Multilingual on-page
optimization
In part
1, we looked at keyword research in foreign languages,
such as German, French, Spanish and Italian. In part
2, we will look at the on-page optimization...or what
to do with that keyword research.
Actually, the on-page optimization
is easy. Just place your search terms in all the right
places. Of course, it is not quite that simple.
For instance, German nouns
like to merge into incredible conglomerates. An example
of where I ran into this was at this Netzwerk überwachung site: Two major
search terms were Netzwerküberwachung and Netzwerk überwachung.
The first, conglomerate word is actually correct, but
people search in funny ways, and the search engines
don't generally recognize partial words. In English,
a reference to "website monitoring service" would count
as a reference for the search term "website monitoring".
But the German equivalent, Überwachungsservice für Webseiten,
would read literally in English as "monitoringservice
for websites".
In other words, you might
have to make the translator dance some fancy language
steps to deliver a readable message that does not interfere
with your search terms.
Multilingual search engine
optimization also brings the question of accents. Use
them. One well-respected SEO questioned the use of accents
when it turned out that more people searched for Montreal
than Montréal. Don't you believe it for a second. There
simply were more English people searching without the
accent, so leave the accents off your English site but
keep them on your French, German, Italian or other sites.
There is one exception to
the accents rule: if your market is very, um, shall
we say "downscale". I think you know what I mean. There
is a certain market in English that refuses to capitalize
words or use punctuation. The equivalent market in German
is unlikely to use an umlaut - you might have to optimize
both with and without the accent.
What about file names. Many
companies keep the same filenames when they create a
translated site. So http://www.rgb.com/en/Products/AudioVisual.asp
becomes http://www.rgb.com/de/Products/AudioVisual.asp
, a mouthful in any language, but of no SEO help in
the German version. On the other hand, keeping the same
file name helps the webmaster keep track of what all
these otherwise "unintelligible" filenames are all about,
without resorting to a wall covered in file name translation
tables. This is not a simple decision to make.
One question that often comes
up is where to house the translated site on a separate
site, in a sub-domain or in a directory on the English
site.
The general consensus is
that it is preferable to give it its own domain with
the appropriate country extension...which is easy for
German or Italian, but which country do you choose for
Spanish? Spain? Mexico? Argentina? The USA? And have
you ever tried to apply for a .fr domain?
Second best is a sub-domain,
which at least carries a semblance of being a separate
site and allows some directories to consider it a home
page for listing purposes (and you want those directory
links).
Which brings me to my final
point. Don't forget to build the links that are so important
to your optimization. Good quality links. Relevant links,
both in terms of topics and in terms of the search terms
in the language of the site. There are fewer avenues
to build links in French or Dutch than in English. Fortunately,
you will need fewer links to get good French or Dutch
search engine rankings.
Thinking about expanding
your market into Europe, Latin America or the rest of
Canada? Get your site translated and get it optimized
for the multilingual search engine listings.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR: David Leonhardt is a multilingual search engine optimization consultant who offers
German
language search engine optimization services. Pick
up a copy of his SEO tips book. |
