adminIn this article, Lingotek CEO Rob Vandenberg provides 6 tips on how to improve international SEO.
Accessing customers around the world is the fastest way to drive sales and increase engagement, so to expand your reach, you first need to consider how consumers can search for your products and services across multiple channels, regions, countries and languages.
1. To improve international SEO, please translate your keywords
Unfortunately, one area that is often overlooked is international search engine optimization (SEO) and localization of keywords. To make it easier for foreign consumers to find your product, you need to make sure your keywords are not lost in translation.
2. Localized global search engine
The first step in improving your international search engine optimization is to become familiar with a variety of international browsers/search engines that will index your website and make your pages easier to find. Determine which search engines are most popular in the area you target and adjust your SEO strategy accordingly.
Once you’ve identified your search engine, you’ll need to optimize your keywords based on your location. This process is called geolocation and makes it easier for international search engines and users to find you. Top language service providers now offer international search engine optimization services to ensure your keywords are easily searchable by country, region and language.
3. Translate keywords hidden in the code
All search engines crawl and index websites, but how they determine dependencies will vary depending on the algorithm used. For a global search, it is important that each word – even the words hidden in the code – are translated.
To translate keywords hidden in your code, you’ll need a CMS that allows you to add meta tags, URLs, and sitemap tags. Although the most important tools for improving page rank are URLs and page title tags, not all content management systems (CMS) can add these tags. Localization engineers can ensure that you don’t have problems re-importing content into CMS or successfully implementing localization files for your target market.
4. Create multiple languages, search for friendly URLs
If you don’t have an SEO language switcher for the URL language code options for your supported languages, Google may not be aware of your website in a specific language. When your site contains multiple languages, make sure the language switcher points to the correct URL. To do this, you need to create a multi-language, search-friendly URL.
5. Index image name, title and metadata
Some examples of indexable content that are “hidden” in code are URLS and meta tags. In today’s digital world, metadata is like the blank back of a printed photo. The digital file accompanying the image is the place where the information about the image is “written”: the person making the image, the image depicted by the image, the character in the image, the production location, the production time, and even the camera settings used to create it.
Similarly, when your browser search engine indexes your site, it uses keywords as “clues” to determine the content of each page. These leads are usually “encoded” into your page. This embedded information includes image names, title tags, and the like. If the title is only bold (rather than using the title tag), SEO will not select these words for indexing from the page.
The metadata at the top of the page should be indexed. It includes descriptions, abstracts (site abstracts) and keywords. Keywords are specifically used to index your site. For example, if you’re paying Google for a specific keyword, you’ll need to make sure that these words are always translated into another language in the same way. This way, search engines can find them.
For the best results, please translate as much of the indexable content as possible. In addition, you must consider any character restrictions for the most popular search engines in the target area. This is especially true when translating into languages with double-byte characters such as Chinese and Arabic.
6. Use cloud-based translation software
To reach an international target audience, you need to provide multilingual content that is associated with global visitors. Today, translating dynamic global content is easier than ever. The cloud-based translation management system (TMS) will translate, localize to different markets, automatically update any changes, and continue to publish without downtime. TMS makes your website more global and simpler. It makes it easy to create multilingual content across multiple channels, even social media.
More translations will lead to higher rankings
The more languages you can add to your site, the higher your global search engine rankings. This is an important reason for translating content and indexing keywords. It helps search engines rank your site higher because you provide relevant multilingual content. Properly translated tags mean that Google thinks you are important and will provide credit for your multilingual website or content.
Optimizing international SEO increases global traffic
If you want your website to resonate with consumers around the world, you need to have an optimized website that uses the latest cloud-based translation tools. Improving your international search engine optimization can increase your access to your website, drive your global brand and product awareness, and you won’t be lost in translation.
