Which Multilingual Solution is the Best Fit for Your Web Site?

This is the fourth in our series of articles explaining the benefits of adding alternate languages to your Web site. If you've missed the previous articles, Click here to read the Take Your Web Site Multilingual, here to read Find the Best Available Multilingual Solutions for Your Web Site, and here to read The Best Techniques for Applying Multilingual Properties to Your Web Site.

This week, we want to show you which of the multilingual options we've covered is best suited for your Web site. Remember - no two sites are created equal, so you need to choose carefully to get the maximum return on your multilingual investment.

1. For small Web sites that contain 30 pages or less, your best bet is to have a native speaker translate one page of copy. Remember, you can squeeze a lot of pertinent information on that one page, and you don't have to worry about using all your keywords. It's best to have the basic information about your products and services, translated into the one language that suits your unique customer base. You can even deploy a PPC campaign in your chosen language to gain more exposure.
   • PROS:
     • Not too expensive
     • You can SEO the one page
     • Allows prospective clients to find your site using search criteria in their native language
     • Improves conversion rate
     • PPC can be utilized

   Example: http://www.k9-toronto.com/

   Pages are translated into French, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew and Hindi

   Google Analytics records traffic coming from some of the languages but not all (we don't want to give up all our secrets!)

   Clients have converted because they found the pages in their native languages

2. For medium sized sites of 30 to 100 pages, we suggest the sub-domain multilingual solution
   • PROS:
     • Allows you to SEO the entire site
     • Allows prospective clients to find your site using search criteria in their native language
     • Improves conversion rate
     • PPC can be utilized

   Example: http://english.dag-bakfar.com/

   Sub-domains are in Russian, French and Hebrew

   Google Analytics records traffic to all the sub-domains with searches in each of the languages

   Web visitors switch between the languages and although they did not search in their native language, they read the site in their chosen language once they view it.

   Each language has focused, specific PPC campaigns

For sites that contain more than 100 pages, we suggest you speak to a Toronto SEO consultant. We will be glad to tailor a solution for your specific needs.

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