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Multilingual SEO made easy

By on January 31 2008

Search engine optimisation (SEO), or the process of raising your company’s Google profile, is now a familiar concept. But many companies are failing to consider the fact that not everyone searches in English, writes Greig Holbrook, MD of SEO specialist OBAN Multilingual.

For any company seeking business beyond the UK, multilingual or global SEO is a vital ingredient. By not having a multilingual SEO strategy, huge business opportunities are being lost by companies which are in effect invisible to the wider world. There is no such thing as a language of the web: even a US search is significantly different to a search in the UK.

Forget Google – well, don’t necessarily forget it, but bear in mind that in many parts of the world Google is not the biggest or most popular search engine. Global search campaigns which merely focus on Google are often missing better and more cost-effective search solutions. For example, in India the local pay-per-click (PPC) portal Rediff yields more traffic than Google and the costs are much cheaper. In the Czech Republic, a lot of search is done through local providers like e-target that can offer a better return on investment (ROI).

Multilingual SEO offers huge opportunities for both B2B and B2C companies, and like most good things these opportunities won’t be around forever as the knowledge spreads. Likewise over-reliance on ‘cheap’ PPC prices for multilingual phrases will only have short-term benefits as other companies eventually catch up. On the other hand, a serious investment in multilingual SEO will bring long-term strategic advantages.

Here are some tips for maximising your search engine presence on an international scale.

Do your homework
Identify the foreign markets that may be interested in your product or service.

Think beyond the UK
Even in other English-speaking countries, language usage and hence search behaviour is very different. For example, a US consumer might use “bespoke” where someone in the UK would prefer “tailored”.

Translation doesn’t work
Identify key phrases for each country first and then build your campaign around those phrases. Keep in mind that particular products or services may be more popular in some countries than others.

Don’t stop with Google
Google is not always the most popular search engine. In China, it’s Baidu. In Japan, Yahoo is often regarded as number one.

Shape content to fit the market
Superficial localisation won’t wash; you don’t want to look like a UK company with a French website. Make sure your content pushes the right buttons for readers in other countries to generate the best ROI and conversion rates.