Dealing with mammoth projects like multilingual SEO demands a lot of expertise. Multilingual SEO is the practice of optimizing a website’s content for multiple languages. This helps your website rank in organic search results for multiple regions. Basically, it’s like you are localizing your website into multiple languages. When setting up such a website, there are several factors that you need to take into consideration. Let’s know about them in this blogpost.
Is Multilingual SEO the same as Multiregional SEO?
No, multilingual SEO and multiregional SEO are not the same. The former practice aims to optimize a website in a variety of languages, and the latter is based on creating an optimized website for different geographical regions.
However, both SEO strategies overlap because, often, different regions correspond to different languages.
Is Multilingual SEO different from International SEO?
Though often used interchangeably, multilingual SEO and international SEO are different. This is because international SEO focuses on delivering content in different countries, but it may not include multilingual SEO. Let’s understand this with the help of an example. Suppose you want to target an English-speaking class globally. You’ll use international SEO strategies for this, but not multilingual SEO necessarily.
How to approach multilingual SEO?
Identify Your Markets
Assess where you want to expand your business. You must consider the geographical regions that have search demand for your brand or its products and services. After choosing the areas, you must learn the dominant language in that population. For example, if you choose Germany, you’ll need to translate your website into German. However, if you choose the Belgium region, you will have to translate your website into Dutch since it is the dominant language of that region.
You can use market explorer tools or leverage competitor analysis to identify information regarding which regions have a high search volume for your products/services and what the dominant language is in those regions. Your competition’s website doing well in a certain region also signals a good business opportunity for you.
Determine the scope of your project.
This is not necessarily for the SEO but also regarding configuratioon and other aspects. For example:
- How many languages do you want to translate your content into?
- How will you translate the content, and what will be the impact on the keyword selection?
- Do you want to translate the entire website content or just a few web pages?
- How will you ensure that your translated content will be indexed in the right search engine without causing any duplicacy issues?
Translation
Deciding where to start with the translation is a very challenging task. So, normally, you can go ahead with choosing which language you’d like to translate your content into. If you’ve determined it yet then analytical data can help you come to a conclusion.
Then comes the stage where you have to determine how much of your website you want to translate. Once you’ve figured this out, you’ll need software to help you with the translation.
Keyword Research
Conduct keyword research for your chosen countries. At this stage, a native translator qualified translator can help you brainstorm some seed keywords in the country’s specific language. The qualified translator can come in handy in helping you brainstorm some seed keywords in the country-specific language.
Seed keywords are general terms associated with your industry. They can be used as a foundation to discover more specific keywords that might be valuable to your business.
Afterwards, you can use keyword research tools to further expand your keyword list and assess their search volume and keyword difficulty.
You can employ automated translation tools like Google Translate to directly convert your content into the preferred languages. However, these tools are not as effective. That’s why it is recommended to use native speaker or translator.
Information Architecture
For a multilingual site, you need dedicated URLs for each region and language as it helps Google index your site optimally. There are a number of options to choose from when you’ve to decide on URL structure. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Separate Domains
Using separate domains or ccTLD (country code top-level domains) is the most general practice in multilingual SEO. That’s because users are often familiar with the top-level domain of their country. So, when they visit their website, they stay assured that they’re in the right place. But if you take the SEO viewpoint by choosing separate domains.
You’ll have to build links to each domain one by one. Now, this can be time-consuming. However, at the same time, separate domains give you flexibility to use localized hosting. This can be beneficial for the page load times.
Subfolder
Using subfolders is another great option for websites in multiple languages. Subfolders allow you to organize the content under one domain and maintain a well-structured website hierarchy. Subdomains function as separate websites within the same brand umbrella, while subdirectories remain part of the primary domain’s central structure.
Example of Subfolder
If the main website is in English and there is also a Spanish version, the main website could be yoursite.com, and the Spanish version could be yoursite.com/es.
Multilingual Markup
Multilingual markup is a way to use code to tell search engines which localized version of a website to return for a given search. This greatly helps improve the user experience and search engine bot can easily understand your website and return the correct pages.
Use hreflang tags
These digital signposts help search engines determine the most relevant version of your website to show each user. By specifying different language and regional preferences, you can avoid confusing search engines with duplicate content and ensure a seamless user experience.
A major benefit of hreflang tags is their ability to boost the ranking of new translations. When you signal to Google that one page is a translation of another, you’re essentially telling the search engine that the content is valuable and relevant to a wider audience. This can give your new translations a head start in the rankings.
Use a multilingual sitemap.
A multilingual sitemap is a list of URLs for a website that includes information about the alternate languages for each URL. This can help your website in several ways:
- Search engines can understand your site’s different language versions, which can help you reach a global audience.
- Help search engines index the content according to target audience boosting your page’s ranking in the relevant searches.
- Help users find and view your site in their preferred language.
Go Multilingual Today With SEO Toronto Experts
Expanding globally? Going multilingual is key. SEO Toronto Experts can help your business expand globally with multilingual SEO. Let’s discuss how we can help your business reach new markets and boost your revenue. With years of experience in B2B and B2C projects, we are ready to tailor a solution that perfectly aligns with your goals.