A client of mine who prefers to remain anonymous was recently approached by an agency offering to increase the visibility of their website on multilingual search engines without having to translate their website. Their service involves creating a translated and optimised version of the home page in as many languages as required. The client asked for our views on the value of this type of service and whether we thought it would be effective. This is our response;
Clearly, if you want to sell your holidays into other language markets then translating and optimising your site in the local languages would be a key part of this.
However, there are some issues with the proposed approach that need to be considered;
1. The first thing to make clear is that if your site is ranked well in the English language versions of the major search properties then it will also be ranked in the foreign search engines. For example, if you go to Google Spain (http://www.google.es/) and just type in your company name (or a phrase that your site ranks well for in Google.com) you will see your site appear in the listings. This is because the default setting of the foreign language versions of most major search engines is the global database. This is the same in any language version of Google (and other major search engines).
There are 2 other search options; 'Pages in Spanish' and 'Pages from Spain'. If you make the same search after selecting either of these 2 options your site will not appear. To appear in a 'Pages in Spanish' search you need to have some Spanish content on your website. To appear in a 'Pages from Spain' search you need to have an .es domain or have your site hosted in Spain. So, just optimising one site page will only allow you to enter the 'Pages in Spanish' option index, not 'Pages from Spain' index.
2. Translating and optimising just one site page will only allow you to effectively target 2 or 3 search phrases, so your exposure will be very limited. If a business is serious about wanting to access the German market, for example, then a much greater number of site pages need to be translated into German and then optimised in order to create any real level of exposure for your target search phrases.
3. You also need to take into account that if you are marketing to a foreign language audience you are likely to need to have staff within your company that can deal with enquiries in that language, otherwise you are unlikely to convert many of the enquiries.
If you are serious about wanting to market your business on foreign language search engines simply optimising your home page into various languages is not an effective way of doing this. We would recommend that you have your website professionally translated into the target languages, and then optimised by search marketing experts native in those languages.
Clearly, if you want to sell your holidays into other language markets then translating and optimising your site in the local languages would be a key part of this.
However, there are some issues with the proposed approach that need to be considered;
1. The first thing to make clear is that if your site is ranked well in the English language versions of the major search properties then it will also be ranked in the foreign search engines. For example, if you go to Google Spain (http://www.google.es/) and just type in your company name (or a phrase that your site ranks well for in Google.com) you will see your site appear in the listings. This is because the default setting of the foreign language versions of most major search engines is the global database. This is the same in any language version of Google (and other major search engines).
There are 2 other search options; 'Pages in Spanish' and 'Pages from Spain'. If you make the same search after selecting either of these 2 options your site will not appear. To appear in a 'Pages in Spanish' search you need to have some Spanish content on your website. To appear in a 'Pages from Spain' search you need to have an .es domain or have your site hosted in Spain. So, just optimising one site page will only allow you to enter the 'Pages in Spanish' option index, not 'Pages from Spain' index.
2. Translating and optimising just one site page will only allow you to effectively target 2 or 3 search phrases, so your exposure will be very limited. If a business is serious about wanting to access the German market, for example, then a much greater number of site pages need to be translated into German and then optimised in order to create any real level of exposure for your target search phrases.
3. You also need to take into account that if you are marketing to a foreign language audience you are likely to need to have staff within your company that can deal with enquiries in that language, otherwise you are unlikely to convert many of the enquiries.
If you are serious about wanting to market your business on foreign language search engines simply optimising your home page into various languages is not an effective way of doing this. We would recommend that you have your website professionally translated into the target languages, and then optimised by search marketing experts native in those languages.
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