If your company targets an international audience, you need to make sure that it can easily be found in the search engines, regardless of which country your users are located in. Like other websites, there are certain basic search engine optimization (SEO) techniques that you should be using to make it easier for people to find your site through the search engines. These include tactics such as adding alternative text to images and properly using redirects. Above and beyond that, however, there are additional steps that you should take to make it easier for clients throughout the world to connect with your site.
1. Learn About Geo-Targeting
Geo-targeting is an effective way to connect with people who speak different languages. Within the broader framework of your site, you can create small microsites, each dedicated to a different language. You can then assign each of these sites their own URL. For instance, you could create a micro-site that targets visitors from Germany and assign it a web address like yoursite.com/Germany.
Search engines rely heavily on location when deciding which websites to show to their users. In this example, people located in Germany who are searching for content through a search engine are likely to see domain names that end with .de or websites that have a targeted section specifically for German users.
Geo-targeting makes it possible to target potential customers in specific locations. This not only is good from a search engine optimization standpoint but also from the perspective of your users. By directing them to a portion of your site that is in their language, you can more easily connect with them and stand a better chance of turning them into a customer or client.
2. Choose Your Keywords Wisely
Keyword selection is important for all types of search engine optimization. In the case of multilingual sites, however, it is particularly crucial. You can't just take one keyword and translate it into a bunch of different languages. Instead, you need to think about the actual words that people use to describe your products or services in their own country. A great example can be seen in the insurance industry. If you sell car insurance, you can't just plug those words into a translator and post them on your website in different languages since each country may use different terms to refer to this type of insurance.
In France, according to professional French translation expert Anthony Teixeira, car insurance translates to 'assurance voiture' while most French speakers actually refer to car insurance as 'assurance auto'. In this case, a direct translation would cause you to miss out on the majority of the web traffic for that particular keyword. That is why it is so important to choose your words based on how people in the countries you are targeting actually speak rather than on what a translation tool tells you.
3. Create Content Based On Individual Markets
Along with choosing unique keywords for each country, you also need to create unique content. There are often cultural differences in the way that people think about topics or solve problems. It is important to write each piece of content on your site in a way that your users will connect with. Oftentimes, direct translations are not the best option. You need to think about your audience on a location-by-location basis, custom tailoring your content to each area. Creating unique content for each country you are targeting as if you were a native speaker will get you far better results than using general content that was created with a translation tool.
4. Get Links From Local Websites
From an SEO standpoint, few things are more powerful than incoming links from high-quality websites. In the case of multilingual websites, the best thing that you can do is get websites from the countries you are targeting to link to your content. Although there really isn't a direct approach that you can take to get these kinds of links, you can encourage people to link to your content naturally by making sure that you put quality first. Your content should also be targeted to local audiences for each country. Creating high-quality content is the best way to get people to link to your site.
Don't Forget About Basic SEO Techniques
Along with the techniques listed in this article, you also need to use basic search engine optimization tactics to get your site listed better in the search engines. When targeting people from multiple countries, you need to optimize your site as a whole, creating smaller pages on your site that each target different users on a country-by-country basis. Going this route will make it easier for people throughout the world to find your website.
