Comments on: Improve Rankings in International Search Engines http://www.shcl.co.uk/blog/2007/03/improve-rankings-in-international.html Internet marketing training and consultancy for small businesses in the UK Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:08:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: susanhallam http://www.shcl.co.uk/blog/2007/03/improve-rankings-in-international.html/comment-page-1#comment-683 susanhallam Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:30:18 +0000 http://www.hallaminternet.com/dev/2007/03/improve-rankings-in-international-search-engines.html#comment-683 Here is a very useful article on International SEO: http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Search-Engine-Optimization/International-SEO-Made-EasyInternational-SEO-Made-Easy.html Here is a very useful article on International SEO:
http://www.huomah.com/Search-Engines/Search-Engine-Optimization/International-SEO-Made-EasyInternational-SEO-Made-Easy.html

]]> By: Mike Hunter http://www.shcl.co.uk/blog/2007/03/improve-rankings-in-international.html/comment-page-1#comment-596 Mike Hunter Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:20:17 +0000 http://www.hallaminternet.com/dev/2007/03/improve-rankings-in-international-search-engines.html#comment-596 Hi Susan, some great advice. As someone running a translation agency, I have a few suggestions: 1) On foreign language content, its worth thinking carefully about how much of your English site you want to translate. If your whole site is 10 pages, its quite straightforward to translate the lot, but if you have a large site, its worth starting selectively. We were asked some time ago the price to translate an 800 page website into three languages. This would have been prohibitively expensive to do all in one go, and would also have created loads of work for the web developer. Our recommendation was to prioritise required foreign language content, and to build it up over a period of time. 2) Localisation: this is the process of making the content locally relevant. On our site, we have a nice case study about mothercare, they are our largest client, and being a well known brand are important for potential clients to read about, right? Well not necessarily. For example they don't have any US presence, so if I'm writing for a US audience, they won't identify with the case study. We could re-write the content for an American audience with background information about the company, but a much stronger approach would be to give a case study of a US client. 3) With foreign hosting, rules are getting easier than they used to be. For example we couldn't get a .fr domain 4 years ago, so put our French content on www.betterlanguages.be instead. We've recently been able to buy a .fr, with the hosting company acting as the French address with the registrar. 4) Foreign language SEO can be surrounded by mystic, and there are some companies out there wanting to charge a lot for keyword research in other languages. In general, if the English copy is well written and keyword rich, then a good translation will be too. 5) Intended outcome: its worth thinking about what you want to achieve. If your aim is to generate sales in another country, can you service that need? For example, can you deal with phone calls in another language, do you have a distribution network in place to deliver the product? Hope this is helpful. In general, we would say think long and hard about foreign language content, and seek professional advice. Regards Mike Hunter CEO betterlanguages.com Ltd. Hi Susan, some great advice. As someone running a translation agency, I have a few suggestions:

1) On foreign language content, its worth thinking carefully about how much of your English site you want to translate. If your whole site is 10 pages, its quite straightforward to translate the lot, but if you have a large site, its worth starting selectively. We were asked some time ago the price to translate an 800 page website into three languages. This would have been prohibitively expensive to do all in one go, and would also have created loads of work for the web developer. Our recommendation was to prioritise required foreign language content, and to build it up over a period of time.

2) Localisation: this is the process of making the content locally relevant. On our site, we have a nice case study about mothercare, they are our largest client, and being a well known brand are important for potential clients to read about, right? Well not necessarily. For example they don’t have any US presence, so if I’m writing for a US audience, they won’t identify with the case study. We could re-write the content for an American audience with background information about the company, but a much stronger approach would be to give a case study of a US client.

3) With foreign hosting, rules are getting easier than they used to be. For example we couldn’t get a .fr domain 4 years ago, so put our French content on http://www.betterlanguages.be instead. We’ve recently been able to buy a .fr, with the hosting company acting as the French address with the registrar.

4) Foreign language SEO can be surrounded by mystic, and there are some companies out there wanting to charge a lot for keyword research in other languages. In general, if the English copy is well written and keyword rich, then a good translation will be too.

5) Intended outcome: its worth thinking about what you want to achieve. If your aim is to generate sales in another country, can you service that need? For example, can you deal with phone calls in another language, do you have a distribution network in place to deliver the product?

Hope this is helpful. In general, we would say think long and hard about foreign language content, and seek professional advice.

Regards

Mike Hunter
CEO
betterlanguages.com Ltd.

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