When it comes to building a multilingual presence for your website brings a lot on your plate. Things get quite complicated when you are setting up a multilingual website. From website translation to localizing advertisements or social presence, it’s not so easy!
It is stated that translated versions of the website will improve the overall SEO ranking. According to the survey, only 25.3% of the content is available in English on Google. Besides, CSA research stated that 75% of people would likely buy from websites that offer services or products in their native languages!
So, it will be a beneficial decision for your business to build a multilingual website. But most importantly, there are crucial SEO factors to consider. This will ensure that people will find the right website as per their language and location. Many SEO specialists who offer SEO Services will make the right way with their expertise and knowledge.
Why Business Acquire a Multilingual Website Strategy?
Various significant reasons show why businesses need a multilingual website strategy. Here is a list below!
- As mentioned above, it is stated that 75% of people are looking for websites that are in their native language. It simply means that less translated content and websites are available. But now it’s in demand. Having localized SEO for translated website bring more engagement and visitors.
- Businesses who want to make a presence globally make other reasons to acquire a multilingual website strategy. Businesses with English content on their website wish to build one multilingual for their non-English readers and speakers.
- Research also shows that people not only prefer English language content but also love reading content in their native language. As a result, translated content brings a new audience and quality traffic to your website, enhances your reach, and builds trust with your audience.
Why Does Your SEO Need to be Multilingual?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) simply means enhancing the visibility of your website on Google when people search. The better visibility of your website on search engines increases the chance of people clicking or redirecting to your website. Quality traffic means many people will take your services and products.
But the same question arises in our minds. Why does SEO need to be multilingual? The main reason for doing this is Google. Google looks differently in every language. It would be best to optimize search results differently. For example, when you are doing SEO in Malaysia, then you have to optimize for the search results on Google.com.my and in the Malay language.
Doing this will provide you with the search engine results ranking based on the country search engine.
Multilingual and Multiregional SEO
Many people get confused when differentiating between multilingual and multiregional SEO. Multilingual SEO is the SEO strategy where you can offer optimized website content in multiple languages. On the other hand, Multiregional SEO is known as the SEO practice of generating optimized website content that is customized according to various geographic regions. A multilingual SEO can be multiregional also.
Once you have decided to work on a Multilingual SEO strategy, you should consider some factors. We have curated some key points that will surely help you!
Key Factors to Create a Successful Multilingual SEO Strategy
Now, we know that language has great power to expand your business. When creating an effective strategy for Multilingual SEO, consider a few things that will work better. Beat the algorithm and bring more quality traffic to your website by considering these factors.
- Landing Page URLs
The landing page URL comes first on your list when building a multilingual SEO strategy. Setting up a correct URL for a landing page is crucial to acquire better results. This will help your website URL to crawl, index or rank effectively on Google.
The most significant strategy used for landing page URLs is subdomains and subdirectories. Utilizing these strategies will rank your multilingual pages on Google separately. For example, if you want to rank the landing page in Malaysia, it will rank on Google.com.my, rather than other types of Google sites. Landing page subdirectory URLs should be divided by region or language.
Meaning of Subdirectories and Subdomains
Subdirectories are extensions of your main domain and are created by the name of subfolders. For example, www.mywebsite.com/my/ (for the Malay language).
Subdomains are considered part of the main domain. For example, my.mywebsite.com (for the Malay language).
Language Indicator
Placing a language indicator in the URL is significant. Language indicator helps search engine to differentiate between the language sections of a website.
For example,
The original domain of your website- www.mywebsite.com
Language indicator for the Malay Language- www.mywebsite.com/my/
- Add Hreflang Tags
Once you have done with figuring out the right method between subdomain and subdirectory. The next step is to come up with the Hreflang tags. But exactly what is it?
Hreflang tags allow you to tell Google which language your website is using. You can be easily searched on Google according to the specific language. This tag hints Google about URLs of different language version of a specific page and show only that language URL to searchers in which language they searched anything in Google.
When you want to create a Malay version of your website, add Hreflang tag for the Malay language as “my”.
For example, <link rel="alternate" hreflang="ms-my" href="https://www.mywebsite.com/my/" title="Malay" />
For other audience you can define “X-Default” hreflang tag.
The Hreflang tags appear on your both language page’s header section and the entire website sitemap.
- Keyword Research and Strategy
Keywords play an important role in ranking. Multilingual SEO is no different from SEO so doing proper keyword research is significant. Find the right keywords that are composed of translated and localized keywords. Perform specific keyword research as per the language or region you are targeting.
For example, if you want to rank your website in Malaysia, then find the relevant keywords for your Malay website because keywords for your English website are not suitable for Malay websites. These keywords will rank in Malaysia’s Google version for the Malay language page.
Like, searching “Localization” in Google for English website is correct but in Malaysia, searching English word “localization” is not appropriate; instead, you should search “penyetempatan”.
Translating some words widely in use for an effective keyword strategy will be beneficial. It all depends on your keyword research.
- SEO Hidden Parts
SEO has several hidden parts that work for better ranking and performance. SEO includes both the content that users can see and not, which are crucial aspects. Don’t forget to work on hidden parts when building a multilingual website.
Basically, it refers to the text works in the background and the pages that can be visible to users when they perform specific actions.
We have curated the list of these!
- Title Tag
- Meta Description
- Alt Text for Images
- URLs
- Hreflang Tags
- Schema
Point to remember: Meta description and meta titles are essential to SEO. Create carefully because it will appear on the Google search results! For other language version pages, translate the title and meta description also.
- Work on One Language
Google only utilize the visible content on your website to identify the language. So, make sure to work only in one language whether it is for content or navigation. It becomes quite difficult if you have more than one language on your page. Readers will get confused between two languages, and your context will be misinterpreted.
Conclusion
In short, having a multilingual website and SEO strategy is considered a plus point for your website. Combine all the strategies mentioned above, including keyword research, landing page URLs, SEO hidden parts, work on one language, and add Hreflang tags. This will bring success to your multilingual website.
But doing perfect SEO for your business on your own is quite challenging when you are working on multiple languages at a time. Performing the right SEO strategy for your multilingual website will bring the right audience and traffic to your website. So, acquiring the best SEO services will be worth it for your business.
BThrust is one of the leading SEO Company in Malaysia that specializes in everything. Our experts will help you to create an effective SEO strategy for your multilingual website.