta tags are particularly important for SEO as they appear in search results on Google.
5. Use location-based keywords
Keywords are not universal. It is best to do keyword research specific to each language and region your website targets, as simply translating your keywords will not be enough.
Location-based keywords don't just apply to language-specific keywords. Different English-speaking countries use different words for certain things. For example, in the US they use the word “cookies” to search for cookies, while in the UK they search “cookies”. You will also find that some keywords have more or less competition or search volume in different languages and regions.
Your keywords form the basis of your multilingual website's SEO strategy, so it's worth putting in the extra effort to find the best terms for each language and location you target.
