SEO Translation: Can It Be a Reality or Is It Just a Myth?

To enter new markets and reach new audiences in the digital space, you need a professional content translation. However, for the internationalisation strategy to produce results in the form of conversion and sales, it is necessary to pay attention to the translation of the international SEO optimisation strategy in order not to harm the positioning of the entire site. 

SEO Translation or Localisation: Which of them do you really need?

Very often, the concepts of translation and localisation are used interchangeably. However, this isn’t precisely correct: Website localisation is the process of its transformation in such a way that the target audience perceives it as native. This means that it is necessary to take into account linguistic and cultural differences, further benefiting the users. Thus, localisation and translation for search engine optimisation are only related to a limited extent.

Why you should not only translate but also localise SEO

SEO optimisation provides a constant flow of visitors to your website and translation will assist this flow of web traffic. Let’s look at a few reasons how translation will benefit you:

• Loyalty. Besides the fact that the translation of your site will help to expand your audience, it could also lead to a regular readership. These regular users may appreciate the convenience of working with localised content. But how do they find out about you in the first place? With the help of correctly translated SEO.
• This is a chance to beat the competition. Translating site and its semantic core into several languages will also help to take high positions in search engines.
  
• Duplicate content. The same content translated into different languages is not considered plagiarism. This could lead to a higher search engine ranking.
  
• Evaluation and feedback. You may received feedback from visitors regarding content and product. Needless to say that you should listen to the opinions of your target audience in order to continue improving.
  

Let’s suppose you coped with the task of translating SEO. However, conversions for some reason do not grow, behavioural factors worsen, and bounce rate gives unthinkable indicators. One of the reasons why this may occur is becase the translation isn’t up to scratch. Your translation must be localised. But how do we do this?

Localisation of SEO should be the first task in the localisation of the entire site

Most freelancers would firstly localise their website and then begin to think: ‘how will our new target audience look for us on the net?’

You may find it is beneficial to first plan the optimisation for search engines, if you want the localisation process to be more efficient.

SEO optimisation is a one-time action with instant results. Well, it could end with no results at all. In fact, users are looking at you differently. But if you did everything right, SEO optimisation does all the work while you are busy with other tasks. 

You will receive initial results from SEO in as early as three months, when all the pages are indexed. While you localise content, add subtitles to video or create them anew. Organise your social network profiles. You will find that properly translated and localized SEO will already work for you.

You need to consider linguistic differences

For example, a certain keyword may be suitable in an English search engine, while it’s translation may not end up with the same results. Moreover, different variations of the same keyword in the English language may likely be more accurately synonymous in the translated language.

Very often the choice of keywords used to search for one product differs in each country. Even the British and Americans, will search for sports shoes using different keywords – a Brit would search ‘trainers’ while an American would search ‘sneakers’. 

That is why it is necessary to carry out keyword analysis for each additional language and, thus, to improve the compliance of the search queries of potential customers.

Take into account the optimization algorithm of different search engines

No two search engines use the same algorithm to produce the same organic results. The Chinese Baidu search engine algorithm may be quite different from Google algorithm. Companies that want to reach their target audience need expertise in not only the language but also the technical side of search engines.

This is an important reason why enterprises should adopt an integrated approach (ISEO) that defines the correct wording and creates consistent, relevant messages in ads, landing pages, social publications, media and search marketing. Thus, the use of an international SEO strategy allows the brand to attract high-quality traffic to a high-quality website specially adapted to the characteristics of each market, which also contributes to strengthening the brand’s position in each of the markets.

Outsource SEO translation to specialists

Many websites and online stores rely on the machine translation of content and semantic core, which creates incoherent texts and spelling errors that automatically spoil the brand’s reputation. When it comes to SEO optimisation, keywords and phrases are certainly very important.

Make sure and use professional help, for example, from the Word Point. Professional translators will be able to define complex points in the translation of the semantic core and come up with the most suitable words with the help of which foreign users are looking for certain services. 

 Anna likes writing from her university years. When she graduated from the Interpreters Department, she realized that translation was not so interesting, as writing was. She trains her skills now working as a freelance writer on different topics. Always she does her best in the posts and articles.

Read on about SEO: 10 SEO Commandments for content writers and copywriters

About the Author:

Anna is a specialist in different types of writing. She graduated from the Interpreters Department, but creative writing became her favorite type of work. Now she improves her skills while working as a freelance writer and translator for TheWordPoint and has free time for another work, as well. That is the reason she has so many unpublished articles.