Making Your Multilingual Web Site Work
-Search Engine Marketing in multiple languages
You can hear the sighs of relief as the web site localization
project comes to a close, or enters maintenance mode. However
organised the client and however professional the localization
vendor, web site localization is a painful process. Now it's over,
at least we can tick the box that says 'have multilingual website'.
After all, is that not the reason we localized in the first
place?
In the late nineties companies wanted their first web site for
the same reason - to tick the box. However, they soon started to
judge and optimize their web site based on hits, then page views,
then unique and repeat visitors. Now, any web marketer worth their
salt will be working to maximise conversions. A conversion on a web
site can be a sale on an e commerce site, the completion of a
'contact me' form on a company information web site, or whatever
action you want your web visitors to make as a result of visiting
the web site. Conversions must be clearly defined and tracked, then
the site optimised for maximum conversions. The major part of this
process is search engine marketing.
The localization project should not stop once the site is
translated, since a localized site with no conversions was a waste
of all that pain. It is now that web site marketing should begin.
In fact, to do the job correctly, web site marketing should have
begun prior to the first translation.
To consider web site marketing in other languages, let us first
describe web site marketing on the English site. This can consist
of a number of channels:
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Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO is tailoring the content and the structure of the site and
pages so that the search engines rank the site in the natural
search listings. The natural search listings on Google appear in
the area of the screen marked with an 'A' in the diagram.
Pay Per Click (PPC)
An increasingly important method of driving traffic where the
company bids money to appear high in the search engine's sponsored
listings. On the diagram this is the area marked 'B'. Bids are
placed on keywords which show advertisements when an internet user
types that word into the search engine. The highest bid shows at
the top of the list and the company only pays the bid price if the
user actually clicks on the advertisement and visits their web
site.
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Banner ads, Affiliate marketing and others
Many other channels exist that add to the mix of methods of
driving traffic and conversions. Their suitability depends on the
nature of the web site that is being promoted.
Multilingual Web
Marketing
We will concentrate on the main two methods, SEO and PPC, to see
how a multilingual site could be marketed.
There is normally some success on the English language (or
whatever the source language of the site) before the multilingual
marketing begins, so it is important to understand: what can we
re-use from the source language marketing; what source language
marketing can we simply translate, and which elements must we
entirely start again?
Some major false assumptions that are made when considering
promotion of the multilingual versions of the site are:
1. For SEO, Optimize the English site then translate
it well and it will be optimized in-language by
default.
Multilingual search engine optimization is often ignored because
of the belief that if the English site is optimized for search
engines, the language sites will be too. This is not the case.
2. For PPC, simply translate the ad copy and
keywords.
Imagine a set of English keywords for a site selling a glass
replacement service for cars. The marketing specialist or PPC
executive would use their knowledge of the industry and the
language to expand out a set of keywords that a user might type in
to a search engine. They might come up with terms such as:
'vehicle glass replacement'
'car windscreen fixing'
'windshield repair' etc.
For this simple service there are a multitude of ways of
describing the window, the vehicle and the replacement service that
spawn a large number of keyword combinations. A good translator
would take each one and translate to the most common, most sensible
alternative in their language. Unfortunately, this will lead to a
reduction in keywords. Windscreen and windshield may translate to
the same common term in French. Replacement and repair may
translate to the common term used in French for glass replacement.
This is not what is required.
3. Google is the most common global search engine
and therefore the one to consider
True, Google is the most important player in the global search
engine market, but in Russia the search engine Yandex is
significantly outperforming Google, likewise for Baidu in China.
Whatever your target market you need to consider the engines in
that country.
How to Localize a Site and Remain
Search Engine Friendly
Fortunately, there are some simple steps that can be taken to
ensure the site remains searchable in language. However, similar to
your English site, in order to maximize the return on investment
from the localized sites, further steps will maximize your
returns.
Translating the Site
1. Find a quality localization
company.
Ensure you ask for examples of web sites that they have localized
before and have your in country people (if you have them) validate
the translations on the reference sites.
2. Get your page-by-page keyword glossary translated
and approved FIRST.
Much effort went into the generation of keywords for each page of
the English site. Your English pages are rich with these keywords.
Put the same effort into the translation of these keywords. This
should be done first, before any localization of the pages begins.
These translations should be approved by your in-country marketing
representatives if you have them, or be double-checked by your
translation company (using specialist marketing translators) if
not.
3. Ensure the site is professionally
localized.
The site must be well formed (no broken HTML or other code), be
translated well, and must not contain broken links (links to pages
that have not been migrated to the language site and therefore
throw an error). Quality localization requires a quality
localization company using specialist filters to protect page code,
and to check it once the localization is complete.
4. When translating the web site, use the keyword
glossary electronically.
Do not leave it to chance. Your translation company should be
using the translated keyword lists in electronic glossaries so the
translators are automatically prompted with the approved language
version of the keyword whenever they are translating an English
equivalent. This will ensure that any chosen keyword for which this
page is optimized, regardless of how contrived the sentence is (in
order to use that keyword), will be translated in the same way each
time this keyword appears. This ensures that the translated pages
are equally as rich in the desired keywords.
Following these steps will ensure that the site gets the basics
right and can be effectively indexed on the correct keywords by the
engines. However, to maximize your returns and to ensure you are
getting the correct prominence on the search engines, you need to
read on.
Advanced Multilingual Search Marketing
If you want to perform in your foreign markets, and fully
capitalize on your localization investment, you may want to
consider the following:
- Engine-Specific Optimization
This involves the identification of important engines by country
for your target market. Google is not necessarily the dominant
player in all countries. In order to identify, and then optimize
and monitor for these engines you will probably require support
from external specialists.
- Pay Per Click (PPC) in each locale
PPC is the fastest method to achieving search engine prominence in
any country. PPC gets further attention later in the article due
its potential in multilingual markets.
- Recreation of Page Titles
The page title is one of the most important pieces of text for
most search engines. It can be a very worthwhile exercise,
following localization, having the page titles re-written for the
local market. This should be performed by web marketing
specialists.
- Link building campaigns
In the same way as you have build vast numbers of links to your
English site, the language version is a rich and often untapped
source of links.
- ROI Tracking
The great thing about your search campaigns is that using the
latest analytics tools you can determine exactly where each
internet order has come from. You can track which keyword was used
on which engine and tie these back to the profit you received for
the order. ROI tracking is essential and it will determine where
next month's focus will lie for your in-country search engine
spend.
Multilingual Pay Per
Click
Using PPC you can achieve instant success. A campaign can be set
up and can start receiving visitors and orders as soon as it goes
live. A company selling golf equipment can buy their chosen
keywords, create some ad copy (the text that shows when the user
searches for those keywords), and start receiving visitors straight
away. Using PPC advertising, the golf equipment supplier can tailor
their message on the search engine to attract the user and can
choose which position they would like to appear in the list (as
long as they can afford the clicks). Contrast this with normal SEO
work where position in the list and the text that displays to the
searcher is largely up to the discretion of the search engine's
algorithms.
Using PPC you can also instantly waste money. The keyword 'cheap
flights' achieves millions of searches every month in the UK, with
some companies bidding over Ј2 per click. Imagine the spend on
clicks on this keyword if few people actually booked on your
site.
Using pay per click, each click can be tracked to completion so
it is possible to see, for each keyword, how many clicks it
received, how much it cost, how many orders were achieved from
those clicks, and how much profit was made on those orders. Pay per
click marketing can therefore be analyzed precisely to the penny
and then adjusted to try to maximize the return.
In order to manage a PPC campaign a marketer needs to:
- Create a keyword list including every phrase a user may type in
who may be interested in their product or service.
- Organize these keywords around ad text that will show when
those keywords are searched.
- Set budgets so that costs do not grow too quickly, but so that
conversions are maximized.
- Track and monitor the impressions (number of times the ad
showed due to that keyword), clicks, conversions, costs and profit
on every individual keyword.
- Change bid prices, ad text, landing pages (the page at which
the user arrives when the ad is clicked), match types (keywords can
be matched in multiple ways to search text) and other variables to
optimize the performance of the whole campaign.
The above is not easy, especially considering that even a small
campaign selling one or only a few products can easily spawn over a
thousand keywords.
Now imagine the campaign in multiple languages. The management
problem gets a whole lot worse when you can't even read the
keywords or ad text.
Keyword lists must be created in language. Simply translating
the English text is not the correct approach. Translating keywords
leads to a reduction in keywords, whereas a good keyword list
explores all colloquialisms, common misspellings and all terms for
all items. See the simple example below of, as we would say in the
UK, 'Car Hrire'. In English, there are a number of ways of
referring to a car (I have chosen four), and a number of ways of
referring to the act of renting a car (again I have chosen four).
This four-by-four matrix would multiply up to sixteen possible
keywords (although for simplicity I have included only four). A
good French translator may choose the best translation for each of
these terms independently and would arrive at 'location de
voiture'. You can see the keyword reduction illustrated in the
diagram.
Even instructing a translator to 'have a think' while
translating is not good enough. What is required is a systematic
expansion of every possible term. It requires an understanding the
web site's aims, knowledge of searching, and tools to help the
process.
Ad Text must then be created. Again, this is not a translation
job. There are restrictions on the length of each line so each
character has to be used wisely to sell the product or service.
While some ad text works well to generate conversions, other ad
text may not. The worst ad text is that which generates clicks but
not sales! Subtle changes can cause large swings in success
rate.
The entire campaign must be managed going forward. This involves
making decisions about the performance of keywords. Masses of
keyword statistics need to be analyzed to ensure that they are all
performing at their chosen bid prices. As competitors change their
bid prices this process is constantly evolving.
The great news is that very often the price of clicks in other
languages is much lower than in English so you can expect a better
return on click spend in non-English markets. It is therefore well
worth the effort.
Conclusion
Some basic and low cost steps taken during and after the
localization process will ensure that your site remains largely
search engine friendly. If you really want your multilingual web
site to work for you and pay back the effort, you need to put the
same degree of investment into the promotion of the language
versions as you do with the English version. For this you will
probably need expert help.
The quickest route to market is normally Pay Per Click, but
solid search engine optimization should underpin any search
marketing initiative since it will provide sustained results for
the long term.
Simply translating English PPC campaigns is a route to wasted
opportunity or worse. Campaigns must be created by in-country
specialists and ideally, managed centrally for consistent reporting
across your global organization. Rewards for doing it right can be
significant.
About the Author
Ian Harris is the co founder of Search Laboratory and can be
reached at ian.harris@searchlaboratory.com.