Optimizing a single website for search engine rankings around the world can be tricky, at best. Ther...

1. Global and Multi-Lingual Search Engine Optimization Tips
Optimizing a single website for search engine rankings around the world can be tricky, at best.
There are relatively few resources on the subject, so best practices and tutorials are not as abundant
for the do-it-yourself SEO consultant.
Before delving into global SEO strategy, it must be noted that the site needs to be able to crawl
before it can walk. The website to be globalized should be optimized for the headquarters country or
native language. It should be indexed, and regularly appearing in the top-10 results of search results
pages for the native language. If it is not, then this is where SEO efforts should initially be placed.
Assuming that the site in question is search engine-friendly and appearing in top-10 rankings for
target keywords, and that the basics of online marketing are already covered, the next step is to
optimize the site for foreign languages and additional markets in other parts of the world.
Understand and Identify Target Audiences
The hard truth of the matter is that it's unlikely that a single website will need to be SEO optimized
in Zimbabwe and Argentina.
What are the specific demographics and target regions that are important in the search strategy?
Companies that have multiple locations in various countries have a good business case for
globalizing their search strategy. Identifying the markets, and the customers and search clients is a

2. key component in global SEO.
There are a few things that must be identified about those target customers:
What are the search trends in that location?
What language do they do business in?
What language do they speak at home? And which dialect?
Understanding Search Trends
Researching the Google trends for each target market is essential. Google's market share and other
demographics will demonstrate whether that is the primary search engine in a given region, or if
there is another engine that warrants search optimization attention.
In many international markets, Google is still the primary search engine, and some SEOs are startled
to discover that often, a dot-com website written in U.S. English and hosted in the U.S. is likely to be
competitive for the #1 Search Engine rank without any globalization effort.
However, some countries are fiercely competitive in their native language, and with their native web
extensions. For example, Google.fr will likely only give top-10 ranking to a French-language site with
a dot-fr extension on the URL, and French-language backlinks.
This step will help the SEO staff understand whether it is necessary to translate the website into
multiple languages.
Understanding Which Language to Translate Text Into
Optimizing for the common everyday vernacular vs. optimizing for the formal language used to
conduct business will depend upon the kind of website, product or service targeted. But this is also
useful information if legalese (such as a Privacy Statement) can remain in the native language. This
will save translation costs and a great deal of time.
Knowing the dialects and the languages the target markets speak is essential. Professional
translators refer to this as "localization", and they can explain that Spanish in Spain, Spanish in
Mexico and Spanish in Argentina are as different as English in the U.K., the U.S.A. and New
Zealand.
With English and Spanish dialects, its best to pick one of the localized dialects that will be
understandable and clear to the most number of readers, and stick with it site-wide. Keyword
analysis will help the marketing team determine which dialect is used more. Do more people search
for center or centre? Google understands these dialects and will usually provide search results using
alternate spellings, so it is safe to go with the native version, or the version that gets higher search
volume, as long as that spelling convention and dialect is used consistently throughout the site.
Essential Outsourcing - Hire a Professional Translator
Under no circumstances should web copy be run through a translation program and used verbatim.
Translation software might be useful in assisting informal communication, but it never reads

3. smoothly, frequently makes little to no sense, and is never keyword optimized!
Professional translators recommend hiring a bilingual translator who is a native speaker of the
target language, preferably of the dialect needed, or at least familiar with the process of localization
into that dialect. Ideally, this translator would also be familiar with SEO and able to do keyword
research and write web-oriented keyword-rich copy in the target language, including meta-data.
Translate Only the Essentials
However, just because a professional translator is an essential team member to globalize a website,
this does not mean that he or she should be hired to translate the entire website! Often, a series of
microsites with subdomain language extensions will do the trick.
For companies with international locations, is there already marketing collateral in the target
languages? Is it feasible to keyword optimize and turn existing marketing materials into web copy?
By adding keyword-rich headlines in the native language and breaking a sales presentation into
various smaller pages, it's possible to get the service offering or product details across just as easily
without spending a lot of money on translation.