SEO For Multilingual Sites: 5 Best Practices

Why Is It Essential To Have A Multilingual Website?

In our digital age, websites are used as business cards to convey brand identity and attract potential customers. Creating a page with an attractive design is not enough: the interface must be intuitive, easy to use, and accessible in multiple languages. Not only solutions in English then, but different options based on location allow you to establish a relationship of trust with each visitor. Having a multilingual website offers the advantage of:

• Reach a wider audience
• Make your business more aggressive on the lookout
• Improve your conversion rate.

Research by the CSA (Cloud Security Alliance) has revealed that 72.4% of consumers are more inclined to buy if the information on e-commerce is in their language. Furthermore, a multilingual site has a much better chance of ranking on search engines. In this article, we explain, step by step, how to implement an SEO strategy for your web page. So your products or services can reach anywhere in the world!

Decide Which Countries To Target

First, understand which countries hold the most substantial potential for your business. Which regions and languages ​​do you want to target? Do a market analysis and understand the search habits of users. Having said this, it is necessary to choose between adopting a multilingual or multiregional approach. The pages of a multilingual site are translated into different languages. In contrast, the search engine shows those of a multi-regional site in the correct language to users of specific areas through the geotargeting technique.

Choose Your URL Structure

The second step is to choose the domain structure of your website. The most common options are subfolders, subdomains and domains. Each approach has pros and cons, and no best or worst solution exists. Let’s see them together in detail.

Activate Search Console

Whichever domain structure you have chosen, it is essential to activate the Search Console for each language: a free Google platform that analyzes the performance and problems of a site in depth. Within the Search Console, you can choose the related geographic objective for every language. So when a client looks for your item or organization on the web crawler, he quickly tracks the outcomes in his language. Simultaneously, Google will comprehend that it is a multilingual form of a similar website page. Watch out: this capability is just empowered for non-geolocated spaces, for example, .com or .net. Google naturally picks the nation of beginning for destinations with a geolocated space (for example, .it) by taking it from the High-Level Area.

Set Up Hreflang Tags

With the Google Search Console function, you give the web search tool an overall sign on which results to show and in which language. To fortify the connection between various pages, it is essential to set hreflang labels. Previously, we have proactively understood what hreflang is and how to carry it out accurately. Quality tells the web index that language pages are not copied content but different adaptations.

Create Personalized Content

Finally, to guarantee the best User Experience, we advise you to create ad hoc content. So avoid automatic translations and rely on native speakers to produce personalized texts and select targeted keywords. Each content must be adapted to the characteristics of the target: use idioms and localized expressions and integrate specific information into the text. This way, you will make the user feel “at home” and get a higher conversion rate.

Also Read: Understanding The 7 Vital Technologies In SEO