Multilingual SEO is the practice of converting SEO content into another language, to attract buyers in a new market. It’s an essential task for any business looking to expand internationally, but one which is often overlooked or misunderstood.
This article will cover common multilingual SEO mistakes and how to avoid them.
Need to review the basics of SEO translation? Full guide here.
Common multilingual SEO mistakes usually look like this:
- Carrying out keyword research in the original language
- Using machine translation to do everything
- Translating without re-thinking content strategy
Mistake 1: Carrying out keyword research in the original language
I once met someone at an SEO conference who told me their agency’s process for helping a Spanish lawyer with his website. He was targeting Spanish customers moving to the UK, so the agency…
- Carried out keyword research in English
- Wrote optimised content for his website
- Used ChatGPT to translate the content into Spanish
- Published the Spanish content onto his website
Can you see where they went wrong?
Okay, yes, they were doing several things wrong. But the big, glaringly-obvious one? Doing the keyword research in English, instead of Spanish.
By doing this, they were creating content that targeted English speakers, rather than the Spanish customers the lawyer wanted to attract (who were using Spanish to search for help).
It’s a common mistake, but one that’s easily avoided.
The solution? Use a native language speaker to do the keyword research in the language you’re targeting (and then write the content in that same language).
Doing this will ensure that your keyword research is relevant to the customer you’re hoping to attract.
The second mistake this agency was making was…
Mistake 2: Using machine translation for multilingual SEO
I have written a whole blog about the what to consider when using machine/AI translation, because it’s not always the one-click solution that it might seem.
There are several reasons why using machine/AI translation to automatically translate your web content will have negative effects:
- Keywords can’t be translated literally
This was the problem that was discovered in the earlier SEO translation example. Keywords can’t always be translated word-for-word, which is how AI translation works. An understanding of the target customer and the cultural nuances of the new market is required to find keywords that a foreign language customer would actually put into search.
Here’s an example:
A French blog is targeting the keyword ‘cuisine parallèle’, which translates literally to ‘parallel kitchen’.
However, this type of kitchen is better known in the UK as a ‘galley kitchen’, so this term has more hits on search.
Whilst the AI translation would use ‘parallel kitchen’, a native SEO linguist would know to use ‘galley kitchen’.
- AI translations don’t meet the EEAT Google standards
Google is very clear that it assesses web content for its trustability, value and provision of accurate information. For this to be assessed, information needs to be easily read. AI translations that are inaccurate and lacking fluency do not meet this criteria.
A translated webpage also needs to be optimised to get it to rank. It needs correctly distributed keywords and the correct technical SEO to show search engines that it’s targeting a new market. Automatic translation doesn’t do this.
The solution? Hire an SEO linguist who can find keywords based on their understanding of the target audience culture, and then re-optimise the text (on and off-page) to increase its chance of ranking on search.
And finally, the third common mistake is…
Mistake 3: Translating SEO content without international strategy
Another common mistake with multilingual SEO is to translate without re-evaluating the content strategy. Even with the best will in the world, some of your original SEO content won’t land in the target market, and you need to change your content strategy to reflect that.
Take this example:
A global e-commerce brand optimises a new UK webpage for the word ‘Boxing Day sales’. To create a matching webpage for its French customers, it translates the keyword into French, optimising a page for ‘les soldes du lendemain de Noël’.
The UK webpage ranks, and attracts lots of new visitors. But the French webpage gets minimal traction. What’s gone wrong?
The page (and keyword) was translated without cultural context, resulting in a keyword that very few French people would be putting into search, as boxing day sales are not common in France.
A better solution would have been to create a French webpage optimised for ‘les soldes d’hiver’, (winter sales), which start in January across France.
Knowing that customers will be looking for sales in January, rather than immediately after Christmas, the company could build their content strategy around this, building up hype across their website and socials in the run-up to the event, rather than at the same time as they would do it in the UK.
The solution? Localise SEO content and the surrounding marketing strategy. Companies need to be prepared to tailor their marketing content and the way its put out from market to market. Each market will have different cultural events, as well as different ways of using search. Simply converting content into a different language isn’t enough.
Acknowledging and avoiding common multilingual SEO mistakes
SEO translation is a vital part of a global marketing strategy, but care has to be taken to avoid common translation errors and to ensure that content is localised and optimised for the new market.
To recap, three of the most common multilingual SEO mistakes to avoid are…
- Using the wrong language to carry out keyword research
- Relying too heavily on machine or AI translation
- Assuming the same marketing strategy can be used across all markets
SEO translation is one part of a broader international marketing strategy. Work with an SEO linguist who can translate and localise content, but also ensure that technical SEO is covered and marketing strategies are reconsidered for the new market.
By being aware of these mistakes and their solutions, common issues with multilingual SEO can be avoided. If you need help writing or translating SEO content for an anglophone market, get in touch.