Multilingual SEO: Boost Your Website Globally
Understanding and building a multilingual website SEO strategy will make your website global!
Want to promote your website internationally? Try Multilingual Website SEO! We all know the importance of SEO for websites, it can help you improve your ranking, and also let users better find your website. But before we touch on more localized SEO, if you don't know, it doesn't matter; you can click on this article to see the SEO guide! ➡️ How to build an SEO strategy in 2024? The Beginner's Guide
Today's topic is how to use multilingual website SEO to promote your business globally. What is multilingual website SEO? It is a process that allows you to convert the content of your website into multiple languages. When users use Google or other browsers, non-native English speakers may search in English. However, data shows that 76% of consumers prefer products that provide information in their native language. Not surprisingly, English is a second language for many people. There's nothing like searching and viewing in your native language.
However, in today's globalized world with tens of thousands of websites, standing out from the crowd and internationalizing your website is critical. According to Statista, by 2022, there will be nearly 8.5 billion searches per day on Google. Every minute, Google receives more than 6.3 million searches. Therefore, multilingual website SEO seems to be a key point that cannot be ignored. In this article, we will explain how it helps you internationalize your website in three ways.
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Why is multilingual SEO important?
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·How can multilingual website SEO help your website succeed globally?
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Why is multilingual SEO important?
As I said, this is the age of globalization! Everyone can communicate across different regions and time zones on the same network. Therefore, understanding the importance of multilingual website SEOis essential if you want to nationalize your business truly. This is where you can expose your website to more people. Multilingual website SEO has the following points:
First, improve the overall SEO ranking of the website. Having a translated version of your website can improve your chances of ranking in search engines. Multilingual websites generate more traffic and potential customer attention than single-language websites. Search engines will direct traffic from translated content to the main site, which will positively affect your SEO ranking.
Second, stay ahead of the competition. In the age of globalization, you can do business with any country. These potential customers come from different time zones and do not speak the same language. You can use multilingual website SEO to reach a global audience and increase your brand awareness and product sales.
Third, reach more target audiences. Multilingual website SEO translates your website into the native language of the target audience so that you can improve products and services in a more targeted way.
Fourth, better user experience. This one is easy to understand. Because your website considers the feelings of potential customers from different countries, it actively solves the language barrier problem so that users can browse your website in their native language and understand your service and brand more accurately. Google also encourages using different languages when writing websites because people prefer to view information in their native language. Remember what I said earlier? 76% of consumers prefer products that provide information in their native language.
Fifth, access more search engines. Many countries use search engines other than Google or Bing. By effectively using multilingual website SEO, you can ensure that more people who do not use Google or Bing will find your website with different keywords, thus driving more traffic to your website. A multilingual website is the only way to achieve this.
Do you believe that multilingual website SEO could help your website internationally? Don't worry. Let's look at how multilingual website SEO can help you achieve this goal.
How can multilingual website SEO help your website succeed globally?
Step 1: Identify your market
Before you start working on multilingual website SEO, there is one key point you need to consider. In which countries do you want to expand? You can consider this according to the nature of your product and brand style. For example, if you think your product might be popular in France after user research, then you can translate the content of your website into French. You must determine these key questions: What languages do you want to translate your content into? Will the translated content affect your keywords? Do you want to translate a specific page or the site's entire content? These questions can only be answered if you decide which countries you want to promote your product. It will help you build a multilingual website SEO strategy. After determining your target country, you also need to consider whether your product has competitors in that country, what the current market looks like, whether your product differs from the competitors' products, and whether your product has enough advantages to attract customers. This is a key point to consider once you are sure that you want to internationalize your website and product. We can optimize the multilingual website SEO by solving these basic problems.
Step 2: Identify and optimize keywords
After choosing your target country or region, the most important step you need to take is keyword research. Identifying and optimizing keywords for different countries and regions can help your multilingual website SEO strategy be successful.
You can hire a native speaker of the country or region or a certified translator to help you solve this problem. This is because it is important to understand the client's needs and their Internet or language habits for your subsequent work. It is why we find qualified translators or native speakers of the country or region to help you. They know more about the language customs of the target country or region, local contractions, slang, values, and cultural mores than we do. Knowing this will help you quickly target and optimize keywords on the Internet in your target country or region. It is a key elements of build multilingual website SEO strategy. The process of optimization is not easy, but you can also hire experts to help you. When translating your company's website, you need to have an overall content plan. For example, how do you ensure your content will resonate with your target audience? Your content needs to be relevant to local customs, values, and preferences to effectively connect with customers. Second, avoid direct translation. If you want to make your website globally, your direct translation may result in poor message delivery, and the content should be localized. You don't need to translate word for word, but in the style that the user is most accustomed to and enjoys. It will help you build multilingual website SEO.
In addition, remember to pay attention to sites like Google. Different countries use different browsers. If your target country or region has different browsing habits, then you may need to research the algorithms of those browsers and perform SEO optimization on those browsers. It is a good method to use a multilingual website SEO to make your company globally.
Step 3: Perfect all kinds of technical problems
URL: You need to create a unique URL for each language. A separate URL will help search engines crawl and categorize your content. In this way, the search engine can ensure that the user is correctly directed to the site in their native language. Therefore, a well-organized URL structure is crucial for a multilingual website. There are four main ways to structure URLs, each with its advantages and disadvantages, and each with a different impact on the SEO and user experience of multilingual websites. Below I will introduce these four methods. Please choose according to your needs, and use multilingual website SEO to make the site successful.
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Subfolders: Subfolders are a way to add a specific language or country code directly after the domain name in a URL. Using Wegic as an example, this is Wegic's URL: https://wegic.ai/, if the site is translated into Chinese, just add CN after: https://wegic.ai/cn. If the site is translated into French, it would be:https://wegic.ai/fr.
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Advantages:
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Consolidated domain authority: Since all language versions have the same domain name, this can help you improve the overall ranking of your site. And it is good formultilingual website SEO.
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Easy to manage: Subfolders are built in a way that makes them easier for owners to manage. Because everything is in a single domain.
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Disadvantages:
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Content is repetitive: Search engines may consider content in a subfolder to be duplicate content.
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Subdomains: Subdomains are similar to subfolders. It is a way to put the language and country code in front of the main domain name. Take Wegic as an example: If the site is translated into Chinese, you put CN right in front of it: cn.wegic.com. If the site is translated into French it would be:fr.wegic.com.
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Advantages:
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Accurate geolocation: Subdomains allow search engines to treat each subdomain as an individual, providing better geolocation.
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Site speed: Subdomains can be used to improve site speed.
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Disadvantages:
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Complexity: Subdomains are much more complex to manage than subfolders, as well as to build multilingual website SEO strategy.
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Separate domains: Separate domains allow each language to use completely different domain names.
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Advantages:
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More precise location: Compared to subdomains, separate domains are more accurate and provide a better location and signal for search engines and users.
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Cater to different markets: Separate domains allow for extensive customization, so you can tailor your site to the preferences of different markets.
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Disadvantages:
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Higher cost: Separate domains cost a lot. Because you have to buy and maintain multiple domain names, and each domain name has to be used for SEO strategy and link building. It can make building a multilingual website SEO a bit difficult.
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URL parameter: The URL parameter adds language or country information to the URL as a query string.
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Advantages:
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Flexible: No need to create separate pages and you can dynamically switch between languages.
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Disadvantages:
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Bad for SEO: This approach makes it difficult for search engines to find the right content, which is not good for the multilingual website SEO.
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Step 4: Apply the hreflang tag
The hreflang tag is essential for websites that want to be international. It ensures that search engines display the correct version of content to users. For example, if your site has two versions of Simplified and Traditional Chinese, the correct hreflang tag will help you distinguish and present the correct content to the user. It is an important step to build a successful multilingual website SEO strategy.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that in this global age, a successful multilingual website SEO strategy can make your brand known worldwide. It can help you drive more traffic and increase your conversion rate. In this article, I will explain in detail what multilingual website SEO is, why it is so important, and how it can help you succeed in the age of globalization. However, it is important to note that before setting up a multilingual website SEO strategy, please set up a reasonable multilingual website SEO strategy based on the size, goals, and capital of your business. It is because if you are a small company, then I recommend you to find one or two countries to build the multilingual website SEO strategy according to your product characteristics and funds. But if you are a large company committed to taking your company's products global, you may need to think more about your multilingual website SEO strategy. However, no matter what the size of the company, you need to pay attention to one thing is that only by understanding the cultural customs, laws, and social taboos of the target country and region can promote your products better. Your product will not only stand out from the competition, but it will also show your respect for the country or region's culture. I hope this article can help you!
Written by
Kimmy
Published on
Nov 22, 2024
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