What’s New In Marketing magazine
April 23rd, 2008
Published: February 2008
http://www.wnim.com/archive/issue66/index.htm
Multilingual SEO
Greig Holbrook, of Oban Multilingual argues that multilingual search engine optimisation is vital to any business looking to market their products and services in the global arena
What is multilingual SEO?
Marketing a business is tough work. Trying to market a business in different languages takes that work to a whole new level. For this reason, there is a new process called multilingual search engine optimisation (SEO).
Multilingual SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to international web sites from search engines.
Why use multilingual SEO?
Today, over 50% of online transactions start with someone typing a word or phrase into a search engine like Google or Yahoo.
Half of all online advertising spend now goes into search marketing, and in the UK it’s an industry that’s grown by over 60% in the last two years.
A well-optimised site can increase the traffic to your site immensely.
But why multilingual SEO?
If your website is English only, you will overlook 95% of your potential market.
According to the International Data Corporation, only five percent of the world’s population speaks English.
Everyone searches differently and surroundings and culture will often play a big part in determining what people search for and how they search for it.
It’s not about translation
Businesses in international markets should not be simply translating their English site into the native language of a particular country, believes Greig Holbrook, owner of multilingual SEO company; Oban Multilingual.
What businesses need to look at is key phrases customised to each individual region, he says.
People prefer to search in their own language. And they don’t use a dictionary to translate.
For this reason, keywords typed into search engines may be written according to regional spellings, which vary enormously. They may be misspelled, or they could be words we might never have associated with the topic.
It’s all regional.
“The secret in multilingual SEO is that you have to understand what users are looking for,” says Greig.
This could be you!
For example, imagine a company becomes so well known by its brand that people in the UK begin to search for its products by its brand name.
The UK company has an international presence through its website and hopes to repeat its success in other key markets.
However, its research shows that the brand is not a popular search term in its other markets.
In some countries there are up to seven key phrases that have high search volume, all of which relate to common noun phrases directly relevant to the company.
Those are the phrases to look at more closely.
The trick is that only native speakers of those countries’ languages will be able to identify these phrases.
Once those phrases are identified, they can be used in the company’s website content. The result will be a higher ranking on search engines in the target countries.
Beware of search engine prejudices
Most people don’t realise that in many countries, the vast majority of search is conducted using search engines other than Google. In China, for example, the most popular search engine is Baidu. Leading the pack in Russia is Yandex, a private search engine.
It is therefore crucial to have a local understanding of the search engines in each country and how best to optimise searches in those countries. Simply relying on Google or Yahoo search in many countries will not deliver the best results for your international search campaign.
It’s not just for B2C businesses
The case for both B2B and non-profit organisations is as relevant as it is for B2C organisations. Whilst the volume of search is often not as high as for B2C, the relevancy of the search is much higher because B2B searchers tend to be much more specific about what they are looking for.
Getting your brand top in search results is crucial, but how people search your brand will vary by country. For example, people may search ‘Brand‘ plus’country‘, so ‘Brand‘ UK, or they may simply associate the brand with another purpose than in the UK. As brand search often provides the best Return on Investment and conversion rates, multilingual SEO is a must-do for any international company.
Many local businesses around the globe are less familiar with the benefits of search, so competition tends to be less for both paid search and natural search. |A B2B organisation is targeting the Middle East and is getting leads and enquiries for as little as 10p - some of these enquiries have led to deals worth several hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Multilingual SEO do’s and don’ts
In the past, international companies merely translated their existing English SEO or paid campaigns into the language they were targeting. The problem with this strategy is that many relevant phrases are not included as part of the translation.
Keywords are the foundation of a successful campaign. A keyword, in internet search, is a term that captures the essence of a document or a search query. These terms can vary considerably in each country.
For example, French web surfers searching for travel agencies use the keyword ‘holliday’ (holiday spelled with two ‘l’s). If a travel agency attempting to market themselves in France knows this, they will be able to capture a much larger portion of their target page visitors. German searchers use the term ‘kinder diaper’ for nappy, mixing both German and US English.
Writing good copy is another essential which is both effective for SEO and customer conversion. This is a highly skilled exercise. For optimum results, copy should be written from scratch.
If the visitor feels that the text has been specifically written for them, for example, because it includes particular cultural nuances, the conversion rate can be up to seven times higher than directly translated copy.
