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:
|
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.
|
|
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.