The SEO impact of translating a website, from keywords to duplicate content, is an important but sometimes overlooked task. This talk from Valentine Lacour shows how to make sure your site’s rankings don’t suffer when you translate it.
Overview
- Speaker: Valentine Lacour
- Job role and company: Business Solutions Executive at Webcertain
- Website: https://webcertain.com
- Twitter profile: @WebCertain
- LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentinelacour/
- Link to the slides:
What was the talk about?
It’s Valentine Lacour from @WebCertain on translation and #SEO. #BrightonSEO pic.twitter.com/gPIRefMQIy
— Andrew Martin (@AndrewDoesSEO) April 12, 2019
If you want to crack international markets, it’s crucial that you translate your website, that much is obvious. You can expand your potential consumer base, build trust by speaking in their native language (giving you a competitive advantage as a result, and boost conversions.
But translating your website also enhances your SEO too. How? To start with, creating specific URLs for translated pages helps the search engines index your website better. It also lets you target specific regions with more precision, and it will drive more hits and engagement as a consequence.
However, basic keyword translation is not without its challenges. It won’t account for cultural differences in search behavior, nor local search volumes. Automatic translation tools can result in duplicate content too.
Valentine puts forward the idea of SEO-localisation as a solution to these issues. Conduct KWR with a native speaker, include keywords naturally in your translation, perform a linguistic and contextual review, and create meta and body content in your target language.
Fave quote
“Search engines value quality content and user engagement. By translating your website properly, you can easily obtain both.”
Potential impact on the industry
In the global age, you can’t limit the reach of your business to one language. Giving yourself the tools to rank your brand website for a range of languages opens up the potential to become a truly worldwide company.
Key takeaways
- Don’t translate keywords — conduct keyword research for your target regions, and take into account language variations and search volumes.
- Create dedicated URLs targeted to specific languages/countries — don’t use automatic translation tools!
- Work with native speakers to translate your content with cultural nuance and intelligence.
