SEO and website translation
It is common knowledge that the success of any website is very much dependent on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and website translation. No matter the level of marketing, a website will not draw much traffic if it is not well optimized. And of course, we know what happens when a site does not drive enough traffic.
Optimize your website for foreign markets
What if your website is looking to target a multilingual Market?, then there is the question of, How will this affect my Search Engine result?, Thanks to improvements in technology, issues of “Duplicate content is a thing in the past.” We all know the cost involved in creating localized contents with unique meta elements and page description for every language independently.
All this involves having to get
- someone from Japan to create the Japanese version
- a French translator to create the French version
- a German linguist to create the German version
- etc.
which would be hectic and expensive. That is why it is more convenient to translate your website centrally. Doing this effectively requires you to act on some of the things listed below.
Optimize your original text
First you should make your original content perfect.
- Make sure your texts have been optimized for search engines with keywords, categories (or tags), meta descriptions, slugs, etc.
- Create a list of (translated) keywords for the translators to include in the translation.
- Check for legal issues (GPRD, etc.). Adapt your content while also considering regulations in your home country.
- Before translating any content, ensure that the content management system (CMS) you are using supports Unicode text. This is necessary for displaying different foreign language characters.
Then send your text for translation to a Language Service Provider (LSP).
- Send your text to the LSP and tell them you need it translated as SEO content. If they know it´s SEO text, they will treat it as such.
- Compile a glossary (terminology list) for the content of the page. Top translation agencies will do this for you and handle any and all feedback.
- Specify character limits when translating meta descriptions and elements. This is very important in SEO. Computer-aided translation (CAT) tools can help translators keep track of this without hassle.
Translation plug-ins
Most CMS tools will have some sort of translation functionality. Or at least allow you to download a translation plugin. Even Google offers a tool which automatically translates the whole site into multiple languages…
From an SEO point of view, you might want to create sub-domains or entirely different domains for each market. This is like tricking Google into thinking you have stand-alone companies in each country (which most of us don´t).
Conclusion
Additionally, it is an added advantage if you can extract the text in the Website for translation yourself. This way, you can ensure that only the essential texts are translated. In the end, the most important thing is that you have a text that you can use to save costs on having someone add the content to the Website for you.
