Multilingual Site SEO

How to apply SEO to websites with more than one language?

All of the search engine optimization (SEO) techniques we discuss here at Guru of Search apply to your website, regardless of the language it's in. Google has a market dominating presence in the majority of countries, regardless of language. Google has less marketshare in China, where search engine Baidu is competing fiercely, but Google is making headway. What we're getting to here is that the key to a successful search campaign lies in following what the leading search engines are looking for. The search engines, in turn, are striving to know what users are searching for, and how they will search for it. Google's mission statement illustrates this - to "organize the world's information," and to make this information universally accessible to individuals around the world.

Applying SEO techniques to a multilingual site

By reading the various articles on this site you will get a firm grasp on SEO principles. These principles apply to websites independent of the language they use, because the leading search engines operate in all these markets. While the effectiveness of a website's design, layout, or general attractiveness may differ across cultures and languages, the effectiveness of search techniques generally does not. The same general principles apply. Why? Because your SEO techniques apply first to the search engine, and then to the end user. It's your pages indexed in the search engine's results that are ultimately accessed by the user. Once the user lands on your website, however, culture and language do come into play, and will determine how long a user remains on your website, and how open they are to your methods of marketing your products and services.

Keyword research - different markets

As discussed, SEO techniques generally remain the same across various languages, or multilingual sites. But search marketing, which involves techniques to help promote and advertise your website to the masses, will be affected by differences in language and culture, because you will need to tailor your search marketing efforts based on the receptiveness of certain cultures to different techniques. For some background on the essentials of search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing (SEM) and the differences between the two, we suggest you read our article Why Search?).

Your products or services may be in much higher demand in certain regions or countries. To find out exactly what the difference in demand is, you'll need to find out what people are searching for in those areas, and how it differs from what they search for at home. For this purpose you can use the keyword tools and services we describe on our article finding the right keywords for your web pages. These tools will enable you to find out what people are looking for based on different languages and regions, which will in turn allow you to tailor your search marketing campaign to your target audience.