The Best Techniques for Applying Multilingual Properties to Your Web Site

For the past two weeks, CMS Buffet, the Toronto SEO company has been sharing best practices for taking your Web site multilingual. Our first article (Take Your Web Site Multilingual) covered how you will see a greater return on your online investment by making your site available to consumers in more than one language. Our second article (Best Multilingual Solutions for Your Web Site) offered the best available solutions for successfully translating your site. Now, we move on the most successful techniques we've found for seamlessly applying multilingual properties to your site without sacrificing your competitive search engine rankings.

1. Google Translate: We've been championing this option as the easiest and most efficient way to deploy one or more additional languages to your site.

   You can easily obtain the code via this link: http://translate.google.com/translate_tools

   Choose the additional languages you want for your site

   Apply the code to the individual Web pages

   • Pros:
     • An inexpensive, easily accessible technique
     • Fast, easy deployment of additional languages
   • Cons:
     • Grammar is not the greatest
     • You cannot SEO content in other languages

2. Translate one page on your site, a summary of your products/services into an alternate language

   Translate your keywords into your chosen language

   Run the translated keywords through the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

   Ensure your search area and grammar is correct

   Choose the keywords with the highest search volume

   Locate a native speaker

   Have that person read your entire Web site

   Have that person write the one page using the chosen keywords

   Add the page to your Web site

   Check Google Analytics to see if there have been searches or visitors

   You may start to receive phone calls from people who speak your chosen language

   • Pros:
     • This method allows for SEO of the page
     • Allows potential clients to find your site when searching in their native language
     • Improves conversion. Several clients have reported that people called and converted because page was written in their language
   • Cons:
     • How much can you say on one page? If you have a large site (20-50 pages), one page might not be enough

   Example: http://www.k9-toronto.com/Toilettage-Pour-Chiens.php

3. Create a sub-domain that focuses on your second/third/alternate language

   Translate your keywords into your chosen language

   Run the translated keywords through the Google Adwords Keyword Tool

   Ensure your search area and grammar is correct

   Choose the keywords with the highest search volume

   Locate a native speaker

   Have that person read your entire Web site

   Have that person write each page. Do not ask them to translate verbatim; ask them to stick to the general idea using the chosen keywords.

   (If you speak the language, note at the bottom of each page that staff capable of speaking the chosen language is available (i.e. "Se Habla Espanol")

   • Pros:
     • Allows for SEO of all content on the entire site
     • Allows potential clients to find your site when searching in their native language
     • Improves conversion. Several clients have reported that people called and converted because page was written in their language
   • Cons:
     • It's expensive to re-write your entire site

   Example: English sub-domain for a web site in Israel: http://english.dag-bakfar.com/

4. An entirely separate domain for your site in an alternate language

   When you create a separate domain in an alternate language, you can focus entirely on your native-speaking client base. You are not obligated to translate the English copy or include the same menu options as the English site. For example: A Web site for a hotel in Paris written in French can focus on its great local attributes. The English language version can focus on what appeals to English speaking visitors. The theory is, different clients are looking for different solutions to their needs.

   Keep in mind that you will be working with different keywords for each site, so it will not make sense to follow the menu/content on the original site. You don't want to have to constantly worry about making concurrent changes to more than one Web site.

   • Pros:
     • Allows for SEO of all content on the entire site
     • Allows potential clients to find your site when searching in their native language
     • Illustrates a competitive advantage
     • No need to maintain the exact same content on two separate sites
   • Cons:
     • Expensive

5. Session-based switching between two or more languages

   This is the same as using Google Translate, with the exception of using a native speaker to translate your content

   • Pros:
     • Better grammar
   • Cons:
     • You cannot SEO for the alternate language
     • Expensive technique to implement

   Example: http://www.smartspelling.com/index.asp. Clicking "En Francais" takes you directly to the French version of the site

Next week, we'll discuss which techniques have the best chance of improving your ROI.

The experts at CMS Buffet Toronto SEO company will be happy to answer any questions you have about multilingual Web sites.